10 things that can mess up your car’s paint
Everyday substances such as tar, dust and bird droppings will leave marks on your ride
Cars are tough, but that colourful coating on the outside isn’t as durable as you may think.
Car paint is actually quite brittle and sensitive to the elements. Everyday things your car encounters can seriously damage your paint’s finish if left untreated. Here’s a quick list of what kind of things can screw up your paint and why.
Bugs
The sign of a true spring and summer road trip is to see some bug-splatter on your car’s windshield and bumper. Some of the acids in bugs can seriously eat away at your car’s paint if left for too long. Acids found in the blood of insects can permanently damage your car and need special attention in terms of removal. Most experts agree that lathering up the bug guts as soon as possible will help lift it off the car without further damaging the paint, while any stains left behind will need to be dealt with in a different manner.
Tree sap
Tree sap can bake onto a car’s paint and can leave a noticeable stain that takes serious effort to remove. Sap can also react with the surface of your car and leave a rough patch on the paint. You can’t remove baked-in sap using just a wash. It requires special treatment like a polishing or rubbing compound or use of a clay bar.
Eggs
Kids egging houses and cars on Halloween is just a harmless prank, right? Not when it hits your car! Eggs can damage your vehicle’s paint in two significant ways. First, the whites and yolk of an egg are acidic and can eat away your paint’s clear coat. It can also leave a nasty stain if it’s baked in, and can go so far to damage your base coat, too.
Beyond that, the eggshells can also scratch your paint pretty significantly. Wiping it off with a cloth can make it worse, so you’ll need to get a solution that lifts the debris so you can wipe it off easier.
Ice
Snow is fluffy and fun, but when it turns into hard ice, it can be problematic for your shiny paint. Consider a car encased in ice after a rough winter storm. Sometimes, you have to chisel your car free like an arctic archeologist. Doing this carelessly can certainly damage your car, as can the hard ice sliding off your car with no lubrication.
Fortunately, by the time most people have to free their car, there is a thin layer of water between the ice and paint, which can help the ice slide off with less risk. A coarse snow brush can also scratch your paint.
Tar
On a hot day, other cars can fling up tar from the asphalt onto your car. Tough to get off, stubborn tar can take some of your car’s paint with it when removed improperly. Special treatments require a product to be placed on the tar to separate it from the paint, meaning you can remove the tar without further damage. Bird droppings Bird droppings left on your car can leave a gross mark in your paint. An interesting study by Autoglym showed that it’s not the actual bird droppings on their own that can damage the paint, but the effects of the hot sun, which expands the paint and metal while drying and hardening the bird’s business. When it cools, it leaves a hard-to-remove stain on the car’s paint. Experts recommend that you remove droppings with a damp cloth as soon as you can to prevent permanent damage.
Gasoline
Sometimes, a few drops of gas spill out of the pump and on to your car. If left behind, the gas can evaporate and leave a stain on the paint or damage the clear coat. If you had your car thoroughly waxed, it may eat through the wax first. Cleaning gas residue isn’t too difficult, and if your car was waxed, it should be well protected.
Food
Sometimes we leave our coffee or soft-drink on the hood of our car while getting in. Take care not to spill it, because there’s some nasty, painteating stuff in both coffee and most pop. Coffee and cola are both acidic and both will damage and corrode your paint if left untreated.
Dust
Dust is very fine dirt, and if one of your cheeky friends writes in it, they can seriously screw up and scratch your paint. Dust and pollen can leave scratches if you wipe it dry. A gentle car wash will help clear this dirt without damaging the paint, but if you do wipe it and leave a scratch, you may need some help from a detailer to get things right again.
Silly string, shaving cream
Pranksters and frat kids love to mess with each other’s rides, especially the nice ones, but foamy attacks from silly string and shaving cream can cause discoloration if left untreated for a long time.
To remove it, make sure to rinse it thoroughly so the foam can come off (if it’s been caked on) and use a general car cleaner to ensure there’s no residue. With silly string, the dye can cause stains that require extra attention.