Saved my black trim with laundry detergent.

BluBrett

New member
For some reason, I decided I was too good to tape up my black trim while compounding and polishing my Acura Legend's paint back in May. This resulted in nasty white stains that peanut butter wouldn't touch and steel wool barely impacted. The white stains merely laughed at Mother's back to black. I read online that a laundry detergent can remove stains from black trim. I had the choice between Woolite and All Stain Lifter. I chose the All. I rubbed it vigorously into the black trim with a toothbrush and let it sit there for about 2.5 hours. Then I went and power washed it off (if you do this, make sure to bring at least an extra 2 minutes worth of quarters with you.) Then I got home and let it dry and thought "well this is great, now all of my trim is white." I went over it again with a plain wet cloth and let it dry, and I am happy to say my black trim is back to brand new. I protected it with 303 aerospace afterwards. I highly recommend people with stained black trim try this. And please, don't think it's okay to use laundry detergent as car wash formula ;)



Edit: I also tried this on shiny black trim, and it is NOT okay to use it on that. It will leave a lot of white residue. Use All ONLY on matte black trim.
 
Do you think it was more the detergent or keeping the residue wet for 2+ hours that did it?
 
yakky said:
Do you think it was more the detergent or keeping the residue wet for 2+ hours that did it?



A little bit of both I think. I tried leaving it on for only 10 minutes the first time, and It had little to no impact on the residue.
 
or just buy some einszet plastic cleaner and it will get it right off, you might need to use a brush with it if the plastic is heavily textured
 
I keep a spray bottle of Spray & Wash in the garage to spot pre-treat MFs that pick up grease or grunge. It's also useful for small jobs on trim. DO clearly label a product like that... especially if it's in an identical bottle to say.... oh, let's say a QD or waterless wash type product. Night be a good idea to NOT have those two bottles hanging next to each other. Don't ask how I arrived at these pearls of wisdom. :(



TL
 
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