Kilroy woz never 'en
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Or so you'd think for, says Noel Millier as goes on a graffiti clean-up campaign, ther are reasonably cheap and quick ways of removing the writing from the wall
WE'VE ALL seen it.
"I used to be indecisive but now I'm not so sure."
"Join the police force, beat yourself up."
"God hates you." Perhaps a busman experiencing the "dark night of the soul" through deregulation? Beneath, some omnipotent has replied: "No, I don't. Well, not much."
The apologists for graffiti say that it's the only way the alienated have of establishing their identity in an impersonal urban jungle, which may explain why it is written that all supporters of Chelsea and West Ham perpetually indulge in self-abuse and why some Steve assures some Karen of his undying ardour in such plain terms.
But try telling that to LT. To them the writing's not only on the nicotine-stained wall, it's all over the ceilings and seatbacks of their one-man operated double-deckers too.
Graffiti can't do much to boost passenger levels, so why have vehicles been allowed to get in such a state? Ale these scrawlings so expensive to remove?
Well, up in Cheshire, Mayvil Chemicals claim that relatively inexpensive products are available to clean up the buses, so I challenged the company to prove it.
The location: the Ensign Bus Company, Grays, in Essex.
The scene: a number of seven
year-old ex-LT Daimler Fleetl deckers waiting to be cleaned According to Ensign's sci squad the buses weren't in bad a state as they had co from "fairly respectable" neii bourhoods.
Graffiti was only covering 1 rear body panels, window s rounds and a few seats, thou those brown nicotine stai were everywhere.
Mayvil's man had cot armed with an aerosol pack Graffitisolv, designed to remc the ravages of felt-tip pe marker pens and aerosol pa without causing any damage the paint surfaces.
At about £4 a tin you coulc call it cheap, but the results , dramatic. Within a couple minutes, by simply spraying and wiping off, all traces of gr fiti were gone from the rear tenor facia panels on the upi deck of the bus. You would hE thought no one had even much as heard of Kilroy.
Graffitisolv is also available gel form — Graffitigel — and c be used in conjunction w Mayvil's Vyclene, which is a g( eral-purpose cleaner.
This seemed particularly go for removing nicotine and ma cleaning speedier and, wh used with Graffitisolv, chea as well.
Vyclene can also clean vii and other surfaces, and May lys it's safe to use and smells a t more pleasant than the stale cotine it's designed to eradiite.
Mayyit's man then introduced lubrite, which cleans the aluinium checker plating around ilkheads and luggage pens. The bus was beginning to rewer from its passengers' erary efforts.
The aerosol Graffitisolv is mewhat overpowering, ough, and, particularly when ied in large quantities, the hicle has to be adequately ntilated. But it keeps graffiti lder control and helps create a ?Ater travelling environment so 'eking bus travel a more attracde proposition.
A heavy duty floor cleaner, lown simply as HDFC, when luted with water made the sur ce shine like new. '
For buses with vinyl pasmger seats, a new product — /cote — is available. This is ;sentially a quick-drying spray cover up felt-tip graffiti on vi seats. A quick spray, and all aces of the uninvited scribe's ork are gone. But why concentrate a cleanup campaign on the inside of a bus only? The exterior's at least as important.
So I decided to investigate Mayvil solutions for removing the likes of oil and fuel stains often missed by automatic vehicle washers.
With the aid of a portable pressure spray unit (cost £100) and a hose, a solution of Sparkal made the bus do just that.
A special solution is also available for engine and chassis cleaning. Designed to remove oil and grease, Chassisclene is a' biodegradeable blend of active emulsifiers giving economic cleansing, with an effluent which can safely be poured dqwn drains.
A morning's work with a small selection of the mass of cleaners on the market, and I was convinced that there really is no excuse for the scruffy and rundown appearance of the interior of too many of London's buses.
I don't make a habit of cleaning buses, but it was still a relati vely painless and speedy exercise to remove these unwanted decorations on one bus.
True, more frequent cleaning would increase operational costs, but wouldn't it also make the bus a more civilised place to ride in and so attract more passengers?
Ensign's cleaners told me they use a multi-purpose product called Speeciclean which, with a good deal of elbow grease and know how, brings the buses up like new.
With Graffitisolv to stop the problem from getting out of hand, and regular cleaning, maybe these frustrated authors would feel that since their readership declined so rapidly their audience had moved on to higher things. Maybe they'd even give up seat-ripping as well.