I am new to monokote and i was wondering how you clean monokote?

Any spray and wipe cleaner works OK. Fantastik, etc. I use ammonia and water. If you are flying glow engines, you can get quite a lot of oily goo on the surface of the monokote, so anything that cuts grease works well. Window cleaner, for example, is not strong enough

I've started using baby wipes. They do leave some streaks, but one wipe cleans an entire oily plane and leave it dry. (No slick residue.)
Dennis-

kinda funny , but my .40 size aircraft I hang from my basement ceiling with a hoop in the rope around the prop and nose cone. This allows me to spin plane in a 360 degree hover wile spraying and wiping with a mix of car and boat pressure washing fluid mixed with water. wipe dry for a show car I mean show plane finish!

You can use just about any over the counter spray cleaner or detergent. Mainly, you just need to remove oil and debris (dirt & bugs here in Nebraska.)

What I have found is that if you wax the monokote first, cleaning is much easier and the covering will look better longer. Just use any good auto wax that does NOT include silicone. The silicone stuff will make it real difficult to perform repairs as the covering will not stick to it. I use Meguiars Cleaner Wax - paste form.

As for the actual cleaning chemical, anything that will cut the oil is fine. Windex, 409, a few drops of dish detergent in water or alcohol, etc. Some leave a residue, others don't. I quite honestly don't use cleaning compounds much. I just wipe down.

The cleaning clothl can effect the covering. Paper towels tend to be fairly abrasive and scratch the covering. The softest I have found are Viva. I just use soft cotton polishing cloths found in the car care sections of most super stores. I prefer the flat cloths designed for high polish applications, not the terri cloth stuff. They are very absorbent, don't scratch the surface and are machine washable.

Cheers

I have used all the commercial cleaners on the market....Fantastic, Windex, etc. The one I have found to work the best is a home brew mix. I got this from someone in our club. Clean out a 2 liter bottle for the storage. Pour in 5 cups of water, 1 cup of household ammonia, 1/2 cup of alcohol, and 2 tablespoons of liquid dish soap. Dawn, Joy etc. (do not use auto dishwasher soap) Mix contents in 2 liter, fill a spray bottle, and have at it. Synthetic oils seem to be harder to clean off my planes and this seemed to be the best I have used............ lownslo............

I recently read this post and decided to use baby wipes myself, and stumbled upon what I think might be a really good solution to many peoples problems. Baby wipes work great, but they do leave some streaking! 1-2 wipes will clean the entire plane. Here is my idea, and please feel free to give it a try. I have 2 kids and go through these wipes like crazy. Well once I left a brand new package open and forgot about it, and found them a week or so later and they were hard as a brick! I tossed them. Now what if I took someone's "secret" mixture and poured it over dry baby wipes to re-wet them? Think this might work! Cool thing about these is that they are handy, and DONT SCRATCH MONOKOTE like paper towels do! Let me know your inputs! Just in case your wondering, we use generic wipes with no aloe, perfume, etcccc...... Like 1.50 for 80, or 4.00 for 260, something like that!!!

I've always used clorox bleach straight from the bottle. I wipe that down with some 00 steel wool followed by a liberal rinsing with my 1600 psi pressure washer. I've been thinking about just strapping the planes to the roof of the car and going to one of those car washes with the spinning cloth thingies that whip around real fast. That way I can get my car washed at the same time I get my planes done. (note to people who don't get it- I'm kidding)

OK ready for this one Lemon Pledge furniture Polish cuts thru the oily reidue fantastic and leaves a lusturious finish with a light wax protective finish and guess what a nice lemon fresh smelling plane, I cant take credit for this one, this is actually a tip right from Tower Hobbies monthly news letter last month, But I have to admit it works like a dream!!!!

Formula for post flight Monokote cleaner that works very well.

1. oz detergent
2. oz ammonia
5. oz alcohol
40. oz. water
The alky is just plain old denatured stuff available at almost any paint store. Jim Beam not recommended.
Detergent ehould be in your own laundry room.
Ammonia also available at paint or hardware store.
Water - use what you drink.

If you have CA slopped over on the covering use some debonder.
If you have epoxy slopped over use denatured alcohol before it dries.
If you over-use this stuff and ruin your covering ?? Moderation in all things !

Is there anything we should be aware of that is a common house hold item that could actally damange or eat the monokote?