Beware Super Clean

[Jay Honeck]

Nothing cleans fiberglass better than Castrol's Super Clean. I've been
using it for some time on oil and exhaust stains, and it works great.

Last week I used it to clean the bugs off the cowling, for the first time.
I had been on the road with the plane for a few days, and had not stuck with
my usual post-flight cleaning regimen -- so the bugs were especially
tenacious. I figured the Super Clean would make quick work of them, and I
was right.

Yesterday, while parked up at Madeline Island (in Lake Superior), I looked
at my chromed spinner during pre-flight and was appalled to find the chrome
pitted in a spattered pattern! Mary looked at it and immediately exclaimed
that it looked just like over-spray of some sort -- and I immediately knew
what it was.

I must've over-sprayed onto the spinner from underneath, while spraying up
at the nose cone. I wiped the spinner off thoroughly from above, but not
from below -- and the stuff actually started eating the chrome!

When I got home I immediately hit it with simichrome polish (the best thing
available, IMHO), and -- after an immense amount of elbow grease -- was
relieved to see that it mostly came clean. After 20 minutes or so, I got
it to look presentable again.

Be careful with that stuff. It clean everything, but perhaps a bit TOO
well?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Dale]

In article <i9JJc.85017$JR4.59356@attbi_s54>,
"Jay Honeck" > wrote:


> Last week I used it to clean the bugs off the cowling

The best bug cleaner I've found is water...just plain old water.

--
Dale L. Falk

There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing
as simply messing around with airplanes.

http://home.gci.net/~sncdfalk/flying.html

[C J Campbell]

Super Clean will corrode aluminum.

[Matthew P. Cummings]

On Thu, 15 Jul 2004 21:20:38 -0800, Dale wrote:

> The best bug cleaner I've found is water...just plain old water.

Yup, spray it on the plane and work all the way across the leading edges,
go back to the start with a damp rag and start scrubbing. It comes off
fairly easy if done that way, the water has a chance to soften up the bugs
during the wait and it's pretty good. Now it doesn't do a thing for oil
however.

[Rip]

Simple Green is also corrosive to aluminum (do a google on it, you'll
find that the military stopped using it).
Adolph's Meat Tenderizer dissolved in water makes a great bug remover.

monitor point seven wrote:
> In article <i9JJc.85017$JR4.59356@attbi_s54>,
> "Jay Honeck" > wrote:
>
>
>>Be careful with that stuff. It clean everything, but perhaps a bit TOO
>>well?
>
>
> In addition, that **** will BURN your skin., esp in high concentrations.
> I avoid it for that reason, straight Simple Green will do the same work.

[Jay Honeck]

> Yup, spray it on the plane and work all the way across the leading edges,
> go back to the start with a damp rag and start scrubbing. It comes off
> fairly easy if done that way, the water has a chance to soften up the bugs
> during the wait and it's pretty good. Now it doesn't do a thing for oil
> however.

We still like and use Lemon Pledge for the post-flight de-bugging. They
just wipe off, and it leaves the surface a little waxy so that they wipe off
easier in the future.

I'm sure not using Super Clean anywhere near my prop again. It works great
on wheel pants and other fiberglass, though...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[C J Campbell]

"Dale" > wrote in message
...
> In article <i9JJc.85017$JR4.59356@attbi_s54>,
> "Jay Honeck" > wrote:
>
>
> > Last week I used it to clean the bugs off the cowling
>
> The best bug cleaner I've found is water...just plain old water.
>

If the water is hard, then adding Woolite to it works. The thing about bugs
is you can clean them off while their shells are soft and moist. The trick
is keeping them wet. It is also much easier to clean bugs off if the
airplane is waxed.

[Jay Masino]

C J Campbell > wrote:
> If the water is hard, then adding Woolite to it works. The thing about bugs
> is you can clean them off while their shells are soft and moist. The trick
> is keeping them wet. It is also much easier to clean bugs off if the
> airplane is waxed.

It seems like a lot of people whine about the relative ease it takes to
get bugs off. I use one of those sponges you can buy that has the
webbing/netting over it, and I can wipe the bugs off with very little
trouble, no matter what liquid I use as a cleaner (even plain water).
I've even cleaned them a week or two after the bugs were "applied" and
they still wipe off without a lot of trouble. I wax my plane
occasionally, but I'm certainly not obsessive about it. It seems that
people are making this a bigger issue than it really is.

--- Jay


--
__!__
Jay and Teresa Masino ___(_)___
http://www2.ari.net/jmasino ! ! !
http://www.oceancityairport.com
http://www.oc-adolfos.com

[Doug]

I take a couple of cloths, soak them in water, and lay them on the
area to be cleaned for a few minutes. Softens up the bugs. If you do
use somthing other than water, wash it well afterward, which is hard
to do as few of our hangars have spigots.

Best thing I've seen for clean is a Hotsy. Gas heated water. Works
great.

Has anyone everseen a car style pressure washer at an airport
anywhere?

[G.R. Patterson III]

Doug wrote:
>
> Has anyone everseen a car style pressure washer at an airport
> anywhere?

I saw one being used by the owner, but it wasn't provided by the airport. The
aircraft was a Cessna, and the owner said he only used the washer with low pressure
to apply the soapy water. He did the actual scrubbing by hand.

George Patterson
In Idaho, tossing a rattlesnake into a crowded room is felony assault.
In Tennessee, it's evangelism.

[Dave Butler]

>>Has anyone everseen a car style pressure washer at an airport
>>anywhere?
>
> I saw one being used by the owner, but it wasn't provided by the airport. The
> aircraft was a Cessna, and the owner said he only used the washer with low pressure
> to apply the soapy water. He did the actual scrubbing by hand.

I think someone posted here a couple of weeks ago that the delta between
enough-pressure-to-remove-the-dirt and enough-pressure-to-remove-the-paint was
small. Having had a couple of non-aviation mishaps with my portable pressure
washer, I can believe it.

Dave

[OtisWinslow]

Getting the bugs off requires no expensive stuff. Just get a spray bottle
and fill
it with water and walk around and mist the areas with bugs on them. Let it
sit about 4 or 5 minutes and wipe it off with a towel. The bugs come right
off.

[Nathan Young]

On Fri, 16 Jul 2004 11:31:03 -0400, Dave Butler
> wrote:

>>>Has anyone everseen a car style pressure washer at an airport
>>>anywhere?
>>
>> I saw one being used by the owner, but it wasn't provided by the airport. The
>> aircraft was a Cessna, and the owner said he only used the washer with low pressure
>> to apply the soapy water. He did the actual scrubbing by hand.
>
>I think someone posted here a couple of weeks ago that the delta between
>enough-pressure-to-remove-the-dirt and enough-pressure-to-remove-the-paint was
>small. Having had a couple of non-aviation mishaps with my portable pressure
>washer, I can believe it.

Ditto. I've used a pressure washer to clean my deck. It only takes a
few seconds of lingering to splinter the wood. There is no way I
would use something that abrasive on my plane.

-Nathan

[Maule Driver]

Anyone want to come clean bugs off my wings?

"Jay Masino" > wrote in message
...
>
> It seems like a lot of people whine about the relative ease it takes to
> get bugs off. I use one of those sponges you can buy that has the
> webbing/netting over it, and I can wipe the bugs off with very little
> trouble, no matter what liquid I use as a cleaner (even plain water).
> I've even cleaned them a week or two after the bugs were "applied" and
> they still wipe off without a lot of trouble. I wax my plane
> occasionally, but I'm certainly not obsessive about it. It seems that
> people are making this a bigger issue than it really is.
>
> --- Jay
>
>
> --
> __!__
> Jay and Teresa Masino ___(_)___
> http://www2.ari.net/jmasino ! ! !
> http://www.oceancityairport.com
> http://www.oc-adolfos.com

[Orval Fairbairn]

In article >,
monitor point seven > wrote:

> In article <i9JJc.85017$JR4.59356@attbi_s54>,
> "Jay Honeck" > wrote:
>
> > Be careful with that stuff. It clean everything, but perhaps a bit TOO
> > well?
>
> In addition, that **** will BURN your skin., esp in high concentrations.
> I avoid it for that reason, straight Simple Green will do the same work.

Simple Green will also corrode aluminum.

[Mike Spera]

I have found that, if done immediately after flight, water works very
well. I carry a chamois, bottle of water, and a sponge covered with a
nylon mesh. Most times, a simple wipe of the damp chamois is all it
takes. If they are really bad, or I have been aloft for several hours, I
may have to wet the sponge and give it a pass before the chamois.

I just cannot stand the look of bugs on the plane, especially if the
rest is immaculate.

Good Luck,
Mike

Jay Honeck wrote:
> Nothing cleans fiberglass better than Castrol's Super Clean. I've been
> using it for some time on oil and exhaust stains, and it works great.
>
> Last week I used it to clean the bugs off the cowling, for the first time.
> I had been on the road with the plane for a few days, and had not stuck with
> my usual post-flight cleaning regimen -- so the bugs were especially
> tenacious. I figured the Super Clean would make quick work of them, and I
> was right.
>
> Yesterday, while parked up at Madeline Island (in Lake Superior), I looked
> at my chromed spinner during pre-flight and was appalled to find the chrome
> pitted in a spattered pattern! Mary looked at it and immediately exclaimed
> that it looked just like over-spray of some sort -- and I immediately knew
> what it was.
>
> I must've over-sprayed onto the spinner from underneath, while spraying up
> at the nose cone. I wiped the spinner off thoroughly from above, but not
> from below -- and the stuff actually started eating the chrome!
>
> When I got home I immediately hit it with simichrome polish (the best thing
> available, IMHO), and -- after an immense amount of elbow grease -- was
> relieved to see that it mostly came clean. After 20 minutes or so, I got
> it to look presentable again.
>
> Be careful with that stuff. It clean everything, but perhaps a bit TOO
> well?


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[Jay Honeck]

> I just cannot stand the look of bugs on the plane, especially if the
> rest is immaculate.

I'll second that motion.

Nothing screams "rental" like a gross, bug-encrusted airplane.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[NW_PILOT]

With all the construction around my home base they have dirt clouds that is
blowing around the airport I wash my windshield by the time I need to clean
it again just after take off witch is inpossable. I think the construction
workers need to spray their dirt while doing construction to keep the dust
clouds down they know they are 150' from an airport's runway.


"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
news:M4YJc.71720$WX.6133@attbi_s51...
> > I just cannot stand the look of bugs on the plane, especially if the
> > rest is immaculate.
>
> I'll second that motion.
>
> Nothing screams "rental" like a gross, bug-encrusted airplane.
> --
> Jay Honeck
> Iowa City, IA
> Pathfinder N56993
> www.AlexisParkInn.com
> "Your Aviation Destination"
>
>

[Hankal]

>Getting the bugs off requires no expensive stuff. Just get a spray bottle
>and fill
>it with water and walk around and mist the areas with bugs on them. Let it
>sit about 4 or 5 minutes and wipe it off with a towel. The bugs come right

No mention on any posts about using REJEX

[Hankal]

>With all the construction around my home base they have dirt clouds that is
>blowing around the airport I wash my windshield by the time I need to clean

I know the feeling, at my airport they are digging up 9-27 and relocating it.
What a mess

[C J Campbell]

"Maule Driver" > wrote in message
.com...
> Anyone want to come clean bugs off my wings?
>

Let the birds do it. :-)

[Bob Fry]

Don't know where Super Clean is sold...but this story is yet another
reason to not buy any old cleaner at Kragen's and apply it to your
airplane.

[Mark T. Mueller]

I was at an industrial conference when Castrol first introduced Super Clean.
I specifically asked about compatibility with aluminum. They said no way...


"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
news:i9JJc.85017$JR4.59356@attbi_s54...
> Nothing cleans fiberglass better than Castrol's Super Clean. I've been
> using it for some time on oil and exhaust stains, and it works great.
>
> Last week I used it to clean the bugs off the cowling, for the first time.
> I had been on the road with the plane for a few days, and had not stuck
with
> my usual post-flight cleaning regimen -- so the bugs were especially
> tenacious. I figured the Super Clean would make quick work of them, and I
> was right.
>
> Yesterday, while parked up at Madeline Island (in Lake Superior), I looked
> at my chromed spinner during pre-flight and was appalled to find the
chrome
> pitted in a spattered pattern! Mary looked at it and immediately
exclaimed
> that it looked just like over-spray of some sort -- and I immediately knew
> what it was.
>
> I must've over-sprayed onto the spinner from underneath, while spraying up
> at the nose cone. I wiped the spinner off thoroughly from above, but not
> from below -- and the stuff actually started eating the chrome!
>
> When I got home I immediately hit it with simichrome polish (the best
thing
> available, IMHO), and -- after an immense amount of elbow grease -- was
> relieved to see that it mostly came clean. After 20 minutes or so, I got
> it to look presentable again.
>
> Be careful with that stuff. It clean everything, but perhaps a bit TOO
> well?
> --
> Jay Honeck
> Iowa City, IA
> Pathfinder N56993
> www.AlexisParkInn.com
> "Your Aviation Destination"
>
>

[kage]

>>Has anyone everseen a car style pressure washer at an airport
anywhere?<<<

Yes,

The Beaverton, Oregon Airport.

Karl

[Jay Honeck]

> I was at an industrial conference when Castrol first introduced Super
Clean.
> I specifically asked about compatibility with aluminum. They said no
way...

Man, I don't want to even think about what it could do to aluminum. It
pitted chrome!

No wonder it works so well...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Don Tuite]

On Sat, 17 Jul 2004 18:11:36 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
> wrote:

>> I was at an industrial conference when Castrol first introduced Super
>Clean.
>> I specifically asked about compatibility with aluminum. They said no
>way...
>
>Man, I don't want to even think about what it could do to aluminum. It
>pitted chrome!
>
>No wonder it works so well...

Anybody else old enough to remember when Pepsi-Cola was the thing for
cleaning chrome bumpers? But you couldn't leave it on.

Don

[Roger Halstead]

On Fri, 16 Jul 2004 15:59:31 GMT, "OtisWinslow"
> wrote:

>Getting the bugs off requires no expensive stuff. Just get a spray bottle
>and fill
>it with water and walk around and mist the areas with bugs on them. Let it
>sit about 4 or 5 minutes and wipe it off with a towel. The bugs come right
>off.

You must have different bugs than we do. <:-)) They take more than a
water soak to come loose.

I use the same stuff I use to clean the plane, Carbon-X. Spray on,
let set a few minutes and wash off. Dilute 60:1 for wash and about
5:1 in the spray bottle for cleaning the grease and oil off the
bottom. Even cleans the landing gear nicely.

If we all remember to clean them off after a flight they pretty much
wipe off, but after sitting a while they seem to become part of the
airplane.

Also if the surface is kept waxed even if nothing more than Pledge,
they will come off easily.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com
>
>
>

[Roger Halstead]

On Fri, 16 Jul 2004 21:50:36 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
> wrote:

>> I just cannot stand the look of bugs on the plane, especially if the
>> rest is immaculate.
>
>I'll second that motion.
>
>Nothing screams "rental" like a gross, bug-encrusted airplane.

Aw, come on... It tells me. "This guy must do a lot of flying". I
clean mine at least twice a year, whether it needs it or not.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

[Roger Halstead]

On Fri, 16 Jul 2004 15:23:01 -0700, "NW_PILOT" >
wrote:

>With all the construction around my home base they have dirt clouds that is
>blowing around the airport I wash my windshield by the time I need to clean
>it again just after take off witch is inpossable. I think the construction
>workers need to spray their dirt while doing construction to keep the dust
>clouds down they know they are 150' from an airport's runway.

A few years back was a very dry year at Oshkosh. At the end of the
fly-in the grass in the Antique/Classic/contemporary camping area was
all dead and dust was everywhere. I had to go over the windshield at
least 4 times using a bucket of water. Even then you could see a
ridge of that fine dust which was now mud, at the edge of the cloth.

When I fired up the whole area disappeared in a very thick and
spectacular dust cloud. At least I was near the outgoing end of the
row and didn't have to taxi by every one. I sure would have hated to
have been one of the last to leave.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com
>
>
>"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
>news:M4YJc.71720$WX.6133@attbi_s51...
>> > I just cannot stand the look of bugs on the plane, especially if the
>> > rest is immaculate.
>>
>> I'll second that motion.
>>
>> Nothing screams "rental" like a gross, bug-encrusted airplane.
>> --
>> Jay Honeck
>> Iowa City, IA
>> Pathfinder N56993
>> www.AlexisParkInn.com
>> "Your Aviation Destination"
>>
>>
>

[Newps]

Matthew P. Cummings wrote:
> On Thu, 15 Jul 2004 21:20:38 -0800, Dale wrote:
>
>
>>The best bug cleaner I've found is water...just plain old water.
>
>
> Yup, spray it on the plane and work all the way across the leading edges,
> go back to the start with a damp rag and start scrubbing.


Scrub? I use Bugs Be Gone. Spray on, wipe off. You don't even press hard.

[Dave Stadt]

"Don Tuite" > wrote in message
...
> On Sat, 17 Jul 2004 18:11:36 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
> > wrote:
>
> >> I was at an industrial conference when Castrol first introduced Super
> >Clean.
> >> I specifically asked about compatibility with aluminum. They said no
> >way...
> >
> >Man, I don't want to even think about what it could do to aluminum. It
> >pitted chrome!
> >
> >No wonder it works so well...
>
> Anybody else old enough to remember when Pepsi-Cola was the thing for
> cleaning chrome bumpers? But you couldn't leave it on.
>
> Don

Put a bolt in a bottle of Coke and see what happens.

[Jay Honeck]

> Aw, come on... It tells me. "This guy must do a lot of flying". I
> clean mine at least twice a year, whether it needs it or not.

EEeeewwww...

Assuming you really did fly a lot, around here you'd have a wing that
produced no lift at all in a matter of weeks. The leading edge would have
what would look like green and black ice accretions built up about two
inches thick.

In the past week we've flown 15 hours, and we were still hitting bugs at
6000 feet. They are thick as, well, flies, around here!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Blanche]

I use the spray bottle full of water also. Most come off with just
a rag when I wipe it down. If not, one of those plastic scrubby
things -- but remember NOT to use the industrial strength version
(dark green I think). Use the one marked "light" (I think it's pink
and white) suitable for glass and stuff.

Keeps from scratching the paint too much.

[Roger Halstead]

On Mon, 19 Jul 2004 00:19:10 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
> wrote:

>> Aw, come on... It tells me. "This guy must do a lot of flying". I
>> clean mine at least twice a year, whether it needs it or not.
>
>EEeeewwww...
>
>Assuming you really did fly a lot, around here you'd have a wing that
>produced no lift at all in a matter of weeks. The leading edge would have

You just have to go faster to maintain lift.

>what would look like green and black ice accretions built up about two
>inches thick.

Nah, it wears off kinda like an ablative compound. Besides if you fly
in the rain much it protects the paint and only builds up to about a
quarter inch. It's kinda gummy and ice won't stick to it either.
Besides it has a nice side effect that people aren't bugging you to
give them a ride up to a meeting some place so they don't have to
drive. Then again, after a day in the hot sun they get kind of
aromatic. <:-))

>
>In the past week we've flown 15 hours, and we were still hitting bugs at
>6000 feet. They are thick as, well, flies, around here!

I don't know what it was but I hit something at about 5,000 that left
a splot about an inch in diameter...and about 4 long right on the
windshield.

I knew there was a reason I went with a half inch thick windshield.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

[Roger Halstead]

On 18 Jul 2004 21:05:48 -0600, Blanche >
wrote:

>I use the spray bottle full of water also. Most come off with just
>a rag when I wipe it down. If not, one of those plastic scrubby
>things -- but remember NOT to use the industrial strength version
>(dark green I think). Use the one marked "light" (I think it's pink
>and white) suitable for glass and stuff.

I think they call them "Scotch brite" pads<:-))
Actually I use the same kinds as Joyce used on "those difficult
dishes". I think they are called a Doby, or Dolby? It's just a
plastic mesh over a sponge. You can scrub like crazy and it won't
scratch...Depending on what the bug ate last.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

>
>Keeps from scratching the paint too much.

[Icebound]

"Roger Halstead" > wrote in message
...
> I don't know what it was but I hit something at about 5,000 that left
> a splot about an inch in diameter...and about 4 long right on the
> windshield.
>


Mrs. Bird didn't make it back to the nest, and laid her egg in midair??