Good grief.
I've been soaking the T-Bird all morning and washing it trying to remove the bug residue from the front of the car. The only time I got hammered by bugs were in my final miles back from San Diego dropping down through Texas. What do you guys feed them things? Biggest splats and they dried instantly and no amount of windshield cleaner would get them off.
Deral
Sounds like somebody had the pedal to the metal. 😉
I've been told the computer starts cutting back at 140mph.
Someone told you wrong. 🙂 About the cutting back part on the computer.
It was in the early morning hours so I was under the speed limit across Texas. Worried about deers and such running across the road. I really get a bit nervous driving from 1:00 am to about 3:00 am with all the ones that might be leaving a bar or such.
Thankfully, not many cars and the road was mostly widely divided highway which gave me a bit of security for those that might be impaired.
Just those damn bugs. And lots of them.
Deral
Be thankful you didnt drive through during love bug season.
Love Bugs?
Does Texas have Love Bugs? Florida sure does and they make a mess out of your front bumper, grill, windshield and anything else they hit. If you don't get them off pretty quickly, their chemical make-up will actually pit the paint on the car.
They get their name from their penchant to "fly united".
WB
The BEST way to remove love bugs is taking a new dryer sheet and getting it a little wet. When I heard this suggestion I thought it was bunk but... it works - no elbow grease.
http://www.ehow.com/how_5015646_remove-bug-stains-cleaner-car.html
Use acetone on the windshield very carefully, wiping off with cheesecloth, then use Rain-X or some other silicone treatment on the glass. This will keep them from sticking again. Rain-X makes a bug cleaner windshield washer fluid that is very effective getting them off.
All auto parts places around here sell several different brands of bug and tar remover, follow the directions very carefully as it will strip the clear coat if left on too long.
When I wax the truck, I do the grill first and the front of the hood, then about half the truck, then the grill and hood again, then finish the rest of the truck, then do the grill and hood a third time.
Love bugs are bad, but cicadas and grasshoppers are the worst, as they get significant splatter.
Those aren't bugs but little Aliens in West Texas.
Everything is BIG in Tx but the Aliens.Their strategy to be overlooked since Txans only look at big things.
They have been known to invade surveyors brains in W. Tx brains by entering small orifices on the body.
R
Deral,
There is a product called RejeX used by airplane and automobile owners to keep bugs from sticking. You wipe it on, let it dry, and wipe off the haze. We use it on the leading edges of the wings and cowling. Google "RejeX" for more information.
It won't help you now, but believe me, it works! A damp cloth wiped across the buggy area and about 90% of them come off "right now". The difficult cases take a minute with a wet cloth.
Don't try to stick anything to the part of the car you use it on though. A friend tried to stick an information sheet to his airplane with masking tape. It lasted about a minute then fell right off.
Tyler
You may travel many miles and not get a bug and then there will be a wall of them in your way that will cover the windshield.
I wash my vehicles with "bug gunk" windshield fluid in between the simonize treatments and it does decent job of removing the bugs quickly.
Texas Sucks..
BOOMER SOONER!!
Those aren't squitos...those are mini hummingbirds!! 😛
Ok so they are the SIZE of hummingbirds. Biggest squitos I've EVER seen in my life are in Texas and their appetite for human flesh is also the same. Ugh!! They ate me alive.
:angel: Angel
There is an old story about skeeters in the salt grass of Brazoria County, TX.
It seems that two of them caught a steer and one said to the other "should we eat it here or take it home?". The second skeeter said "We better eat it here, if we take it home the big ones will take it away from us.".
On a more real note, mosquitoes have been know to kill horses and cattle in the salt grass of Brazoria County. They were so thick that they suffocated them.
SJ
Not so much the window but all over the front of the car. I use a product called Aquapel on the windows that I buy from Ray Sands Glass. It does well on the windshield and you can often drive in pouring rain without need of the wipers.
It's the ones in the grill and on the front of the car that dry instantly in the heat and are hard to remove.
Soak, and soak some more. I'm not a fan of the chemical removers as these can damage the finish. So it's just warm soapy water and elbow grease gently applied.
At least this season we have not had a big crop of grasshoppers. Those things will spray guts all over the place when they impact the car.
Deral
I used to have a bug bra for my Mustang for the times I would drive from Riverside, CA to Las Vegas. In the Spring, there were these big, yellow moth-like butterflies that would fly in huge groups, often across the interstate. It was so bad at times that I literally had to stop to get out and clean the windshield. Turning on the wipers just smeared the mustard across the windshield and made it worse.
Yeah, the bug bra didn't cover everything, but it covered the hardest part of the car to clean afterward.
Wendell
I'm not sure they make a bra for the Bird. I had one for all of my Porches and some of the other cars i've owned for road trips.. I'll have to google that and see if they make one. I'm fixing to trip out to New York and other parts so that would be a welcome accessory and save a lot of labor and possible some paint.
Deral
Definitely. I'll tell you what though... it was very tempting to simply discard the bra and buy a new one after those trips to Vegas. Cleaning it was a disgusting task. +o(
John Wayne Bobbit joke.
When Lorena cut off his member she jumped in her car and drove off, member in hand.
After a short distance she threw it out the window of her car directly into the path of an oncoming car driven by an elderly couple.
It hit the winshield of their car and scared both of them.
The elderly lady looked over at her husband and said,
"Did you see the size of the d!*k on that bug?".
John Wayne Bobbit joke.
It's been ages since I've heard a good John Wayne Bobbit joke. Thanks for that one, Dan.
John Wayne Bobbit joke.
I've never been too awful concerned about the finish on my trucks, so maybe the following isn't good advice for those who do, but I've found that plastic dishwashing scrubbers -- the non-abrasive ones -- make quick work of stuck-on bug remnants when teamed up with ordinary soap and water.
Of course, I've never had to deal with Texas bugs...
