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6 Underrated Chemicals to Have In Your Shop
The first thing anyone needs to start a DIY project is the drive to learn and get their hands a little dirty. The second is, naturally, the necessary tools. In a surprising third place are the cleaners, lubricants, and menagerie of other chemicals that tend to fill a shelf, drawer, or cabinet in any garage where work gets done. Some are obvious: Brake cleaner, carburetor cleaner, penetrating oils. Others are less so, but can be just as handy. Here are six from my own garage that don’t get the love they deserve.
Fogging oil
This stuff is popular in the marine world for coating the interior of engines prior to long storage. Put simply fogging oil is a light oil in an aerosol can, which makes it very handy for keeping corrosion at bay on anything you store or need to worry about moisture on. Since my shop is heated but not humidity-controlled, some of my rarely used tools get a wipe-down with this before going into the box to keep the moisture in the air from condensing and aiding in forming corrosion. It’s also great for coating parts being assembled that don’t need a coating of assembly lube or will be sitting partially assembled for some time.
Goo Gone
We all love it when new parts come with stickers, but I know I’m not alone in being a little miffed when adhesive residue or gunk is also included. a citrus cleaner like Goo Gone is perfect for this but also for other light degreasing where you might typically reach for brake cleaner. I’ve found Goo Gone to work just as well as brake cleaner, and I can use it in a non-ventilated area (as most are in the winter) without my brain involuntarily entering the space race.
Tire mounting lubricant
As a motorcycle rider who changes his own tires, I had this stuff on the shelf for at least a year before I ever thought to use it for anything else. Not sure why it took me so long. This is the liquid version rather than the solid brick, and that makes it easy to wipe onto items like intake tubes or other rubber boots that need to slide into place. It is safe for rubber, dries away clean, and even has a little cleaning effect. I’ve had great luck using this for all kinds of small tasks compared to other aerosol solutions like silicone spray which come with other drawbacks and concerns like causing fisheyes in paint.
Canned air
I have never smoked and I spent a decade as a competitive runner and a handful of years as a trombone player, but even my better-than-average lungs can only concentrate so much air to remove debris from a project. I also don’t want to spend my Saturday doing my best big bad wolf impersonation just to clean a carburetor.
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And I know you are saying “Get a compressor,” to which I counter that a compressor and shop air is a luxury that not everyone has access to. I’ve done a lot of work to great results without having an air compressor and the tools associated with it. Canned air is not a real replacement, but can do more than one might think, including being a budget freeze spray if used while turning the can upside down—works great for press-fit bearing installations.
Gummi Pfledge
Weatherstripping is something that typically slowly fades away without our noticing. Hobby cars that are only driven in fair weather, often with windows down, are almost expected to be louder inside than a modern car. It doesn’t have to be so bad though. A little bit of care from wiping on some Gummi Pfledge will help restore some of the sponginess to that weather stripping and keep it sealing well for longer. It’s not something I reach for incredibly often, but it has no real replacement.
Pine-Sol
While I probably should mop my floor once in a while, the jug of Pine-Sol in my shop lives next to the ultrasonic cleaner and works great to remove gunk and grime from aluminum parts like carburetor bodies. A friend told me to use this stuff, and while the smell was a little strong at first, the results convinced me to keep a jug on the table alongside the other solutions and detergents I use in the ultrasonic. Just don’t let aluminum sit in a Pine-Sol solution long—I never go more than 10 minutes on carb bodies—it will eat the aluminum and leave you with no part! Rinse with clean water once out and you’ll have a bright clean part with no scrubbing.
Are these the only chemicals hiding on the hardware store shelves worth bringing home? Probably not, but they work great and I wish I’d discovered them sooner.
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Purple Soap – versatile, cheap, degreaser. Starting Either (used carefully) great degreaser for small crevasses and the like
P-80 Rubber Lubricant Emulsion is the ultimate original tire mounting lubricant.
Goo Gone is fantastic at getting whitewalls and raised white letters clean on tires! You just have to be careful to not get any smudges from the black rubber around the edges to mess it up!
Nice suggestions! Question for you: I have a 2012 VW Eos and the steering wheel gets sticky on cold, humid days. Any recommendations for that?
If you like fogging oil. try FOGGIT. It’s the best I have ever used, and keeps every bit of rust off of the
cylinder walls. I have used it other places as well. Handy to have in my shop and trailer.
Do you use the Pinesol in that ultra sonic cleaner? Also what brand of ultra sonic cleaner do you have? I was going to buy one but after reading all the reviews I haven’t as over half said that they didn’t work of very long before dining. Wanted one for dunking my 2, 4 barrel carbs that have sat for 15 years. In process of building a stroked brodix 400 SBC
I have a ultrasonic cleaner and use dawn dishwashing liquid with great results, and I learned to use zip lock plastic bags to put the parts in to be cleaned and this way keeping the ultrasonic cleaner tank and basket clean and the parts in the bag with the dirty cleaning fluid. Throw away the dirty bag and rinse off your part’s and you still have a clean ultrasonic cleaner
Neat! I’ll try that out.
Pine-Sol makes a great rest remover. Just soak rag and leave it on am rusty chrome peace for up to one day. When you remove the rag, you will be amazed. This only works on light rust and rust pimples on chrome.
Did not know that. Curious to give it a try!
WD-40 will clean rubbed paint, or spray paint, etc, off of original paint without damaging the original coat. Cleans off grease and crud, too. I used to joke about its overuse, but the stuff is very useful.
Good til on the Gummi Pfledge. I have grown to love Tub O Towels. They are great for cleaning tools, greasy parts under the hood, and just about anything oily that you need to clean. I even use them to clean my hands before coming in the house after working on my cars. Unlike when I lived in So. Cal, I can’t have a garage sink in the Denver Metro area because of the cold. So these save the day.
I like vinegar for light rust. Easy, cheap, certainly non toxic. And alcohol and acetone for cleaning pre-finishing. Not around like it used to be but oven cleaner Easy Off takes care of grease
If you ever find an old diesel truck or anything thats diesel that the fuel you know is over 20 or 30 years old save the fuel it has sulphur in it. Pour that into a stuck engine and within a year you can turn it. Used to put real rusty parts in bucket with it.
We were told by GM engineering to lubricate T-Top W/strips with silicone paste lubricant. Spray-on gets a little messy with overspray, but, it worked pretty well.
WD 40 is a great adhesive remover
Denatured Alcohol or DNA is another cheap,good cleaner. We use it in the aviation industry as the required solvent for electrical connections and grounds.
For removing stickers or any other pressure-sensitive residue, Bestine Solvent and Thinner is what I use. It used to be sold in the graphics world as rubber cement thinner, but who uses rubber cement anymore? If the sticker is plastic-coated, just scratch the surface to let the Bestine soak in, and off it comes. Also, won’t damage any surface it touches, including your skin. Good for de-greasing too.