by robroy on Fri Nov 06, 2009 3:58 am
Good evening!
As a teenager I'd work on a car from time to time with my father's guidance. And getting our hands deeply greasy and dirty was part of the deal. Then with the job complete, it was like a big ritual at the kitchen sink (we lived there alone) getting our hands clean!
I remember copious rivers of black, sudsy water rolling down the drain. And fat globs of black suds splatting in the sink like albatross droppings. Or like a rabid dog with a mouthful of chewing tobacco, dangling by its tail over a polar bear rug.
One kind of soap I remember liking was Boraxo. It's a rough, dry hand soap that comes in a parmesan cheese carton.
For some reason the original container it came in had usually been discarded and it lived in a brown glass cup. And there were often some dead flies in there on their backs, their legs bent grotesquely in the air.
Then later I started working on cars on my own, and a guy in the parts store recommended that I try the Nitrile gloves. After one try I was completely sold. That was six or seven years ago.
Ever since then, I haven't needed to wash deeply soiled hands even once, and I've done plenty of nasty work on cars. Not even once!
There's something remarkably satisfying about peeling off nitrile gloves that were coated with gear oil, or gasoline, or whatever. And under the gloves your hands are immaculate. They don't even smell bad! And yes I still have to test that, especially when I've handled gasoline.
Another major benefit offered by the gloves (and one that I enjoy every day), is being able to quickly oscillate between having nasty hands and clean hands, then back to nasty hands. It seems so common that I'll need to get grease on my hands, then seconds later I need immaculate hands, then back to something nasty. Like when I'm working on brakes, for example. Or when I'm trying to take photos of my work to post here!
Robroy
Robroy Gregg -
http://www.robroygregg.comWhite 1972 F250 Custom; 8,100lb GVW; Proformanceunlimited 390, 436HP, 463ft/lbs @ 4,000 RPM; T18; Dana 60 3.73