Best Hand Cleaner for Mechanics?

Buffaloed

webmaster
Feb 27, 2002
43,324
23,584
Niagara Falls
One thing I hate about working on cars is the dirt and grease. I wear gloves as much as possible but they can't be worn for every job. It's impossible to keep your hands clean. I've used DL Permatex Blue and Lava Bar Soap. My current favorite is Uncle Earls Hand Healing Soap.
 

Winger98

Moderator
Feb 27, 2002
22,756
4,569
Cleveland
Lava is the bar soap I'd swear by. Honestly, Dawn dish soap has always worked well. The best I've seen is this stuff my grandfather had. It looked like a cream and was in a little round plastic tub. It took anything off, probably including a couple of layers of skin (hands were always really soft afterwards, though). Have to think it was the cause of at least some of the skin cancer on the old man's hands. Heh.
 

garnetpalmetto

Jerkministrator
Jul 12, 2004
12,476
11,841
Durham, NC
Lava is the bar soap I'd swear by. Honestly, Dawn dish soap has always worked well. The best I've seen is this stuff my grandfather had. It looked like a cream and was in a little round plastic tub. It took anything off, probably including a couple of layers of skin (hands were always really soft afterwards, though). Have to think it was the cause of at least some of the skin cancer on the old man's hands. Heh.

Pumice power FTW. My Dad was a shade tree mechanic (and was a mechanic in the Air Force before he retired) and he swore by Lava.
 

Preds Partisan

Gunga galunga
Aug 17, 2009
3,318
899
The white cream degreaser was probably DL Hand Cleaner. Different formulation now for sure. The old stuff had that toxic, weird smell and no way that would pass any safety standards today. It worked, but who knows what it really was.
 

Ozz

Registered User
Oct 25, 2009
9,459
673
Hockeytown
Lava soap here, applied & scrubbed with a nail brush. Worked like magic!

I used to run a PT powder coating operation in my garage, while working my FT job at home. I was in & out all day long most days, and had to obsessively clean my hands each time I came back. The grime that got on me from sandblasting, old parts grease & oil, powder dust, etc. just did NOT want to come off, even with pumice.
 

HansonBro

Registered User
May 3, 2006
4,906
3,468
Any of the soaps with a grit in them. Even the dry laundry soaps work. Takes off the cig stains too
 

Cardiac Jerks

Asinine & immoral
Jan 13, 2006
23,353
39,933
Long Sault, Ontario
I use dawn dish soap and have found that to work the best. Always keep a small bottle in the shower to wash my hands/forearms. I work in automation and sometimes get pretty dirty doing mechanical work.
 

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