Mike Phillips
Active member
- Dec 5, 2022
- 51,004
- 6
Review: Pinnacle Advanced Insect Remover
Let's start with the info available on the AG store page for this new product...
Solvent-free cleaner that will safely and effectively remove dried on insect remains from your paint, glass, chrome, and plastic surfaces.
Pinnacle Advanced Insect Remover features:
• Solvent free - no harsh chemicals!
• Safe for use on all exterior surfaces
• Deep penetrating formula
• Removes both fresh and dried-on insect remains with ease
Sounds pretty straightforward. One of my jobs here is to review new products, this is always challenging as it's important to present the product in an honest and helpful manner so that people will know if this is a product that will solve their problems, in this case dried bugs on their car.
So let's see.... first I need a car with some bugs on it in order to truly use and evaluate this product and not simply "mock" it up. I don't do mock-up. So I ask in our weekly meeting if anyone has a car with dead, dried-on bugs on the front of their car. You could hear a cricket chirping as the room fell silent. Then Aimee, one of our Customer Care Staff and also someone who has take our 3-day Detailing Bootcamp class raised her hand and said she normally has dead bugs on the front of her KIA Soul. So I walk all the cars in the parking lot and true enough, the only car with dead bugs
Let's start with the info available on the AG store page for this new product...
Solvent-free cleaner that will safely and effectively remove dried on insect remains from your paint, glass, chrome, and plastic surfaces.
Pinnacle Advanced Insect Remover features:
• Solvent free - no harsh chemicals!
• Safe for use on all exterior surfaces
• Deep penetrating formula
• Removes both fresh and dried-on insect remains with ease
Sounds pretty straightforward. One of my jobs here is to review new products, this is always challenging as it's important to present the product in an honest and helpful manner so that people will know if this is a product that will solve their problems, in this case dried bugs on their car.
So let's see.... first I need a car with some bugs on it in order to truly use and evaluate this product and not simply "mock" it up. I don't do mock-up. So I ask in our weekly meeting if anyone has a car with dead, dried-on bugs on the front of their car. You could hear a cricket chirping as the room fell silent. Then Aimee, one of our Customer Care Staff and also someone who has take our 3-day Detailing Bootcamp class raised her hand and said she normally has dead bugs on the front of her KIA Soul. So I walk all the cars in the parking lot and true enough, the only car with dead bugs
in the parking lot that will also work for photography work is her white KIA Soul.
Here's the thing though... there's really only ONE easily visible bug on the front of the car!
That's okay, it's why I like having written hundreds of articles, I have an article on EVERYTHING including having to use a car with only one dead bug to remove for a new product review, here's the link.
I get the key and pull her car around to the garage and then took the below pictures as I used the product for the first time.
First here's the poor little bug, his carcass splattered onto a canvas of clear urethane paint as his last and final moment of proof he did once exist, free to roam this Earth.
This is me spraying him and the surrounding paint with the new Pinnacle Advanced Insect Remover.
(Kind of tricky to hold and spray a bottle while at the same time taking a picture with a full size camera and getting the shot >in-focus< at the same time)
Here's the Advanced Insect Remover soaking into his dead little body as the product dwells on the surface.
The impact his life could have had, (no pun intended), we'll never know?
Next up I mist a little product on to a clean folded microfiber towel...
This is a tricky shot to get too when you're by yourself --> see the spray coming out of the nozzle?
Directions state to let the product dwell for up to 5 minutes before wiping....
Fast forward to 5 minutes later.... (that's my old 1966 Chevy Milk Truck Streetrod on the Apple Watch dial)
Time to wipe of his now moisturized carcass and bug guts off the paint...
Wiping.....
Hero shot!
And voila! (some people say wa la, but that's wrong, the word is Voila and it's French)
The paint is clean and bug and bug guts free!
After wiping the above section I noticed the paint looked pretty good for a bug-guts remover, so I wiped a section and took these pictures...
You can clearly see the clear, shiny finish the product left, not a dull, stained looking finish like most products.
And the obligatory dirty towel shot...
My review
The product worked as advertised and actually worked better than I thought. It did a great job of softening the bug body and surrounding guts and make them easy to wipe off. Better yet it left the paint clean and shiny. So if a person were say travelling during bug season this would be great product to take with you to not only get the dead bug bodies and bug guts off your car's paint BEFORE the acids in the bug guts ETCHED your car's thinner than a Post-it Note paint but it will leave your car's finish looking like you just used a spray detailer or a spray wax.
The key to great results with a product like this is to also have plenty of clean microfiber towels handy to wipe with and if needed for really stubborn bug guts a bug sponge.
Me? If I have to drive any great distance during the "Love Bug Season" here in Florida, instead of subjecting my car's paint to the damage caused by hundreds of dead bugs plastered across the front of my car and the ensuing work to remove them... I simply rent a car and let the car rental agency deal with it.
On Autogeek.com
Pinnacle Advanced Insect Remover - 16 ounce spray bottle
Pinnacle Advanced Insect Remover - 1-gallon refill jug
Here's the thing though... there's really only ONE easily visible bug on the front of the car!
That's okay, it's why I like having written hundreds of articles, I have an article on EVERYTHING including having to use a car with only one dead bug to remove for a new product review, here's the link.
I get the key and pull her car around to the garage and then took the below pictures as I used the product for the first time.
First here's the poor little bug, his carcass splattered onto a canvas of clear urethane paint as his last and final moment of proof he did once exist, free to roam this Earth.
This is me spraying him and the surrounding paint with the new Pinnacle Advanced Insect Remover.
(Kind of tricky to hold and spray a bottle while at the same time taking a picture with a full size camera and getting the shot >in-focus< at the same time)
Here's the Advanced Insect Remover soaking into his dead little body as the product dwells on the surface.
The impact his life could have had, (no pun intended), we'll never know?
Next up I mist a little product on to a clean folded microfiber towel...
This is a tricky shot to get too when you're by yourself --> see the spray coming out of the nozzle?
Directions state to let the product dwell for up to 5 minutes before wiping....
Fast forward to 5 minutes later.... (that's my old 1966 Chevy Milk Truck Streetrod on the Apple Watch dial)
Time to wipe of his now moisturized carcass and bug guts off the paint...
Wiping.....
Hero shot!
And voila! (some people say wa la, but that's wrong, the word is Voila and it's French)
The paint is clean and bug and bug guts free!
After wiping the above section I noticed the paint looked pretty good for a bug-guts remover, so I wiped a section and took these pictures...
You can clearly see the clear, shiny finish the product left, not a dull, stained looking finish like most products.
And the obligatory dirty towel shot...
My review
The product worked as advertised and actually worked better than I thought. It did a great job of softening the bug body and surrounding guts and make them easy to wipe off. Better yet it left the paint clean and shiny. So if a person were say travelling during bug season this would be great product to take with you to not only get the dead bug bodies and bug guts off your car's paint BEFORE the acids in the bug guts ETCHED your car's thinner than a Post-it Note paint but it will leave your car's finish looking like you just used a spray detailer or a spray wax.
The key to great results with a product like this is to also have plenty of clean microfiber towels handy to wipe with and if needed for really stubborn bug guts a bug sponge.
Me? If I have to drive any great distance during the "Love Bug Season" here in Florida, instead of subjecting my car's paint to the damage caused by hundreds of dead bugs plastered across the front of my car and the ensuing work to remove them... I simply rent a car and let the car rental agency deal with it.
On Autogeek.com
Pinnacle Advanced Insect Remover - 16 ounce spray bottle
Pinnacle Advanced Insect Remover - 1-gallon refill jug
