All Purpose Cleaner

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Optimum Power Clean aka Alien Kleen and Bilt-Hamber Surfex

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Poorboys World All Purpose Cleaner.

I believe it may be the only APC I've ever used. It comes in concentrate and I keep a couple bottles diluted to different ratios.
 
I tend to buy a gallon of whatever I can find at the big box store and then try something new when I need more

I have used several formulations of Zep, Spray 9, Purple Power, Mean Green, Simple Green, and others and never found an aha product that made me stop my search

The exception is Superior Products Dark Fury; I have used up 2 spray bottles of their RTU dilution and it is outstanding and I intend to go to O'Reillys and order a gallon of concentrate

It cleans tires, wheels, arches, engine bays, traffic film, etc, truly as close to an all purpose cleaner as I have seen

The ONLY downside I see people mention is the color, it looks like used motor oil, although of course it's not going to stain anything, but I have read on a couple of occasions that people took exception to it

I rarely rarely use APC in the interior of my vehicles, it is generally for arches, suspensions, engine bay, etc

I won't use Simple Green on an engine bay because I have seen it remove anodizing from gun parts and bicycle parts, but it sure gets arches and stuff clean
 
chilly said:
I won't use Simple Green on an engine bay because I have seen it remove anodizing from gun parts and bicycle parts, but it sure gets arches and stuff clean
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You want to keep it well away from the interior too. My one time trying to use it on an interior resulted in the paint labeling the function of couple buttons being removed. Never again.
 
When I was cleaning out my detailing cabinet, I noticed 3 APCs - Optimum Power Clean, MK37, and ancietn Duragloss. I never use on interiors but I never deal with trashed interiors.
 
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Desertnate said:
You want to keep it well away from the interior too. My one time trying to use it on an interior resulted in the paint labeling the function of couple buttons being removed. Never again.
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You are correct, that stuff is strictly for exterior use and I should have mentioned that

About the only time I will even use APC in the interior is taking dirt marks off kick panels or other hard plastic panels, pedals, sometimes consoles and cup holders that have years of built up latte spills, and that's only if straight P&S Express won't take it off
 
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Setec Astronomy said:
Had you guys diluted the Simple Green?
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I use it full strength for other hobbies like bike parts and some gun parts

I usually used it 4:1 for exterior stuff

Simple Green makes several different grades or levels of the basic APC but the "household strength" gallon is what I can find locally

They have "pro" and "industrial" that are supposedly stronger or maybe just more concentrated
 
My recollection is that the recommended dilutions are quite a bit for Simple Green, yet they sell it neat in a spray bottle which I'm sure means a lot of people use it undiluted.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Had you guys diluted the Simple Green?
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I was using it from the spray bottle purchased off the shelf in the store at whatever RTU ratio they sell, not a gallon jug. When it's packed like that you really don't think about having to pour it into yet another bottle and thin it out.

This was many, many, many years ago and I'm much smarter now. Since then I've kept to products designed specifically for auto detailing unless I'm trying to clean up an engine bay.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
My recollection is that the recommended dilutions are quite a bit for Simple Green, yet they sell it neat in a spray bottle which I'm sure means a lot of people use it undiluted.
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I keep an older simple green bottle on hand for full strength (refilled from gallon) just because it has a nice "foaming" spray tip and I think I actually use less product that way and it is more effective as well

I will blow my chainsaws off with full bore compressed air and then hose the uglier parts with simple green from the foamer and then use a stiff parts brush to scrub them down and then I rinse

Side note: Scrubbing Bubbles aerosol is also an amazing chainsaw cleaning agent, it's just much more expensive than a gallon of SG
 
Desertnate said:
I was using it from the spray bottle purchased off the shelf in the store at whatever RTU ratio they sell, not a gallon jug. When it's packed like that you really don't think about having to pour it into yet another bottle and thin it out.

This was many, many, many years ago and I'm much smarter now. Since then I've kept to products designed specifically for auto detailing unless I'm trying to clean up an engine bay.
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When I bought my first spray bottle of Superior Dark Fury there was no mention of dilution ratios so I contacted their customer service departments and asked if it was RTU or concentrate

It took weeks to hear back and the response was very ambiguous, and by then I had used half a bottle as an RTU and it sure seemed to work
 
Desertnate said:
I was using it from the spray bottle purchased off the shelf in the store at whatever RTU ratio they sell, not a gallon jug. When it's packed like that you really don't think about having to pour it into yet another bottle and thin it out.
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Right...except Simple Green in the spray bottle is the same concentrate that comes in the gallon jug. This is the same for OPC and I think most detailing APC's that are sold in a spray bottle, and as I intimated, invites using it at full strength on things it may not agree with.

In the case of OPC, they recommend that you not use it at full strength on glass, as the sodium metasilicate ingredient can etch glass (I think if it dries on the glass, which probably increases the concentration even more).

I love OPC but I have been less excited about using it after I found this out...if it can etch glass at full strength, part of me wants to worry about overspray of dilutions as well.
 
Lets take this one step further

Assuming GENERAL auto detailing use, what PH level should we be looking at in an APC?

And how many of us use a separate INTERIOR and EXTERIOR APC and if so, do they have different PH levels?

We seem to enjoy picking RWs to pieces so lets do the same for APCs

Personally I don't think I have ever tried any dedicated detailing APCs other than OPC, and several of the detailing chemical players have multiple formulas, each with a supposed application, interior, exterior, etc

Unless they are a citrus based product, are they truly any different or just a different color/scent with a different dilution from the factory

Is there really a single all purpose APC that does it all, any more than there is a single car shampoo that ticks all the boxes?

Discuss
 
Setec Astronomy said:
What are you talking about Chilly? We pick everything to pieces.
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I guess we are nothing if not methodical and comprehensive (wanted to say OCD and anal retentive but thought better of it)

:ROFLMAO:

So in the intervening 5 minutes I remembered once doing an APC deep dive and LIMONENE (sp?) was a big divider between APCs

Something about making carpets crunchy...
 
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