I'm not comfortable wearing gloves and so every time I work on the engine, I get nasty fingers. The orange stuff just doesn't work well enough. Anybody have a better product?

Really Works is pretty good

I can't remember the name (Invisable Glove?), but I used to use something that came in a white tube that you rubbed onto your hands before working, and then dirt and grease washed off with soap and water when done. It was a bit weird feeling and you had to apply it before starting on the project, but it worked pretty well.

get some cheap hand cream and lather up BEFORE you get greasy.
It fills in all the pores and cracks with clean grease.
makes clean up faster.

rich

By "the orange stuff," do you mean Goop? It's worked well for us.

Gojo works well. But not as well as latex or nitrile gloves.

LA's Totally Awesome!!

I used Invisible Glove for years.
Put it on before you start. Great product.
I now use Boraxo powder. I even have an antique dispenser that my brother found.
It's easy on the hands and very effective. Buy two boxes at a time online, lasts for years.
Gloves are a must for some jobs.
Most important ? Get a good fingernail brush.

Try different gloves. There are more choices than just the loose plastic ones or the thick mechanics gloves.

I go thru these like candy HF nitrile blue gloves. Summer time they get filled with sweat and it's still better than greasy and dry skin. Plus who knows what kind of crap gets absorbed by skin x20 years.

They work better if they are snug and not loose.

And they match my car

Boraxo. . takes off what other cleaners leave but it's rough as hell. .

Shout laundry spot remover and a small nail brush.

Awesome from the dollar store or Dawn dish soap.

It's worth getting used to gloves. You can work on the car, remove the gloves, look up something on world and then go back to the car. I found some nitrile gloves at hd for $1/pr that have a knit back that make them easy to take on and off but cheap enough to throw away after a while. I also use the plastic gloves when I know it's going to be messy. Leather gloves when I'm using power tools.

My dad used to tell me to always keep track of your fingers. He's a doctor and saw many tradespeople with less than 10.

Gojo Original Formula - Hand Cleaner

I got some Gojo Original Formula - Hand Cleaner today at O’Reillys and this is not the stuff with the Pumice, and it completed dissolved the dirt and oil and left my hands very soft without the oily feel and not the dried out san paper feel of pumice stuff.
Bob

I like to clean my dirty, filthy, greasy, disgusting hands on a nice firm set of extra large BOOBS!!!!

This may not answer your question but i thought it worth mentioning.
My father worked on cars and other mechanical devices for most of his life, he had some medical issues and when they looked at his liver he was told about damage done most probable cause is thought to be exposure to chemicals (solvents and oils) over the years.

My take away was to get used to wearing gloves.

I like the orange stuff with the pumice in it followed up by Dawn dish washing soap and a brush. That's what I used for the 10 years that I owned my garage. Washing the dishes also helped get them really clean.

I would only use gloves when I used the parts cleaner or packing wheel bearings with grease. The parts cleaning solution was tough on the skin and I could never stand grease on my hands. I find it difficult to start a nut or bolt with gloves on.

A friend in the Porsche Club once told me that he wished he could work on his own car the way that I do. I asked why not? His response was I'm a Dentist.

Charlie

There is a product called "Scrubs in a bucket" that is simply the best in my opinion. They're somewhat elusive, as I never seen them for sale in a retail store but you may find them at a HVAC supply house or online.
These wipes work amazingly well. Every time I let someone try these, they always fall in love with them.
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Agreed 100%.

I read through this thread earlier, but hadn't an opportunity to reply. Your skin is an organ, it's there to protect you and keep all the important stuff inside, and the bad stuff out.

When I researched the cause of my extremely rare lymphoma, the primary culprit is exposure to chemicals. This would make sense, as I worked in the printing field for a number of years. Inks, solvents, washes, etc. were commonly encountered on a daily basis. Throw in auto work, oil changes, and any number of other evils, and there you have it.

Needless to say, I'm never without a case of nitrile gloves. I don't want to quit wrenching, but I do want to limit my exposure to nasty stuff that might retrigger any relapse. Bottom line, learn to live with the gloves, ventilate your work area, and do your best to eliminate or at least, cut down on your exposure to compounds.

If you need to clean after, Boraxo does work well, as Rory suggested.

Just my .02

Joe

I agree with you Joe about solvents.
Your comments about our skin being an organ is correct, in fact it is our
largest organ. Can't wait for the colorful comments.

My Father in law is a retired tool and die maker. Working with solvents he developed an allergy to petroleum products. He found Mean Green hand scrub is perfect. I get it by the 5 gal pail. I take it everywhere. It has no petroleum products in it. It has lanolin. There are fine plastic beads that do the scrubbing. Lava is sharp and wears at the skin. I cannot recommend a better soap!

Mean Green hand soap

Gojo (woman in a can) seems to work best but as others have said, gloves are your best bet.

Dawn and a vegetable scrubber.

AndyB

Olive oil will lift grease and motor oil right off your hands. Just rubs off, no real scrubbing needed. Then just use any hand soap to clean the olive oil off. Any cooking oil will work, canola, vegetable, whatever floats your boat.

I use Loyal hand cleaner.

I have been in the Plastic Casting Business for 42 years. Our hands have been in polyester resin for a large part of that. We always use gloves.

Before I went into the plastic business, I wanted to be a printer. That was back in 1972. My father sent me to his friend that was a printer and he told me that I did not want to go in the business because at that time you had to clean up the presses with solvent and he showed me his hands. He straitened out his hand and they started to bleed. Than was all it took. I changed my option on what I wanted to do. I am 64 now and just mixed up some resin in the vent cabinet with gloves on. Back is bad but I am here still.

Bob
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Regular dish soap and a tsp of Sugar for grit.

Don't substitute Salt, unless you want to find where your cuts are?

But I also use nitrile gloves that I bought at Costco. They are cheap enough that you can feel comfortable using them for small, quick jobs and throwing them out.

toothpaste and a toothbrush works as well....

Plain old Wesson Oil will dissolve the grease, then wipe off with a paper towel or vegetable scrub brush for the fingernails. Follow this with Dawn dish washing soap and hot water and you're done...

-Harry

They are awesome! I'd never used them until last summer when I picked up a motor from a guy on Craigslist who had a bucket. They literally lift hard grime right off your hands.

Like other people. I try to wear disposable gloves, but there are just some times when it's impractical, they keep ripping, etc.

you just got that car 95% done where s all the dirt coming from ....mines still clean as a pin top and bottom...oil leak?

Clean with LA Totally Awesome, a bit more scrubbing, but your hands are nice and clean. Yellow stuff, I mix it 4 to 5:1, non flammable, very low on the WHMIS hazard scale even by California standards. Slight skin irritant but just wash it off, I do notice it's a slight irritant if you breath it in so I avoid doing that, I believe this is caused by the citrus. Doesn't attack gloves, I use full strength in a spray bottle for heavy stuff.
You wash it off with water, but parts don't seen to flash rust. Slightly caustic so don't leave aluminum parts in it for days on end. If you don't wash it off right away, or do a poor job washing it off, it seems to leave a white powdery residue but it wipes off and doesn't seem to hurt anything.

I'm running it in my parts washer, dirt cheap so I change it often. I dump the old stuff into a small barrel with a lid and use it to pre-wash before parts go into the parts washer. I buy it by the case.

I use Canadian Tire brand hand cleaner, like gojo but way better.

Plus wash the dishes by hand, the wife will love you and it does a good job on your hands.

I buy the powder free gloves by the case and split them with my brother. I don't even wax my car or wipe it down without gloving up. It saves your hands from looking like you wrench 24/7. I usually wear a suit to work and if my hands were dirty, that would not be a good thing (for me).

I had never considered the chemical exposure, but that is one hell of a good reason to gloves up too. Life ages you quickly enough with out helping that along with unnecessary chemical exposure.

I snap on more latex than a doctor because I'm always ripping them open on something.

I'm a dentist too and I always use nitrile gloves (the same as in my practice); Hundreds of them! They cost about 11$ for a hundred.They don't last long but you can do very fine work with them. I wear them 10 hours a day when I'm working. You don't feel them if you can find a brand that really fits your hand.

You don't realize how many chemicals get absorbed through your skin. They're not only bad for your hands with the skin damage they cause, but (as other posts said), they can also cause damage elsewhere in the body.
Gloves are far and away the best solution. They take time to learn to put on, take off and use during work, but worth the investment.
When you take off a pair of gloves that you wore when working say, with a set of tires, you have to wonder about all that grime not being on your hands. All the soap and scrub you use will not take it off completely!