carwash for planes?

You like to work too hard. Just spray a full can of "Gunk" Engine Brite on the belly lightly brush and hose off. 2 minutes MAX

hSZ5YE.jpg
 
James331 said:
Car stuff works well.

Don’t use purple power or anything caustic

Non pumice gojo works wonders on greasy bellies, and lemon pledge and a CLEAN microfiber works well on plexiglass.


I wouldn’t pay the $$$ for the “airplane” products.
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I agree 100%. End of discussion.
 
kgruber said:
You like to work too hard. Just spray a full can of "Gunk" Engine Brite on the belly lightly brush and hose off. 2 minutes MAX
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You need to do the military test on Gunk Engine Brite. It's quite corrosive to aluminum, not nearly as bad as the purple cleaner but far more than scrubbing bubbles or simple green. And, yeah, I know, kinda like Jay Honeck did numerous years ago...I'm sure you will defend your choice by saying "I clearly say 2 minutes MAX and then I rinse it off".

The problem with that is that the engine brite will get into the seams of you plane's skin but water, because of it's surface tension, cannot get in there to flush it out...thus it sits there between the two layers of skin and could cause corrosion.

It's for this same reason that you never use a power washer on an airplane. The surface tension of water keeps it out of relatively tight seams. But a power washer can force it into the seams and it can't get back out...and it can sit there for quite some time...corroding.

Nope, not me.

I beg everyone to do the above mentioned military test BEFORE using ANY untested/unproven cleaner on your airplane, even if it says it for airplanes.
 
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We generally just use Meguiar's detail spray (or similar, if something is on sale) to remove bugs after flying. For the really tough ones we'll use a spray cleaner. A couple times a year we wax it with either Meguiar's spray way, or during the condition inspection we'll usually give it a good wax & shine with a synthetic car wax like Meguiar's NXT... or whatever we have handy. It ain't that critical, you're not prepping a space vehicle. Automotive washes, detail sprays, and waxes work just fine.
 
timwinters said:
You need to do the military test on Gunk Engine Brite. It's quite corrosive to aluminum
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Nope. Not corrosive AT ALL. Hot rodders and pilots have been using GUNK on the aluminum engines and airframes for more than 1/2 century. I brush my teeth with it!
 
kgruber said:
Nope. Not corrosive AT ALL. Hot rodders and pilots have been using GUNK on the aluminum engines and airframes for more than 1/2 century. I brush my teeth with it!
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Whatever, do the military test and get back with me...I have...

It doesn't eat a hole in aluminum skin like purple power (or whatever that sh** its) does but it significantly etches...maybe more...I don't recall exactly, it's been at least 15 years since I've tested it...all I remember for sure is I looked at the piece of skin and said "nope...ain't bein' used on my airplane."

EDIT:

I found it, September 21, 2003...have no idea if formulas are the same now.

Report on Causticity of belly degreasers and general cleaners by Tim Winters. Best to Worst:

GoJo white cream No etching

Dow ‘Scrubbing Bubbles” very minor etching

Fantastik “orange” minor etching

Simple Green significant etching

Engine Brite significant etching & some minor pitting

Castrol Degreaser (purple stuff) significant destruction
 
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Castrol purple is sodium hydroxide mostly. Take a strip of soda can or beer can and let it sit overnight in a small cup to see. Can do the same with other cleaners to satisfy curiosity. No idea about Gunk.

If it’s supposed to work on oil and grease and it’s water soluble meaning you can hose it off (i.e., not an volatile organic solvent), then it’s probably got some sodium hydroxide.
 
If it’s really dirty just use a car wash and a hose, just make sure you dry it so it doesn’t get water spots. After that I suggest not using soap and water and stick to detail spray or just mist water and a rag to clean bugs and general dirt. On the greasy areas use simple green or some other degreaser. WD40 works great on the belly. Then you don’t have to worry about water getting somewhere you wouldn’t want it.
 
Funny... I just watched that video and I quit before I got to that scene...

Probably better that way, anyway. ;)
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
Castrol purple is sodium hydroxide mostly. Take a strip of soda can or beer can and let it sit overnight in a small cup to see. Can do the same with other cleaners to satisfy curiosity. No idea about Gunk.

If it’s supposed to work on oil and grease and it’s water soluble meaning you can hose it off (i.e., not an volatile organic solvent), then it’s probably got some sodium hydroxide.
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Sodium hydroxide used to be known as lye, and your great-grandmother used to use it to make soap. In the 1980s we had a hot tank of it, mixed with water, for stripping oil and grease and paint off steel and cast iron parts, but we made sure the new guys knew never to put any aluminum in it. Once in a while someone would, though, and he'd get back a basket of white sludge. Expensive mistake.
 
Fast Orange hand cleaner, non-pumice, will take bugs off the leading edge, but don't leave it on too long. It has citric acid in it, and that stuff can loosen paint.
 
Kerosene! One rag to wipe on and scrub if needed and one to polish it off... buff it out with the dry rag and leaves a great shine on single stage paint and surprisingly leaves no oily residue behind... many of the single stage paint restoring products contain kerosene by a more astute sounding name of petroleum distilates...
 
BTW...

... If you want to keep your windscreen nice, don't let people throw their headsets up on your glareshield. Especially the old style David Clark's with all the metal.
 
weirdjim said:
Potty trained at gunpoint, were we?

Jim
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Nope, just standing up for those that have suffered enough from sexism and racism, whether overt, underhanded, or even unintentional. Nice to see that your response is an attempt at an insult as opposed to rational thought and compassion. I respect your work in electronics and avionics, Jim, so let's not bring anything else here. Think about how you would feel if I said "Jim, boy I would like to see your wife bent over washing my plane! Bet she does a good job polishing a knob." Not so nice when it his home.

Over and out, lets drop this and all unnecessary non-aviation related comments.
 
Matthew Rogers said:
Nope, just standing up for those that have suffered enough from sexism and racism, whether overt, underhanded, or even unintentional. Nice to see that your response is an attempt at an insult as opposed to rational thought and compassion. I respect your work in electronics and avionics, Jim, so let's not bring anything else here. Think about how you would feel if I said "Jim, boy I would like to see your wife bent over washing my plane! Bet she does a good job polishing a knob." Not so nice when it his home.

Over and out, lets drop this and all unnecessary non-aviation related comments.
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Oh, please. You can feel free to spare us the self-righteous indignation. You responded to a previous post in which nothing offensive was said, and added a very highly offensive comment toward Jim and his wife. Totally uncalled for, and so far off base even by POA standards that it's not even funny. For the record, the original comment wouldn't normally provoke a reaction from most people, whereas yours would almot universally provoke a poke in the snout.

It's pretty clear what the entire point of showing several minutes of comely bikini-clad woman washing the plane was, but I suppose we were all expected to demurely avert our eyes, lest we observe an unmanly display of sponge handling? I'll say she's more than welcome to wash MY airplane any time, too; she's obviously demonstrated her aptitude for slinging suds and not damaging control surfaces.
 
DaleB said:
Oh, please. You can feel free to spare us the self-righteous indignation. You responded to a previous post in which nothing offensive was said, and added a very highly offensive comment toward Jim and his wife. Totally uncalled for, and so far off base even by POA standards that it's not even funny. For the record, the original comment wouldn't normally provoke a reaction from most people, whereas yours would almot universally provoke a poke in the snout.

It's pretty clear what the entire point of showing several minutes of comely bikini-clad woman washing the plane was, but I suppose we were all expected to demurely avert our eyes, lest we observe an unmanly display of sponge handling? I'll say she's more than welcome to wash MY airplane any time, too; she's obviously demonstrated her aptitude for slinging suds and not damaging control surfaces.
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I was attacked for preventing sexism (something that has and still runs rampant, especially among the older generations), nothing more. And don’t give the excuse that the original comment was harmless, as if “sticks and stones hurt my bones, but words will never hurt me” was ever true. If that is the case, then why so butt hurt about what I said, as an clearly stated example to Jim. I stand by my position. Seems like you guys can dish it out, but can’t take it when a young person dishes it back out.
 
I don't mind outrage and clutching at pearls -- as long as the party doing the clutching is in the aggrieved class. It's the outrage on behalf of others that I find insufferable. It's in the same category as man-splaining to me -- it's a "hol up, let me get this" sort of virtue-signalling that I think is demeaning in its own right. A party aggrieved can speak for themselves. White knighting is never not terrible.

But yeah, in aviation forums, I swear something as benign as a nipple slip would probably make heads explode. I can't think of a more under-sexed/easily titillated demographic, save maybe 4chan and its spinoffs.
 
DaleB said:
Oh, please. You can feel free to spare us the self-righteous indignation. You responded to a previous post in which nothing offensive was said, and added a very highly offensive comment toward Jim and his wife. Totally uncalled for, and so far off base even by POA standards that it's not even funny. For the record, the original comment wouldn't normally provoke a reaction from most people, whereas yours would almot universally provoke a poke in the snout.

It's pretty clear what the entire point of showing several minutes of comely bikini-clad woman washing the plane was, but I suppose we were all expected to demurely avert our eyes, lest we observe an unmanly display of sponge handling? I'll say she's more than welcome to wash MY airplane any time, too; she's obviously demonstrated her aptitude for slinging suds and not damaging control surfaces.
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Where's the dislike button when one needs one?
 
I've been using Simple Green Motorsports cleaner. Regular simple green is a no-no, but their motorsports product has the same ingredients as their noncorrosive aviation product, in somewhat lower concentrations.

Some A&Ps just use 100LL in a spray bottle...
 
Dana said:
I've been using Simple Green Motorsports cleaner. Regular simple green is a no-no, but their motorsports product has the same ingredients as their noncorrosive aviation product, in somewhat lower concentrations.

Some A&Ps just use 100LL in a spray bottle...
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well, except aviation simple green is not non-corrosive.
 
Matthew Rogers said:
I was attacked for preventing sexism (something that has and still runs rampant, especially among the older generations), nothing more.
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Preventing? Nah.

Kinda hard to prevent sexism based on a video series where the husband and wife purposely stick her in revealing clothing every video on purpose to get more YT views, or just because they like it... who knows. Maybe they find it part of their “art”.

But you didn’t “prevent” anything. You just virtue signaled against the *intended* result of their video. Which means your problem is with the content creator.

Sex sells. Always has, always will. Numerous YouTubers and every marketing department on the planet know this.

If you have a beef with their videos, go tell them. I’m guessing they’ll have ZF to give.
 
timwinters said:
well, except aviation simple green is not non-corrosive.
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The manufacturer claims it is, and Boeing seems to agree... do you have information to the contrary?


Regarding that video, when a woman dresses as she did and posts the video online, that's here (and her husband's) choice and she's implicitly inviting any crude comments she receives. I don't find such comments particularly classy, but that's a separate issue.

But I'm sure that most straight men in this world (myself included!), no matter how "woke" they are or what they admit to their wives or friends, would rather watch a pretty woman in a bikini washing a plane than a potbellied old fart doing the same.
 
Plenty of moving air, a couple cotton bath towels, an old hotel key card, a can of generic pledge, and a spray bottle full of blue cleaner. Haven't used soap and water, or any of the high priced specialty cleaners for the past 20 years. Regular use of the spray wax makes cleaning the bugs off the leading edges and wind screen much easier. My neighbor uses that FW1 Spray Wax Cleaner already mentioned here. It works very well too.

I normally clean my cars with generic pledge and bath towels too. That, and a little tire shine.
 
Anyone have a link to normal simple green being bad for airplanes or Boeing saying something about it?
 
James331 said:
Anyone have a link to normal simple green being bad for airplanes or Boeing saying something about it?
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https://simplegreen.com/faqs/
Aluminum — Is it safe to use Simple Green All-Purpose Cleaner on aluminum?

When used with caution and according to the instructions, Simple Green All-Purpose Cleaner has been safely and successfully used to clean aluminum. Simple Green All-Purpose Cleaner, Crystal Simple Green Industrial Cleaner & Degreaser, and Simple Green Pressure Washer Concentrates have been used on aircraft, automotive, industrial and consumer aluminum items for over 20 years. However, caution and common sense must be used: aluminum is a soft metal that easily corrodes with unprotected exposure to water. The aqueous-base and alkalinity of Simple Green All-Purpose Cleaner can accelerate the corrosion process.

Therefore, contact times for unprotected or unpainted aluminum surfaces should be kept as brief as the job will allow - never for more than 10 minutes. Large cleaning jobs should be conducted in smaller-area stages to achieve lower contact time. Rinsing after cleaning should always be extremely thorough - paying special attention to flush out cracks and crevices to remove all Simple Green product residues. Unfinished, uncoated or unpainted aluminum cleaned with Simple Green products should receive some sort of protectant after cleaning to prevent oxidation.

Simple Green has also developed break-through water based cleaners that are safe for use on metals, plastics, rubber and high tech alloys. Extreme Simple Green Aircraft & Precision Cleaner, Pro Series Simple Green Automotive Cleaner, and Simple Green Pro HD are available on both the industrial and retail markets, respectively. These products were initially developed for the aircraft industry and extensive testing shows that they are safe and effective on a variety of metals and other sensitive surfaces even in the most extreme circumstances.
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Getonit said:
At my airport you can’t wash an airplane anymore....the environmental Nazis have prevented that. The beginning cost to out one in was $30k assuming the $10k worth of environmental studies was OK. Numbers are last I heard but it was stupid ridiculous. So now I fly 15 minutes away and do it.
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My former airport was the same way. But they didn’t remove the spigots on the end of each hangar building, and there was no staff on site after 6:00. Plenty of clean airplanes, though.
 
Dana said:
The manufacturer claims it is, and Boeing seems to agree... do you have information to the contrary?
.
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yes, I did the military test on it and I've already armed you with the ability to do the military test for yourself.
 
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