How fast will gasoline strip wax?

M

mark2003

New member
Whenever I finish pumping gas at the gas station, I pull out the nozzle a few drips of gas always seems to fall onto the side of my car. I have tried shaking the nozzle before pulling it out yet that only seems to work certain times.



So anyways, will it do any damage even if I wipe it off right away?
 
Depends if there is a match involved... heh



Seriously though, i'm not sure. I do have a solution though. Most gas stations have paper towels you can use (i think for the windows). When i have that just detailed look and i don't want gas driping down the side, i just use the paper towel to catch the drips before they hit the paint.
 
Hmm, that's a good question. I would guess it would strip wax instantly just like mineral spirits or other solvents would, but I might have to actually try it someday....
 
I have seen cars where people have let the gas drip onto the car and not washed it off. It leaves a nice stain that I am sure is rather difficult to remove.
 
I am not sure about staining the paint, but I have a white Escalade that I detail every month, it has plastic trim from the gas cap down. The first time I detailed it I thought I could polish it out, I tried everything from DACP to Xenit to Goo Gone. Nothing even touched it. I posted it on here with no luck. Sucks when your 60 grand one year old truck has a stain on it. Dr. Jones nice advice make sure the gas never touches the car.
 
Yeah, what Dr. Jones said :xyxthumbs . As far as stripping, I dunno about wax, but SG holds up great. I had a nozzle's auto shut-off malfunction with predictable results (gee, think I'll ever trust one of those again?). Pretty extreme case by any standard, a real :scared "expletives deleted event". It took me maybe 15 minutes to get home and start washing. The SG held up PERFECTLY. I put another coat on for my peace of mind, but it wasn't necessary.
 
You want to know about long-term? I inherited a '75 Jaguar (no, not the gorgeous white one you see in my gallery, but the red one I'm resurrecting). When I bought it, there were all these hideously obnoxious cracks in the paint around the gas tanks. (Yes, this Jag has two tanks.) Paint was cracked all over the place! I finally identified the problem: gas leaks. So, yes, the gas will create huge problems .... though I'm not sure how long it will take them to appear.
 
Lynn- Yeah, those top-of-qtr-panel gas fillers...My dad's '84 XJ6 had grazed/cracked paint there within the first year. I THINK that the single-stage paint they were using back then (plus the fact that most people don't keep their cars protected to Autopian standards) was especially vulnerable to gasoline.



Makes me wonder- when at shows, how often do you see original-paint XJ's that DON'T have paint damage there? Not very, I should think.



When showroom-new, my XJS had a TERRIBLE paint blend-in under ITS fuel door that looked suspiciously like a fuel-spill-related repair. Looks worse every year, as does ALL the pre-delivery paintwork :( Sure wonder what that poor car went through before I got it...three hundred odd miles and a lifetime's worth of abuse :( :( I can sure pick THE car to be my pampered garage queen :p
 
Didnt anyone in here, as a kid, take some of dads mower gas and clean their bike chain with it ? Gas is a solvent, as well as a fuel. It does strip Carnauba, but polymers (BF II) will hold up slightly better, and acrylics (SG) even better yet....



Thats always a place to pay additional attention to, tell your clients your looking out for them, and give that small area" an extra coat !
 
Agreed, sealers should hold up better than a carnauba to gas.

This may help... I always shake the nozzle when finished filling, but I also try to turn it "upside down" as much as possible before I put it back, and I have had maybe a couple drips get on my paint in the 19 months I have had my car.

(Except when the auto shut off quit a bit too late one day and sprayed gas everywhere :mad: :mad: I hit it with QD and SG'd the spot right when I got home to be safe, no damage :xyxthumbs )
 
I like to rattle it around a few times and then touch the bottom tip of the nozzle to the filler opening to "wick" away any gas that's accumulating into a potential drop.
 
I like BradB's drip guard. He posted a pic of it quite a while back, and I really liked it, but have not been ambitious enough to make one yet. :)
 
Could always just buy a viper. They have a built in little piece of cloth that folds out after you pop the lid. You can use it to drape over the side of the car under the hold so if any drips that catches it. Guess it costs so much for a reason.
 
2wheelsx2 said:
Yeah, that thing looks just like BradB's. Should be easy enough to make with a piece of rubber though. But for $5.99, saves a lot of hassle.
Click to expand...
By the way, here's the thread: http://www.autopia.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4778&highlight=gas



I just happen to have some sheet rubber lying around too! :D It's left over from when I used it to make a gasket. Home Depots up here don't sell this by the way (at least not by the foot), so you'll have to look elsewhere. It's with all the roofing materials and sheets. It's not neoprene though....



I imagine you're not supposed to make it too long so that the rubber can stick out away from the fender and not just droop down the side.
 
4DSC said:
I like to rattle it around a few times and then touch the bottom tip of the nozzle to the filler opening to "wick" away any gas that's accumulating into a potential drop.
Click to expand...



No matter how many times you shake it the last few drops always get ya!:cool:
 
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