How to wash oil off car?

[Cheddars]

Hi guys,

My awesome new neighbour, who's car engine ran away a few weeks ago, it pumped a lot of crap out of its exhaust, smoke everywhere, sunlight disappearing, etc, covered my cars exterior and interior in oil (as my sunroof was fully open). I've managed to get the oil smell out of the car. Now Every time it rains or I wash the car it can be seen on the windows and trim but can't see it on bodywork. I have tried polishing the glass, clay bar'd, machine polished on a slow spin, tcut, even resorted to washing the car with washing up liquid and it still remains.

Does anyone know how to get this stuff off? It's seriously irritating

 

[Jan Accord]

Uhhh...ugly
Try to use some solvent for colours like NITRO, some industrial degreaser or just simply some gasoline.

 

[Andyjdmteg]

Tfr or "traffic film remover" may also work, used a lot by valet teams at dealerships etc. DO NOT use if your car is red, white or yellow though

 

[Richard B]

There are some chemicals and compound that can affect glass surface on a molecular level. The windows on my 94 Accord are permanently stained by some organic compound (from a particular local tree) that can apparently only be removed by some type of acid.. I've never been game to try it.

On a molecular level the acid basically manages to attract whatever has bonded with the glass more than the glass wants to hold on to it.

Glass is not a single chemical - it is a matrix of several molecules on the inside, but on the surface the structure changes and it has some boundary layer where the moisture in the air also becomes part of the surface. It follows that what we are dealing with here is some sort of disruption on the surface structure.

There is an article here that explains it in more detail (slightly nerdy but interesting)

http://www.ksr.tul.cz/glassman/download/10_05_10-00-Trier.pdf

I don't have a solution though - but if light mechanical polishing didn't shift the affected areas you may need to resort to either much more vigorous polishing, or some sort of extreme chemical treatment.

I'll try post a photo of my glass stain problem later.

 

[Geordiesmartie]

Have you tried WD40 yet?

 

[Cheddars]

Thanks for the tips guys, greatly appreciated

I've played about with degreaser and tried again machine polishing, it's not great, but much better than before

 

[Andyjdmteg]

thatll be the cleanest car on here by the time your done!

 

[Jan Accord]

Bud...use some heavy stuff :-D

 

[Cheddars]

Bud...use some heavy stuff :-D

Ha ha, not with a cutting disc :-D

Gonna try Coca Cola next

 

[Jan Accord]

You're right...use a grinding one just kidding :-D
Anyway...It sound strange to me that oil is so hard to remove from the glass...isn't it?

 

[honda_saj]

Make sure you don't grind car LMAO

sent using tapatalk

 

[Goodluckmonkey]

Diluted Acetone, then give it a good wash with a strong detergent.

 

[Cheddars]

You're right...use a grinding one just kidding :-D
Anyway...It sound strange to me that oil is so hard to remove from the glass...isn't it?

I'm not sure it's just oil, it's a combination of 200,000 miles worth of crap from the inside of his engine, his car is a state.

Anyways, boss isn't in today so tried again. This time tried wd40, degreaser, washing up liquid, coke and left each one about 5 minutes to settle and attacked it with the pressure washer, still exactly the same

Grinder it is then

 

[Jan Accord]

Is there any process to polish the glass like the headlights?
Grind with different papers and a final machine polishing?

 

[Cheddars]

Is there any process to polish the glass like the headlights?
Grind with different papers and a final machine polishing?

Don't think that's possible with glass, even so I don't have the balls to do that, lol

Anyways, think I've sorted it. Repeated the same process of using different products, pressure washer, etc, came off the side windows and sunroof fine, but not the windscreen or rear window, changed the wipers and it appears to be sorted. So think most of it was in the rubber on the old wipers, job jobbed

 

[Goodluckmonkey]

When I was at school, some pillock put chips under everyone's wipers.

What a nightmare for everyone involved.

Fortunately new wipers for a mini were only about £8 each.

Although £16 was about a week's petrol to and from school back then.