I have a couple of I.B. Tech prints can these safely be cleaned? I have one that when I cleaned it the cloth had red on it. Only from the last 400ft or so.

Better late than neverr to respond here but i gave my Bullitt 16mm IB tech print a light clean with filmguard and its fine.took off a fair bit of dirt and the image looks great.
The cleaning of 16mm prints is a question that ive asked in the past.
A lot of people say never clean them.
Years ago Dereck Simmons told me that 16mm prints go through a special programme of polishing and are coated to add protection and film cleaners can and do remove this polish.
Perhaps someone could elaborate on this?

Tom,

That is interesting about 16mm films having a "polish" of some type on them that could be removed by cleaning.
It makes sense, but maybe today's less toxic/less powerful cleaners wouldn't have the effect of removing the polish.
Just speculation on my part though....

I typically use FilmRenew to clean my 16mm prints. I have used FilmGuard as well.
I guess with a dirty print we don't really have a choice but to clean it to improve the viewing and get grime off that could
accumulate in the projector and cause scratching etc.

Your print of Bullit Tom is 50 years old or there abouts, I'm pretty sure your not the first person to give it a clean and it's playing and looking fine, I'm not even going to pretend to know the processes involved in producing a 16mm print but I have cleaned many of them and never did any harm to any and only removed dirt etc from them. I know years ago they used to put some sort of wax on 35mm prints as my Dad owned a cinema but that's all I know about a coating, Mark

Wax was put on the perforations of 35mm film when green prints were received straight from a lab.
This was to assist steady projection.
If your 16mm print seems dirty, then clean it. Check by rewinding a bit of it and holding it within your fingers, you will soon see if any dirt comes off.

Some of you chaps may recall an article that Dereck did regarding optical super 8 prints. I'm sure i put it up on here and on that article it mentions how the super 8 optical prints did not get the final polishing process that 16mm films got as they wernt considered to be as important being that they were only destined to be shown on airlines. This resulted in many super 8 optical prints having the hiss most of them had and also some pops on the soundtrack.
I must also add that all my new purchases on 16mm as well as 8 always get a filmguard clean. And as Mark says, my copy of Bullitt does look excellent. Lovely clean clear print.

Now its mentioned I recall an old ad for a treatment called Vacumate I think. Supposed to remove whatever was in the stock and replace it inert chemicals.

I clean any films that have been in storage or heavy use every time I first recieve them. I personally use Filmrenew but when I get prints heavily dirty I use Naptha which is hard to find and harsh but lubricating the print afterwards causes no damage. When you are talking about IB Tech, keep in mind it was made on B&W stock initially then the colors printed over it. I have used harsh cleaners on it before and the results look good without stripping the color. It depends on how dirty the print is. IB Tech prints without vinigar syndrome are pretty tough with the layers of color on them so if they aren't molded or shrunken should clean up pretty easy.

This post has had 454 views!!!! Why cant just 5 or so percent of those taking the trouble to look just make a small contribution?

Anyway, having now spoken off forum to a long term collector,(as well as the excellent replies on here) i am now more than happy that cleaning tech prints is fine. A small amount of dye coming off is of no concern and at the end of the day, as i was reminded these prints are probably 40 years old or more now.

Tom, as you know, I'm fairly new to 16mm so no expert, however I have cleaned IB Tech prints with both Filmguard and Also Phil's cleaner with no side effects, I always think a cleaner print is a better/safer print.

I have cleaned many a super 8mm print and Derann later prints and some can can leave a dye on the cleaning cloth using filmguard, it does scare me a bit.

Just to add, I cleaned an 800' extract of Apache Uprising with Filmguard last night before viewing, it cleaned the print very nicely, no problems whatsoever, lovely Technicolour scope print too.