isopropyl alcohol...

I

imported_Ivan Rajic

New member
might be a dumb question but i'm curious....



i am planning on detailing my car over the next 3-4 days

i have some polish all over the trim from when i did my roof and trunk a few weeks ago that i was too lazy to wash off thinking i'll finish everything soon

anyway, tonight i went out to clean the interior, engine a little bit and dress the trim with mother's back to black

i was looking around for stuff to clean off the polish... i heard peanutbutter i think and some other things, but this was just polish and not caked on wax and it came out pretty easy even with water... did require a little buffing though.... after water, i tried windex.. worked better but not good enough for me... finally, i spotted a bottle of 70% isopropyl alcohol that i had used for touching up some chips before.... i used it on a small area of rubber which seals the trunk... worked like a charm... i did the rest of that piece... just rub it 1 or 2x over the piece, everything comes off, and the alcohol dries out in a few mins...



before doing anymore though, i came here to ask you experts... is the alcohol ruining the rubber/trim or no??

i assume it eats at it a little but how bad is the 70% one??



TIA,

ivan
 
Ruining? No. Probably not. Degrading the rubber slightly? Probably. This is probably more of a 'case specific' type of item in my opinion.



If you have tested it out on an inconspicious area and had luck with it, there's probably little worry in trying it again. I wouldn't make it a habit of it and, I'd make sure to recondition that rubber with a nice water-based conditioner/protectant like Vinylex or similar after application of the Isopropyl.



Remember for the future, it's always easier to tape off or take a few extra minutes around trim when it comes time to wax verus trying to remove a bunch of over-wipe or similar! :) Blue painter's tape is your friend!



RP :D
 
Rockpick said:
Ruining? No. Probably not. Degrading the rubber slightly? Probably. This is probably more of a 'case specific' type of item in my opinion.



If you have tested it out on an inconspicious area and had luck with it, there's probably little worry in trying it again. I wouldn't make it a habit of it and, I'd make sure to recondition that rubber with a nice water-based conditioner/protectant like Vinylex or similar after application of the Isopropyl.



Remember for the future, it's always easier to tape off or take a few extra minutes around trim when it comes time to wax verus trying to remove a bunch of over-wipe or similar! :) Blue painter's tape is your friend!



RP :D
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haha yea i've already started looking for some tape for tomorrow when i start polishing again



thanks for the reply
 
You can use denatured alchohol or mineral spirits to remove wax or polish that gets on rubber or plastic trim. It won't damage the parts.

I'm with Rockpick though...easier to tape off or otherwise protect than clean up after. Also, it can be just as easy to apply a protectant to these so the other things just won't stick. As a matter of fact, if you have a good protectant layer (I use 303) tape won't stick to it.



Footnote: realizing this doesn't work for other polishing efforts, but one of the things I quite like about the Klasse twins is that there are no worries with trim because you apply it there too!
 
what surprises me is how people jump all over the "dawn wash" saying it will dry out trim, etc...but then IPA solutions are ok. :)



i think alcohol will dry or damage trim FAR faster than a detergent would. of course, in moderation...everything will be fine.
 
After wiping down my whole car with a mix of water + iso alcohol, I happened to just try it on my mudguards (they are a black plastic with a hint of rubberiness), which have quite a few wax marks (little embarrasing, but its just cosmetic).



I wiped it down with a MF towel and my mix, and wow it got rid of it! NOT. lol, it looked great for what seemed like 1-2 minutes, then I just happened to come back and its still there! argh. But, it looks like it got rid of a little bit and in some ways sorta spread around the existing wax a little bit more. Perhaps my towel was already full of wax from the rest of the car and such. I'll try it again and some point with a clean towel.
 
paradigm said:
what surprises me is how people jump all over the "dawn wash" saying it will dry out trim, etc...but then IPA solutions are ok. :)



i think alcohol will dry or damage trim FAR faster than a detergent would. of course, in moderation...everything will be fine.
Click to expand...



For a very long time, everyone thought the world was flat.
 
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