im looking for a degreaser/cleaner thats safe for the whole car (not just the wheels). im looking to use it for a first step then to follow with a rinse and wash with Mystique. are there any products out there that are safe for the whole car to remove tar and bugs??

 

"Classic" Dawn (the blue stuff) is best for stripping old wax, light road tar and everything else. If you don't want to remove wax, I'd just use a commercially available "wax safe" car shampoo.

Detailers Paradise makes a product that people talk highly of. I use a jug of "Armor All Car Shampoo" that's still half-full after 8 months of use. For tough, baked-on bugs (like, say, after a long road trip in August), I just take a hand towel, soak it in the soap and then drape it over the worst area... By the time you're done with the rest of the car the soap will have loosened the bugs 95%. Most of the time though they just wipe off with no real effort.

 

good info. i think i will just use some car shampoo and work at it a little bit at a time. i dont like the idea of using something corrosive to clean it off.

 

People here say that the "Bug Removing" products you see for sale actually do work, but in my case I've never come up against a set of hardened guts that 10 minutes of soaking won't remove, so I never bothered to buy a bottle...

 

Dawn is the most friendly product to use. It will remove bug residue and road tar as well as any factory wax or any pevious wax products.
http://www.murmini.com/articles/2006...ate-polish-job

 

Griot's garage sells Paint Prep. Use about 1/6 of a bottle to strip a car once you washed it of anything. Applied when the car is still wet, rub it all over with rubber gloves. Then, rinse it off and dry, claybar after that, blam, perfect surface.

VERY SAFE. for antique cars and show cars so its fine for a modern built mini.

worked for me. Try not to get it on windows, can do weird streaking things for a while.

Best though is (I think according to octane?) is 3M paint prep solvent. kinda powerful though.

 

for tar and bugs, you might want to use clay (or even wax) after your
wash or use other bug remover solvents. im thinking about trying Wizard's
bug remover.

for removing wax, as El J has already mentioned, i too use PaintPrep and
use a MF towel to work the product while keeping the panels wet with
another bottle filled with water. 2-3min is all you need and just rinse it
off with a hose real well. squeaky clean.

 

Sorry bad quote on that one as I don't use any 3M products or paint prep solvents on any paint that I work on.

Richard

 

ElJ- that's a major octane point deduction for Juu!