What do you use to initially clean up plastics

[terry.sc]

A standard cycle in the dishwasher does it for me, just about everything goes in there, The important part is making sure you remove everything so the missus doesn't find any car parts in there

[justinspeed79]

Has anyone tried Oxy Clean yet? (the stuff your woman may use in the laundry, comes in a powder)
I'm going to try it very soon to see if it brightens up the parts any. My normal go-to cleaning method is to soak parts for a few days in a bucket of water and simple green, then use a brush and cloth to get the grime off.

I have tried oxy clean. As a normal cleaner used with a brush it worked ok, not great. I also tried boiling parts in an oxy-water solution, because I have done that with white clothes and it works miracles, however it really didn't work at all on the parts, and it left a thick chalky residue on the parts that I then had scrub off with a stiff brush. So, I definitely would not recommend it.

My preferred method is to use automotive wax and grease remover for heavy greasey gunk, and concentrated Dawn dish soap for everything else. I plan on getting an ultrasonic cleaner eventually.

[jwscab]

Another vote for simple green. Plastics and steel only. I use it full strength, and let the parts soak for at least a night if I have time. then follow up with toothbrush/pipe cleaner/stiff brush for cleaning the nooks and crannies.

For aluminum, dish soap and water, then followed by wd40, mineral spirits, or acetone to remove paint or sticker/glue residue.

[8rad]

Yeah dont use Simple Green on alloy. Learned that the hard way.