Does anyone have an idea on how to clean oil off a painted door?

[Needleroozer]

Why do I need to know? My son tried his hand at graffiti today- he spray-painted my bedroom door with olive oil cooking spray. Sigh. He is 6 weeks shy of 16 yrs old. I am doing my best not to make him horribly wrong and bad for doing this, and for not being responsible. And of course, I NEVER EVER did anything stoopid when I was 15. No, not ever.

 

I stayed cool, and held myself together (a bit tightly) while talking to him about it, and I think that scared him more than if I had yelled at him.

 

So far, Mister Clean Magic Erasers haven't even touched it. I am not sure what else to try. IF nothing works, he will be taking the door, which is bifold, with trim, and decorative indentations (not sure how to explain this), off the hinges and repainting it. On one hand, I don't want to save him the effort of this, but on the other hand, if it was washable somehow, I wouldn't have to deal with the mess of him painting, and not having a bedroom door for a while.

 

Go ahead and laugh at my ds's stoopidity, and then see if you have any clever ideas that might take the oil off.

[Laurie]

I wonder if Dawn on a damp cloth would be enough? It's supposed to be good at cutting through grease. If the door is painted and not stained, maybe this would work?

 

I've used Goof-Off spray to clean off spray- painted graffiti but that's strong enough to remove all the paint!

 

Good luck!

[KAR120C]

Soap should do it, but it might take several goings-over... And I think I'd go with a fairly "harsh" soap -- dish soap like Laurie recommended, or a cleaning type detergent (Pine Sol maybe?) Use gloves, warm water and lay out plenty of towels or something to catch drips so the floor doesn't get too wet.

 

New paint isn't going to stick if you don't remove the oil first, so you're going to have to wash it off either way!

[Needleroozer]

Thank you both for your replies. He tried Dawn, Mr. Clean, and elbow grease, and none of it worked. I think we will just use Kilz paint over it and then repaint it. I think I will go get a nice bright color and have him use that, instead of boring white. If he is going to paint it, it might as well be colorful. DH says I should just have ds paint the whole little foyer (where all our bedroom doors are) as punishment, since I was planning on doing it anyway in April.

 

If anyone has any other ideas to try, let me know.