Easy Belly Wash

[Pete of N978PB]

After much searching, I've found a product that makes cleaning bad grease bellies very easy. I tripped across this stuff in Aviation Consumer, a 1999 article, while thumbing through an old box of the magazines. They spoke highly of it.

While 978PB was in for its annual, and after 100 hours of flight time with no attention given to the belly, I used this stuff and it worked beter than any other product I've ever used.

The product is "TR-1000" and is produced by Tomar Industries of Raleigh, North Carolina. Their telephone number is 919-828-0859, and their service is great.

For very bad grease, they say it can be used at full strength, otherwise mix it 1:1 with water. Even with 100 hours on my belly, the 1:1 mix did the job. Just spray it on, let it set for a minute, and wipe it off. I basically worked 2 foot square sections at a time. There were a couple of sections immediately downstream from the exhaust that needed a second application.

It's best to have a wet rag or sponge handy to remove any remaining degreaser. It's a rather alkaline product, and the company advises against allowing any of the product to remain on the surface without being wiped off. Simply wiping it all off while removing the grease should do the job, although to be safe you may wish to wipe the cleaned surface with a watery wet rag or sponge. My paint shows no adverse effects of the cleaning.

For cleaning the remainder of the aircraft, a mix of 8:1 is rcommended by the company.

Obviously, it's also wise to wear protective glasses and rubber gloves.

Best of all, the stuff is relatively inexpensive. It's only $8.95 for a gallon, plus shipping costs. Compare that to the normal "aviation pricing scheme" of other aircraft products.

And no, I have no economic interest in the company.

Have fun.

[witrakw]

for what it is worth,

I read in one of the cessna pilot websites, re George Horn, about his concoction of one cup of WD40 in a couple of gallons of water, mix it with a high pressure garden hose nozzle(basically homogenize it) and then use it as the primary wash for the whole blessed plane(belly or otherwise).

Several of the resultant posts on this technique swear by it and that it also leaves a nice luster on the paint finish. You just need to wipe it off with a clean rag and it gives an equivalent lustre to most waxes, etc. The solvents/oils in wd40 are aromatic enough that they evaporate fairly quickly, so you don't leave a significant residue.

I haven't tried the "whole plane" technique yet(too damned cold up here still), but have liberally sprayed WD40 on spots on the belly(esp exhaust residue stripe) and it works "like way better"(as my kids would say) than wash/wax all or other degreasers that I have tried so far. Not to mention the fact that my wash/wax bottle currently is frozen solid! There are apparently "safe" vs. "nonsafe(i.e. corrosive)" degreasers to differentiate between as well.

It makes simple solvent sense that any light oil spray like wd40 would generally degrease easily since it is oil based. An additional comment from GHorn was that wd40(as a penetrant oil) will additional penetrate hinges, seams,etc and provide those additional benefits as well.


thoughts?

Had a lot of fun the other day flying and just tooling around; light load, rapid climb to 11,500 ft, slalom coursing through high cumulus/cirrus layers and looking at the world from on high.

bill

[n2099x]

We have used WD40 as a cleaner on our Quads for years. It does clean very well. It leaves everything shiny and makes it easier to clean next time. The big drawback is it makes a dust magnet out of your machine. I haven't tried it deluted with water maybe that would help.
I have been working on not getting the belly dirty to start with, the exhaust stain is the hardest to clean and I made an exhaust extendsion that took care of that. The M-20 air oil seperator has helped but I still have an oil leak that is a pain.

Glen