DAWN, clean to a fault.

For arguments sake here's what Sal Zaino says in his instructions for preping a car for his excellent polish.

"I would definitely recommend you remove the wax buildup on your paint. Just use Liquid Dawn (hand dishwashing liquid) as a car wash. It has a high alkaline content which cuts right thru carnauba wax, paraffin, silicone oils, etc. This will get your paint finish squeeky clean and wax free."

Tom

Does that mean that it won't harm the finish?? Who would have ever guessed that, and that added alcohol does make it squeaky clean. Used to use Zaino that people gave me at the shop but it is little better than just doing a good polish and wax. WAY over priced and just poured their cleaners into the gallon can I get cleaners in, same results. Thanks for the reminder.

Dawn removes wax, my point exactly!

Actually here's what you said - - "Its not an old wifes tale. You shouldn't use a chamois either, you should use terry cloth or microfiber towels to dry a car. Yes it takes of everything then leaves a residue. You clearly don't have an understanding of how dish soap works on automotive finsishes, but you won't change because your too cheap."

What I'm trying to figure out is how "it takes of(f) everything and leaves a residue". How do you take off everything and leave something on the surface??

Is that what it does on your Corvette?

I would have thought it would be clear. It would leave a residue AFTER it takes off whats on it. So if you still don't understand that concept I don't know what else there is.

I said that it MAY leave a residue.

The only thing I am refering to is WAX. Dawn takes off WAX. Thats the only thing. If your goal is to take off the wax for whatever reason, then it doesn't matter if you use Dawn.

Does it do that on my Corvette, well I wouldn't use Dawn to start with. I have seen it (Dawn) strip off wax on other cars.

If you are talking about Dawn damaging the Paint / Clearcoat then thats different. I don't think Dawn would damage Paint or Clearcoat.

This is going to be my last comment on this topic, it's time to move on.

You're so easy, but do enjoy your Corvette. ;-))

Dawn is strong stuff. If you wash your Vette with Dawn I would rinse car afterwards to remove the Dawn. Wash the dishes a few times using Dawn . It would leave your hands extremely dry. Thats why you see women use gloves while washing dishes.

Then they go on to say "Do not make a habit of washing your car with Dawn! "

We don't get Dawn on this side of the pond afaik, but I wouldn't use it if we did simply because of the (probable) salt content. Get some of that trapped in a crevice somewhere & it'll kick-off the rusting process in no time, & make aluminium go furry.

It may not be an issue if you always rinse with a few hundred gallons of water to make absolutely certain it's all out, but that kind of defeats the object of using something ecologically friendly in the first place.

After much fiddling with wires & spraying of WD40, I now have a (nearly) full set of electrics & an engine that turns over. I'll syphon out the very old & smelly fuel this weekend, put some fresh in, & see if it'll start. I'm anticipating much backfiring...

You're kidding, right?

You mean like in use our stuff at a real soaker of a price?

No doubt it's in their best interest, in fact they need to believe "specialized" products are better. Yet common sense cuts through the hype. All soap removes wax. I don't for a second belive that there's a soap that can do a good job at taking away the dirt but not some of the wax.

It is interesting you prefer Dawn to do the cleaning, Dad. They hype how mild it is with the cleaning of waterfowl in the oil spills. However, I've always wondered about that, because one of the primary needs of the cleaning is to remove a very hard to remove petroleum product.

I used to use Ivory dish washing liquid to clean bare engine blocks for rebuilding. Talk about strip any oil away. A block would rust before your eyes while washing. We used to wash and rinse and have someone spraying WD40 as soon as the hose was off an area.

No - honest. Get some salty suds trapped in a crevice like a windscreen surround/chassis section/door channel etc & it will accelerate corrosion. There's many a motorbike out there with furry white alloy parts & rust patches in engine casing crevices for precisely this reason.

You're saying the salt content is higher in the soap than it is in the water you're using? What percent in each? Where does it show up the most on your Corvette? How do you discern the difference between acid rain and salt in your soap/water/air? Do you live on the coast in the UK?

If I had time to research answers to all those questions I would, but I haven't - all spare time's allocated to restoring that rusting lump in the garage! The last one's easy though - no (unfortunately). Have you /seen/ the price of houses on the coast here...

My point though is that dish-washing liquids do generally have a very high salt content, so I personally choose not to use them when there are salt-free alternatives. Every little helps, right? If they work for you then fine, but a lot of people don't know about the salt, & may not be as thorough at rinsing.

Some people even use normal detergent as a lubricant when changing tyres on alloy wheels - then wonder why their rims start to flake apart. Plain water & acid rain don't cause that.

Works great as a marine bilge cleaner..just pour some in the bilge and let it slosh around for a few trips and then pump out all that dirty water/stuff. Clean like new...!!!!!!!!!!

Since you stated it had a salt content I just assumed you had the answers, or were you just guessing? What is the lump that is rusting in the garage? That shouldn't use much of your time to answer. The is a web site that tells the 10 best uses for Dawn and one of those, #10, is for rust prvention, go figure. What has been affected on your Corvette?

Yes, last August. Why, have you one to sell?

What is the high content? Actually a high content, over 3% by volume will kill its ability to suds.

Standard practice around here and it's also used to prevent galling of stainless steel threads.

Here is some more baseless fears that are passed around the internet -

FWIW, the MSDS on this soap: