Here comes trouble for your car paint

Natural hazards, household items, and dangerous car items to avoid

If you’re a typical car owner, you possibly want the body of your car nicely waxed, without scratches or dents. In reality, your wish might never become reality with all the dirt roads we drive on, bird poo under the tree shade, pools of flood water, and the raw tar that clings like a leech. So we thought we might do two things to help; first is to let you know where danger lurks by listing some of the things that cause car body paint trouble, and two, suggesting ways to deal with the trouble.

First, we list some common sources of car body paint trouble. We group these into three: Natural hazards, household items, and car items.

Natural hazards include mud and dust, bird droppings, raw tar, and ash. Household items include coffee, soda, shoe polish, salt, and shaving cream, and sharp items (keys, nails, razors, scissors etc. used by kids to deface the car paint). Car items include brake fluid and fuel.

Most of these items cause trouble for your car paint because they are corrosive, are used badly or cleaned off badly. Most of the natural hazards, such as bird poo, are acidic and corrode the paint if left on to dry. The ash is acidic; especially if it mixes with a liquid when your neighbor burns mowed grass and bits of ash cover your car and are soaked in dew overnight. By morning, the chemicals might have penetrated passed the body wax and onto the car paint. Some will not go away however much you rub. Others will hide under the skin of the paint and cause corrosive trouble later. So get rid of any ash real fast. The salt causes rust, and the raw tar you pick up from driving on roads under constructions is clingy. The mud and dust must be hosed off and not merely wiped off with a cloth that leaves scratches.

The household items either are acidic, such as coffee, or sticky such as the sugar in the soda. So get rid of the ASAP.

The car items; brake fluid and petrol contain chemicals which react with chemicals in the car body paint to cause trouble. In case of brake fluid, it is caustic, and acts as paint thinner – eating away the outer layer of your car paint and causing it to peel. There is some good news on this, however. Apparently many new brake fluids are silicone-based and not dangerous. But hey! Think safety first when in doubt. Clean any brake fluid on car paint fast.

The petrol trouble happens at the pump usually. Either you want to fill the tank to overflow or the attendant is splashy sloppy, or forgets to replace the fuel tank cover. In any of these cases, fuel could spill onto the body. The fuel will evaporate, but it can leave marks behind and damage the clear coat.

You might be surprised to find out that shoe polish can stain a car and may be difficult, if not impossible to remove. It’s important not to let it sit or dry on the paint. To clean the polish off your car, might require a special detergent. Shaving cream too causes discoloration of car paint if it’s left there. Wash the vehicle thoroughly with soap as soon as possible.

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