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iTrader: (7)

If you have a satin-finish black or dark-coloured aluminium part installed on your car, you've probably noticed that when you clean it it leaves an odd "rainbow" pattern. I found this to be particularly bad with the Skunk2 shift *****. Here's a DIY to get rid of the rainbow effect and get it back to original condition.

Take a Kleenex and soak it with WD-40. Note that it shouldn't be dripping wet, just damp. Wipe down the ****, taking care not to over-do it on the top since WD-40 can soften or dissolve the paint on the shift pattern (1/2/3/4/5/R). Once it's coated pretty well, let it sit for about five minutes. Repeat the procedure, but this time wipe it down with a clean Kleenex about 30 seconds after you apply the second coat of WD-40. Once complete, the **** should have a uniform dark gunmetal look with no rainbow effects. Once you're done, the **** shouldn't be wet since you wiped it down with a clean Kleenex. So, it won't get all over your hands while you're driving.

This usually lasts a long time if you don't clean it with soap or windex. But, since your hand is in contact a lot with this, you may have to do this every once in a while.

Here's the technical explation of how this works, if you are interested.
Have you ever seen a small gasoline spill in a puddle and noticed a rainbow effect on the surface? The reason this happens is that the gasoline forms an extremely thin layer on top of the water. If you see a rainbow pattern on the puddle, the thickness of the gasoline/oil layer is roughly 400-700 nanometers thick. Visible light has a wavelength of ~400-700 nanometers. When white light hits the puddle, it is refracted by what is effectively a prism that is as thick as the wavelength of a particular colour. Since the thickness of the gasoline/oil layer is the same as the wavelength of light, it reflects back various colours of the rainbow.

So how does this apply to an anodized shift ****? I'm not 100% sure of this, but here's what I think is going on. When you wash the **** with soap or any other cleaning agent, it leaves a very thin residue no matter how much you rinse it off. The soap in effects binds with the anodized surface of the ****. Using WD-40 effectively dissolves the soap away and leaves you with a uniform WD-40 layer that is much thicker than 700 nanometers. This prevents the rainbow effect from occuring.

I got my Skunk2 yesterday (used) and it had this problem. I did my WD-40 trick and it worked beautifully. You can do this to other satin-finished aluminum parts, but keep in mind that if you wash it with soap, it'll clean off the WD-40 layer and the problem will return. I haven't done any long-term testing yet to see how long it lasts on a shift ****. My feeling is that since it's in contact with your hands, it may get wiped away over time.


Let me know if you try this or run into any problems!


ELaudio