[Arno]

Gasoline belongs in a fuel tank, and that's it.

Try plain old diesel. It's a very good degreaser to take off stubborn oil and tar based coatings and is not as volatile.

Smells bad though

Bye, Arno.

[Harry72]

If its a waxy/tar coating use mineral turps and automotive degreaser mixed together, then clean off with soapy water... do your welding then automotive prepwash and primer ASAP

It sounds like the gear they use on cast iron machinery tables for shipping

[jimrb]

Is this stuff a Cosmoline type product? https://www.originalcosmoline.com/ They say regular solvents will clean Cosmoline. Google searches say that when that stuff starts to dry out it is a pain to clean. I see that stuff on brake rotors and clutch parts like flywheels and pressure plates. Lacquer thinner has worked for me.

Biodiesel is a pretty good solvent. I was at the international woodworking show and one booth was selling cleaners based on soy. I don't know that it was this company but you can see some of the cleaning agents that can be made from cracking soy. http://soysolv.com/ Not that it may help the fellow on the island.

[Boomer63]

Xylene (xylol) will do it. Use 'flour sack' rags; they don't leave little dust bunnies.
Gary

[Jimbo]

Hi, I have just purchased some square tubing mild steel which was covered in black grease. Having read all of the comments I did want it clean before painting it with hammerite.

I used Flash sparkling home Spray Wipe Done
Because it states on spray bottle “cuts grease”.
After spraying then wiping with a microfibre cloth then repeating the process all of the black grease was removed. I left it to dry and painted it directly without undercoat and it is perfect. Easy to do and quick
I hope this helps.

[BillE.Dee]

have you tried a pressure washer with the hottest water it will make. NOT STEAM. I used my pressure washer with HOT water to clean farm tractor engines.