How do you get diesel oil off your skin? - Page 3 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Crazy_Nate · #31 10-19-2009, 07:25 PM

I'm pretty young (24), and I believe that I remember boraxo. It's a white, gritty powder, right? I don't remember exactly where I've used it, but I definitely remember it in some bathroom dispensers (I must have been realllly young at the time :p )

I've also used gojo from time to time, but I still come back to the Lava bars...

Yak · #32 10-19-2009, 07:38 PM

If you're really going old school, plain old bacon grease does a great job of cutting regular grease. Then you don't smell like diesel anymore. Add some lye to it and you're in the soap-making business. My mom used to have a can near the stove for collecting cooking grease.

Borax is all about mule-power; 20 of them.

bobodaclown · #33 10-19-2009, 08:01 PM

How about tomato juice? (nope myth busters busted that one)...

Ddmassett · #34 10-19-2009, 08:14 PM

I use GO-JO works great for me, be sure to read the directions and don't just try using it as soap.

blindwolf · #35 10-20-2009, 01:03 AM

shampoo for oily hair will take it off.

Ian White · #36 10-20-2009, 02:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Craig

If you're old enough to remember when Ronald Reagan was actually paid to act, you would remember boraxo.

Ya, something like that, gosh, those were the years.... RIP President Reagan. You are loved....

GregoryV022 · #37 10-20-2009, 02:21 AM

Diesel #2 works very well. but then again. i don't remember the last time i spilled oil.

ive got changing the oil down to an art

JordaanDMC-12 · #38 10-20-2009, 03:17 AM

What works best for me is dish soap... you'd be surprised how powerful that stuff is against diesel oil I could have totally black hands from dealing with the oil use that stuff and barley have any black on my hands... It takes away about 75% of oil on hands and the rest... well you'll probably have to wait for new skin to grow lol

#39 10-20-2009, 10:57 AM

Yep, it takes TIME. When I was on a missile site in the Army some 40 years ago, there was a Generator Mechanic that went by the nickname Diesel, because he ALWAYS smelled like Diesel. There was no getting it off of him or his clothes. He was not a slob, or an unclean person. He bathed everyday and washed his clothes extra often.

One thing I've learned though, is that the quicker you get it off immediately after a good soaking, the less time it takes for it to go away altogether.

charmalu · #40 10-20-2009, 11:45 AM

Help your wife do the dishes works well, has side benifits also

.

I wear the blue Nitrile gloves from HF when ever working on the cars. It always seems like I blow out the right thumb first for some reason. There is always deeply inbeded black under my nail. after a long weekend at PNP my hands take a beating after ripping through 12 to 20 gloves.

with the blue gloves on a hot day seems to sweat the dirt out.

I keep a tube of of " The original Rough Tough SCRUBS in a bucket, waterless hand cleaner towels" the white tube with the blue lid, pop the center cap and pull out a paper towel soaked in the stuff. really works to get off the grease/oil.
I keep soap and water with me, and then wash after I get my hands clean.

The problem isn`t so much getting the oil off, it`s the by product in the oil (Soot) that gets soaked in our skin.

Money is the best to keep our hands clean, Pay someone else to do it

.

NAW, no fun in that

Charlie

destroy · #41 10-20-2009, 10:45 PM

Fumoto valves - the best way I've found to keep oil off of you in the first place! All of the complaints about them sticking out and having less clearance isn't even an issue on my w126.

rcounts · #42 10-20-2009, 11:31 PM

I've tried pretty much every soap, handcleaner, and fuel listed here.

For my money none of them work better with less skin damage than GOOP. Cuts the grease almost as well as gasoline but the lanolin in it keeps it from drying out your skin.

I usually follow that up with a big squirt of Dawn in a washcloth and hot water. I even keep a small bottle of Dawn in the shower. When I'm done, if it weren't for the grease under my nails you wouldn't even be able to tell I'd been working on a car.

Winmutt - diesel as a carcinogen? Got any references on that? The only info I can find regarding diesel as a carcinogen talks about chronic inhalation of the soot and particulates as a possible cause of lung cancer.

You aren't inhaling dirty oil are you? If so cancer isn't going to have a chance to kill you - pneumonia will get you first!

turbobenz · #43 10-21-2009, 01:29 AM

i just scrub the crap out of it in the shower. Usually takes two days at most for the worst of stains. I try to use gloves now that im becoming aware that everything on a car is carcinogenic

BTW if you read a bottle of motor oil it specifically says used motor oil is carcinogenic

vstech · #44 10-21-2009, 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rcounts

Winmutt - diesel as a carcinogen? Got any references on that? The only info I can find regarding diesel as a carcinogen talks about chronic inhalation of the soot and particulates as a possible cause of lung cancer.

You aren't inhaling dirty oil are you? If so cancer isn't going to have a chance to kill you - pneumonia will get you first!

it's not the Diesel he's talking about, it's the DIRTY MOTOR OIL that is the carcinogen!
don't let that stuff soak into your skin for long.

rcounts · #45 10-22-2009, 12:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vstech

it's not the Diesel he's talking about, it's the DIRTY MOTOR OIL that is the carcinogen!
don't let that stuff soak into your skin for long.

OK, well, what he said is "diesel is a carcinogen". If he meant dirty motor oil is carcinogenic, I'd think that would be what he would have said.

I did a little research on this. Everything I found said that "continous contact with dirty used oil has been found to cause skin cancer in laboratory rats".

Reminds me of the studies they used to get saccharine banned. They fed rats saccharine at a level the equivalent of a human drinking 59 cases of diet pop per day, and SURPRISE! It gave them cancer.

Same thing with the dirty used motor oil. Unless you are wearing clothing soaked in it in continuous contact with your skin - just like they did with the rats - the cancer risk is negligable, if it exists at all.

I swear, the sensationalism of the media, and the way it gets people all worked up about these things is turning us all into chicken little. They either extremly over-hype the risk and/or fail to discuss, or even actively downplay, the kind of extreme circumstances that produce the risk.

All people remember is the sensational part about "it caused cancer in rats" - not the part about the rats having to be kept soaked in it for weeks on end in order for it to cause the cancer.

No one repeats that part - only the "it causes cancer part" gets repeated over and over again until people think a drop on their skin puts them at serious risk.

If the risk were significant, there would be a LOT of professional mechanics coming down with skin cancer, and there would be multiple studies to evaluate the risk. Ever heard of any such thing? No, because the risk from getting dirty oil on your hands, as long as you eventually clean if off, is small enough to be effectively ZERO.

What I did find is one study that says professional mechanics have a 30% higher incidence of rheumetoid arthritis, which MAY be linked to exposure to the toxins in used oil. THAT'S IT! That's why I'm so stiff and sore the day after I spend several hours crawling around on the ground working on a car! Its because I get exposed to used motor oil! And here I always thought it was because of the NATURE of the work! Nah, hard physical work, day in and day out, couldn't be the main reason mechanics have more arthritis problems than those who sit behind a desk all day. Could it?

I know, I know, a lot of people will say "better safe than sorry, right"? WRONG. Worrying about every ridiculously infitesimal risk is worse for your health than all of these tiny risks added together will ever be!

Sorry for the rant...