How do I get all this engine oil off of my skins?

[peds]

Howdy ho, team,

I won't bore you with the geographical details*, but whilst skinning up a railway recently I noticed far-too-late that I was picking up some nice thick globules of engine oil, which has now left a pretty cool camouflage pattern on the bases of my skins. I don't think it's doing much for my glide, however, so I'm keen on taking it off somehow.

Any ideas? Any suggestions, be they either polite and helpful or otherwise?





Thanks, everyone!


*Okay, seeing as you asked: every lift in the Chamonix valley except the low-level beginner areas was closed a little over a week ago, so I decided to occupy myself by skinning up the James Bond trail with my dog. But to avoid the school groups at the Planards, and because the Montenvers train wasn't running, I decided to do the first few hundred metres by the side of the railway line, until the point where the James Bond crosses the track.

[BigDaddy]

Try some strong dish soap like Dawn, but if that doesn't work, try a mild solvent like paint thinner on a very small area. Just put a little on a rag first, then wipe gently and it should dissolve.

[SB]

Dawn should work, they use it to wash ducks who cause oil tankers to crash and get shit all over themselves.

[ill-advised strategy]

http://www.permatex.com/products/our-brands/fast-orange

[skimaxpower]

Dawn should work, they use it to wash ducks who cause oil tankers to crash and get shit all over themselves.

Birds are such selfish assholes.

[GeezerSteve]

Yup, Dawn cut with water + brush

[Jonathan S.]

I've heard Goo Gone is good for that:
http://googone.com/

We have a popular ascent route along a cog rail line, although it's even worse because of something like a century and a half of burning coal.

In the winter it's okay:




... but the spring can be ugly:

[PNWbrit]

Swarfega?

If Dawn don't do it?

[1000-oaks]

I second trying lots of Fast Orange and a stiff tooth brush on the spots first, then wash out the Fast Orange with hot soapy water and a bigger brush.

After working on your car, dish soap will only get the loose surface grease off your hands. Fast Orange gets everything off except for grime in deep cracks in your skin.

[Ted Striker]

I like fast orange too, but if you do use it, get the non-pumice variety.

[peds]

Thanks very much, all, for the advice. Repeated skinning seems to be slowly taking it off, but I'll try something more chemical-based. Cheers!

[XXX-er]

worse comes to worse you could dry clean them but then you have to reglue

[peds]

I was worried that I'd have to reglue whatever I did, it's pleasing to hear that dish soap, carefully applied, will do the trick without having to do that.

Only problem is, my girlfriend is going on a whole home-made and organic cleaning products trip at the moment, we've been using home-made deodorant (coconut oil, bicarbonate of soda, corn starch) for months now, we've had home-made clothes washing powder for a few weeks (Marseille soap, bicarb, salt, citric acid), we've just started using home-made toothpaste (God only fucking knows what's in it, it's fucking disgusting), and we've also been free from commercial dish soap for a while now. The stuff is fucking terrible, it leaves grease on everything unless you "use it properly".

So I guess I'll just have to keep a private stash of the good stuff to clean my own dishes and skins with. Shhhh!

[PNWbrit]

we've just started using home-made toothpaste !

Good god.

Even I think that sounds fucking medieval.

[BigDaddy]

She better be hot.

[PNWbrit]

She better be hot.

My money is on hairy pits and legs.

[Timberridge]

My money is on hairy pits and legs.

I'm ok with that, its her shorn scrotum that's freaking me out. No way is that just a droopy labia.

[peds]

I'm ok with that, its her shorn scrotum that's freaking me out. No way is that just a droopy labia.

That's the twin she absorbed in the womb.

[BigDaddy]

Hot, hairy and hanging?

[wooley12]

I work some butter into the sap I pick up in the PNW. Followed by dish soap. Works wonders. Try buttering your skis. Your girlfriend should love you for it.