Engine Bay refurb.

[madmerv]

Have a 318is with the engine bay covered in some sort of wax coating. I believe its the original coating used by BMW. Can anyone tell me what exactly it is and how do you remove it? I want to clean up the engine bay as it looks poor but none of the engine cleaners will remove it. Is it a strip and re-paint job? Thanks for any help.

[Kedge]

I think its a lacquer, on the bodywork just try a polish, and on the rocker and inlet manifold its a wire brush and sanding job really.

Playing about with mine at the moment, don't use anything to course on the paint, i used a rubbing compound and took some of the paint off.

[Brianmoooore]

It's not a laquer, more of a hard wax. Petrol dissolves it with a bit of hard rubbing, but there are one or two safety issues useing this.
IIRC there is a special name for this stuff, and there was a thread on it's removal a couple of months ago. ( Not sure if it was this forum though ).

[madmerv]

cheers, looks like hard graft will be required. no change there then.

[CaesarBob]

Meths will get the wax/lacquer stuff off but you still need plenty of elbow grease. Not nice on the hands either.

I started on mine but seriously lost interest after a 3 days of rubbing. It would be easier to strip the engine bay and repaint the bugger.