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It must be a conspiracy!

Posted: 17 Nov 2011 06:04
by Hasbeen
Have you ever noticed that when you're driving down the road, & hit a bug, it could be a white moth, a yellow butterfly, or a green grass hopper, but by the time you get home, the bits of them left behind, & the stain they leave are black.

How can this be? I'm sure there is a conspiracy afoot here, to disfigure our cars. We need 007 James Bond to come to the rescue perhaps.

Still it wasn't too much of a problem in the old days. When there were acres of chrome in bumper bars, & grills, bits of bug, & stains washed off easily.

Even with a 7, with its mostly black front, if there were black stains, they were hard to notice.

Then along come colour coordinated, plastic front cars, & we have a problem.

Amway had a spray on tar & bug remover. Spray the offending area, a few minutes before washing the car, & every bit of bug disappeared. No more, they dropped the product years ago. All the local parts shops tell me there is nothing like it today.

With the lady's Mazda 2, the Capri, & the Honda S2k, the dirty stains don't wash off, they grow in number weekly.

Yes I have polished them off, but that does take paint off, & is not ideal, & I don't like using any sort of cutter on that little bit of paint above the grill on the 7. It would be so easy to cut through on that sharp edge.

So today I had an idea. No it didn't hurt that much.

I don't know if Bars Leaks is an international product, we've been stopping leaky radiators with it for 70 years here. I have been using their "NEW" product, Bars Bugs in my windscreen washers for about 10 years, so quick as a flash, I decided to use it on the front of the Honda, which was covered in bug marks, that would not wash off.

My brilliance was rewarded. Wet the thing, wipe on lots of Bars Bugs windscreen washer fluid on with a rag, wash off 5 minutes later, & not a bug, or stain to be seen.

I grabbed the 7, & attacked its stains, there gone in a flash.

I don't know if it would remove tar, it's so long since any of that went on our roads, I don't know if any is left in the district, but I'm told a bit of butter applied on a warm day, or heated with a hair drier will remove that.

So my tip for the day. Windscreen washer fluid, not car wash to clean your car.

Hasbeen

Posted: 17 Nov 2011 10:52
by Steve-LPS-Thomas
My tip for the day.. Move to Northern Europe for the winter.. no bugs.

Steve

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Posted: 17 Nov 2011 12:01
by Hasbeen
Well you should know Steve.

How many bugs did you collect on your rally run with Troy. There are usually plenty in those forestry tracks.

Around here, which is a turf farm area, the lawn grub moths can get pretty thick at dusk.

Hasbeen

Posted: 17 Nov 2011 18:14
by saabfast
We get Bars Leaks but on a quick google Bars Bugs seems to be limited to Aus & NZ for some reason. Having said that, perhaps we have different bugs as I only seem to get a red splatter which washes off. I did pick up a bottle of W5 Insect Remover from the local Aldi for about 99p. Have only used it on the screen and it did seem to work, must try it on the suicidal bugs that hit the bodywork sometime, the small print does suggest its OK for glass, paint and synthetics (?), but not hot paint! Not much fear of that here but probably a problem in Aus.

Alan
Saab 9000 Stg 1
Saab 9000 2.3 FPT Auto
Saab 2.3 LPT Auto
'81 TR7 DHC
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Posted: 17 Nov 2011 18:55
by Beans
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by saabfast</i>

... Bars Bugs seems to be limited to Aus & NZ for some reason ... <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Obvious of course with our damp and chilly climates [:D]

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<font color="blue"><i>1980 TR7 DHC (my first car, now restored and back on the road)
1981 TR7 FHC Sprint (better known as 't Kreng)</font id="blue">
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Posted: 18 Nov 2011 16:47
by FI Spyder
Our bug spatter is usually yellow and washes off with car soap and water. Isn't it funny how different parts of the world have different bug spatter. Not many but they usually only occur on warmer summer nights as the sun sets. The mosquitoes here are few and pathetic little things that can barely pierce the skin, unlike the eagles sized ones that fly around in Manitoba and can suck you dry faster than a vampire.

- - - - TR7 Spider - - - - - - - - 1978 Spitfire - - - - - - 1976 Spitfire - - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra - - Yellow TCT
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Posted: 19 Nov 2011 00:06
by Cobber
<font size="2"><font face="Comic Sans MS">Due to all the recent rain the mossies here all have four engines, I think they must be built by Boeing! [:D] Bloody things have been known to to drain a cow! [:D]</font id="Comic Sans MS"></font id="size2">

80'Triumph TR7, , 73'Land Rover (Ford 351. V8),
'89 Ford Fairlane
85'Alfa 90, 69'Ford F250.
76' Ford F100