hmmmm....So I have heard that somewhere then...

 

Keep in mind that most people don't even wash their cars, much less detail them! If you never washed or polished your vehicle, then applying kerosene might just leave you with the impression that you "really shined up the car nice"....

 

True...look at how many vehicles out there are rust buckets or are owned by people who have nice vehicles but are always dirty...

 

I've seen people use Armor All to make them shine.

When I bought my truck I wax EVERYTHING that was waxable, door jambs, inner fenders, underneath the hood etc. I do that once a year. There is no salt here so thats a BIG blessing, but even where there is, good hard core maintenance will take care of most problems. When I was a kid back in Ohio my father would take all the chrome body moulding off twice a year to clean and wax underneath and he drove his Dodges for at least 6-7 years without any rust.

 

Boy does this bring back memories. My Dad had a '61 Impala, black 348 w/3-2bbls, some trick factory solid cam profile, 4-spd Muncie. He took better care of that car than me and my brothers and sister. He used to make me wash it just like the guy above...50/50 kerosene and water. Comet on the white walls. Pine-O to clean the engine bay.

 

I wonder if it is the older form of a liquid wax?Since it just gives it a shine maybe it could be like a quick detailer liquid wax.

 

...keep in mind, they used to put DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane - I think I spelled that right...) in pump spray cans and douse children in it before they went outside to play.

I'm sure the next generation will make note of several idiocies that our generation has used/developed/enjoyed.

 

In the late 60's I woked for Sherwin Williams Paint Co. As a promotion we gave away a book called "Hints from Heloise" and it had the kerosene/water wash in it. It;s a wonder we didn't have a lawsuit. It was bad enough when the dust settled on the kerosene but if you encountered a sprinkle at night it was murder and streak city when you turned the wipers on. And the smell - friends could smell you a block away.

Kenny

 

I used kerosene to take the tar off my truck after they redid the roads around here, but i washed it after i got all the tar spots off. i didnt dose the truck in it, but i washed it good immediatly after i did all this, and later that month gave it some wax. I havent noticed any problems though. . . just my 2 cents. .

 

The only reason they quit using it was because of the book "Silent Spring" by Rachael Carlson. She claimed DDT made the egg shells of birds too thin, reducing the bird population. It was banned after that.

It turns out that it was pretty much bull. It was junk science. People who study such things agree that most if not all of worldwide mosiquito born illnesses could be wiped out if DDT was allowed to be used.

As for kerosene, this is a common old timers way of waxing their cars. When I was at KDOT I worked with a foreman who talked about doing this to his cars when he was dating his wife. He was about 67.

I wouldn't do this if you lived in a very dusty area. I've seen what happens if you spill just a little bit of diesel on the paint, I imagine kerosene would be just as bad if not worse since it's even more oily.

 

Well, not to show my age or anything, but many years ago in a land far away;

I had a red vehicle that we used to refer to as having dead paint. You know when you wax the vehicle and your applicator turns the same color? Once I tried the 50/50 Kerosone as recommended by my uncle. Worked great. The truck was never cleaner, and had a good shine.

The next day it look a dull tan color with all the dust stuck to it.

Took it to a car wash and used the high pressure on it and never did it again.

 

Fully and 100% aware of that... I was specifically stating that people doused themselves in a chlorinated chemical which, indeed, is a carcinogen. DDT is responsible, in the opinion of most scientists, for the irradication of malaria.

It's also, however, responsible for gross contamination of waterways, groundwater, and is the focus of countless numbers of environmental remedial projects.

Kerosene... oh yeah, that's the topic.

 

Fine, great, whatever.

Kerosene: use it for jet fuel, burning tree piles and stumps, heaters, very old tractors, and oil lamps.

Don't use it for wax. I believe the whole purpose of wax is so stuff doesn't stick to what you apply the wax to. Kerosene is oily and therefore dust and dirt will stick to it quite easily.

Then again diesel or kerosene is commonly used for form oil for concrete forms. So I guess it's kind of the same stuff except waxing your pickup won't make dust stick to it like a magnet.

 

Ive been using kerosene for prolly 5 years but it was on my jeep and it was black- kerosene really takes off the oxidation I would not advise this on a brand new truck but it made my 98 jeep wrangler glisten better than any high doller wash -wax -buff gob any day just a regular hand wash with about a pint of kerosene to one or two gallons of water and rince but like I said I wouldn't use it unless you need it