Cleaning a car with gasoline - GIF

[mansworld]

Cleaning a vehicle with fuel is not an unheard of idea. Humvees in the US military were painted with CARC paint and using diesel to clean them was a common practice... apparently...

Unlike petrol or gasoline, diesel is safe on automotive paint finishes. Disel can dissolve hard stains without hurting paint finishes.

[Frank S]

One of my guys screwed up one time when he took it upon himself to make the Col's. Jeep shine a little better. before an inspection of the Motor pool, We had only had the 12 new M151a2s for about 3 months, the A1s were still in the motor park awaiting. PDO authorization. Opposite of all of the rest of the 430 odd vehicles having a very subdued flat OD green, the Col. liked his command vehicle to have a nice bright shine to match the shine of the wings on his insignia. This spec 4 was detailed to really make it shine for him. Being a half lazy bugger he was supposed to wipe it down with diesel. as was often done when the vehicle needed a quick touch up. The day before he had spilt some brake fluid on the floor of a duce and a half while topping off the master cylinder when he wiped it up the floor had a glossy shine to it. Thinking this would really make the shine pop he poured brake fluid over the whole jeep then wiped it off It sure made it shine for the inspection but the next day where he hadn't been able to get it good and dry the paint had bubbled like it had been hit with paint remover. The col. sent his driver for his jeep but when we did the pre inspection was when I noticed several places where the paint was bubbling, I dispatched his older vehicle, about 10 minutes later here he and his driver came roaring into the motor pool mad as hell because I had dispatched the older jeep for him to use. When he caught sight of the new jeep with bubbling paint He started roaring in laughter.
Well, we were going to paint all of the vehicles to the forest camo paint scheme anyway, I guess mine gets to be the first.
If you spill DOT3 brake fluid on enamel paint don't leave any traces of it

[JoeVanGeaux]

Agree. Plus, those loops in that narrow hose helps give it away, too. No service station gas hose is ever looped like that.

Also, there's bound to be DIY distiller out there that can visually "proof" the liquid as not being much to worry about - even though it's a bit different than the good stuff. (I first scanned the reader responses look for that one!)

[TrickieDickie]

I had brake fluid drip from the tiny reservoir onto my motorcycle tank once and it stripped it.