Bar Keepers Friend seems to be a great way to remove the bugs that stick like glue to the front of your truck. Will it harm the finish at all?

 

I like Bar Keeper's Friend as well but, I only utilize it on glass surfaces for water spotting (a great tip that I learned here at f150online.com from 01 XLT I believe). Being that BKF is an ABRASIVE COMPOUND, I can assure you that it's not a good item to utilize on a painted surface.

For one, it's very acidic (read label - Oxalic Acid)(see MATERIAL SAFETY DATA SHEET (MSDS) here).

In short, you are removing any wax or other protective coatings that you may or may not have on the truck prior to use. Further, repeated use of a product of this nature will cause your clear coating to ultimately fail (because of repeated removal of necessary constituents contained within the clear coating/paint) and lead to much more serious problems down the road (including corrosion etc).

If it were me, I'd stick with a tried and true product that is meant for bug removal like Meguiar's Gold Class Bug & Tar Remover to do this type of chore. Elbow grease goes a long way and will rarely hurt your finish like a harsh chemical.

RP

 

As RockPick alluded to I had a thread on here quite a while back comparing some different products and methods for cleaning water spots of glass.

One of the products mentioned was Bar Keeper's Friend which is like Cook Top (can be bought at Sear’s) They are absolutely the easiest and best product and methods for cleaning water spots of glass.

They are a product for cleaning ceramic glass top stoves and as such they do have abrasives in them.

I would NOT use this on your paint to remove bugs because due to the abrasives I would “think” it could cause a lot of damage to your paint.

 

That's what I figured. My wife used it, just today, on her van. I tried bug and tar remover but the BKF worked much better. She did follow up with a new coat of wax.
She also offered to do the front of my new Extended Cab F-150, I told her no thanks.

 

Allow the bug and tar product to sit on the affected area for just a little while but, again note, that most of these products will remove wax as well. The difference is that they're formulated to not damage the clear but more to attack the bug guts and break them down.

It's a double edged sword honestly. Damned if you do... damned if you don't type of scenario. I mean, you get a bunch of bugs on your vehicle and thus, you want to get them off (not only because they look awful but, because they're acidic and can etch the paint by themselves) thus, you use a product that removes them but, in turn, removes some of the wax and creates more work for the user.

Oh well... I guess it's a necessary evil.

I've found that excessive waxing on the front end of a vehicle will reduce the amount of elbow grease needed to attack the bugs and thus, I rarely have to use a body solvent to take care of such issues.... just a thought.

Good luck!

RP

 

[QUOTE]I've found that excessive waxing on the front end of a vehicle will reduce the amount of elbow grease needed to attack the bugs and thus, I rarely have to use a body solvent to take care of such issues.... just a thought.

Good point RockPick, sounds like a great idea for a new product. Stop the bugs from sticking then you want have to worry about cleaners.
You don't happen to have a PHD in Chemistry, do you?

Renegade

 

After struggling through those last two chemistry classes for my Environmental Geology/Hydrology degree, I sure as heck feel like I do. (those classes were absolute total hell!) But, to answer your question, nope.