If the Simple Green does not work, try some WD40.

Mark

 

+1 on WD-40. I also recently tried Gunk Bug & Tar Remover (comes in an aerosol can from Wal-Mart). It smelled vaguely like kerosene, but it did take a huge splatter of tar off my mirror cap with zero effort.

 

Hey! I know that road....

 

I've had a good experience recently with Turtle Wax's bug/tar remover. They've changed the packaging at some point - it used to come in an aerosol can, but now it's a pump spray bottle. It's also been reformulated, and claims to not strip wax and "leave behind a deep wax shine". After using it to remove a huge glob of tree sap from my bonnet, the affected area did look pretty good, but I hit it with some Hydro anyway just on general principle to tide me over until my next wax job.

 

Oooo I had a BAD experience with that stuff! Do NOT NOT NOT get it on any of your black trim!! It will take forEVer to get it off.

My entire front end was covered with bugs, so I sprayed the entire area liberally. It took me countless applications of Black Wow to get the black trim in those areas de-whitened.

 

Good to know - the tree sap was right in the middle of my bonnet, so I didn't get any of the remover on the trim. Even with the wax protection that's been added to the Turtle Wax bug/tar remover, the main ingredient is still petroleum distillates, so I can see how it could wreak havoc with black trim.

 

Ever wonder what tree sap looks like upclose at 400x? These are from my library.








The latter was on an Infiniti I worked on yesterday. Orange oil removed it pretty easily.

Richard

 

No Richard, I had not wondered what tree sap looked like But thanks, now we all know. By orange oil, do you mean a citrus cleaner?

Mark

 

Haha. Well I had a customer who tried to clay off some substance off his paint and couldn't get it off. You could flick it with your finger nail, so I took some microscope shots and confirmed it was what I thought.

The orange oil..cirtrus cleaner, goo gone, etc.. same stuff.

Richard

 

Richard, I'm not sure if you are aware of this product:

http://www.zarbeco.com/products-misc.shtml

It is a pretty good digital microscope that attaches to your laptop so you can carry it around and look at things "in the field." You just place the scope part on the surface or object you want to look at and the magnified image appears on the laptop. It is fun to use!

Examples of stuff I took:

Wool sweater:


Skin:



My eye !

 

Wow, dude - moisturizer and eyedrops, that's all I've got to say. (that, and "what's up with the rainbow sweater???")

Just kidding, that microscope looks like it would be a blast to play with, practical uses aside.

 

Skin wasn't mine! And I think I was wearing contacts, hence the 'plasticky' look of the eyes. But yes, definitely need some eye drops!

 

hmmm - no explanation for the sweater...

 

That's cool! Yeah I got this one
http://www.bodelin.com/proscopehr/

I've got a variety of lenses. Only thing is that it's pretty darn hard to focus at 400x because the slightest hand movement and you've lost the target!


Here's some stuff I've done (tire valve caps)


Egg shell impact on paint





A paint gouge on a Cayman S



A microbrush on a pool table




And orange buffing pad with Swirl



Richard

 

It's funny how things look different under magnification. It doesn't look like a rainbow sweater unmagnified. (That's my excuse.)

 

Reminds me of a friend at work that's doing scanning electron microscopy on nanowires for his master's thesis. The nanowires he's testing come from the manufacturer scattered on a silicon wafer, and it often takes him the better part of the morning with the electron microscope to even locate a nanowire on the wafer. And it's always a crapshoot as to whether he'll ever be able to find the same wire again in the future.

It makes me really glad my thesis is on infrared spectroscopy - at least I can always find my samples!

 

Ah, neat! Yeah, the scope I linked to allows you to place it on the surface like a cup. The lights are underneath, so the object is well-illuminated and the shot is very steady.

Quite some "texture" on that gouge!

And, man, that IS a MICRO brush!

 

ofioliti is a rock guy, he teaches rocks, and his username is a rock of some kind. I'm surprised he's posting pics of sweaters and eyeballs, and not rock chips on his bonnet

Mind you his MINI is real looker, maybe he should stop by and take some pics of Poco's sandblasted bonnet

Mark

 

He he, I have some pretty big gouges on the MINI as well. The camera is my wife's. I'll borrow it again and we'll take some pictures of Poco's 'wounds.'

In the meantime, here are some rocks for you:

Rock salt:


A small garnet:


And a shiny "rock":



No, I didn't find these on my MINI.