How the hell

[Lair]

do you get the ugly brown coating off the engine compartment paint?

The only thing I have that works well is lacquer thinner, but it turns my Alpineweiss into Alpinewas.

I've tried carb cleaner, brake cleaner, 3M adhesive cleaner, and medium-cut compound on a rag.

WTF works without damaging the paint? Enamel reducer? Fermented cat piss?

[golde30]

steam cleaning worked on my old e30. has to be the commecial grade one though, not that rinky dink as seen on TV crap.

[nando]

it's cosmoline - gun collectors use it to preserve old guns, and guess what they use to remove it? steam..

[JustAdam]

lol - I got it on mine too, and I have a steamer so I think I will give it a shot soon, even though it is one of those "as seen on TV" POS, it might just work if I "work" at it long enough, and I will be very careful too.

[Lair]

it's cosmoline - gun collectors use it to preserve old guns, and guess what they use to remove it? steam..

Ah. 16 year old cosmoline. No wonder it won't come off. I've removed this stuff from new rotors before, but my e30 engine compartment has a couple of gallons of the shit all over it.

I have an Enviro Steamer, but I can't see it being very effective.

[Tangent]

I used a wire brush to scrub that crap off.

[atomic]

Try kerosene soaking it then pressure washing it off with a hot water pressure washer. The hotter the water the better. The kerosene should soften the cosmoline up from being baked for 20 years in your engine compartment. And the hottest high pressure water you can find should make it come off like melting butter.

[nando]

I used a wire brush to scrub that crap off.

yeah, a wire brush is GREAT to use on your paint.

[Tangent]

yeah, a wire brush is GREAT to use on your paint.

Heh, whoops, somehow didn't catch the "paint" part. I used that on the engine parts... :p