Highway De-icers

[Zcar]

Last week I detailed my car with a clay bar, paint cleaner, paint polish and finished off with NXT Gen 2 wax. Finish is unbelievably soft and smooth now. Yesterday I put about 140 miles on the car driving on mostly 2 lane highways that I could tell had been sprayed with the deicing chemical they use here in Eastern Washington. My son put some stuff in the back of my 350Z and was laughing at how hard it was to close the hatch because his fingers kept slipping off the hatch when he tried to close it. Then he noticed that he had a black powder on his fingers that looked like brake dust. After I thought about it a bit I figured it must be dried deicing stuff that had been sprayed on the roads. I just now ran a soft cloth over the car and the cloth turned black from all the dust that was along the bottom half of the car and the back bumper. It seems to have come off rather easily and does not feel gritty. Any ideas if this stuff is harmful to the finish? It's way too cold for a wash job right now so I'm going to try UQD to remove the remnants that the rag didn't get.

[RamAirV1]

Re: Highway De-icers

Last week I detailed my car with a clay bar, paint cleaner, paint polish and finished off with NXT Gen 2 wax. Finish is unbelievably soft and smooth now. Yesterday I put about 140 miles on the car driving on mostly 2 lane highways that I could tell had been sprayed with the deicing chemical they use here in Eastern Washington. My son put some stuff in the back of my 350Z and was laughing at how hard it was to close the hatch because his fingers kept slipping off the hatch when he tried to close it. Then he noticed that he had a black powder on his fingers that looked like brake dust. After I thought about it a bit I figured it must be dried deicing stuff that had been sprayed on the roads. I just now ran a soft cloth over the car and the cloth turned black from all the dust that was along the bottom half of the car and the back bumper. It seems to have come off rather easily and does not feel gritty. Any ideas if this stuff is harmful to the finish? It's way too cold for a wash job right now so I'm going to try UQD to remove the remnants that the rag didn't get.

I would not run a dry cloth of any kind over paint that has road salt residue on it. You are living dangerously!

Also QDs work very poorly on removing road salt/de-icer residue. All that will do is make a big smeary mess! You are much better off to wait until you can do a regular hose-and-buckets car wash. The salt residue must be rinsed away with a flow of water.

I am a big believer in using a QD daily to remove light dust. But once the snow flies and the salt hits the roads, the QD is not used very much, only righ after a car wash to get water spots off and add some hydrophobic properties.

RamAirV1

[agp56]

Re: Highway De-icers

I am in agreement with RamAir. Most areas use a mixture of salts & sand to treat the roads - so you will want to get it thoroughly washed off as soon as is practical for your lifestyle.

[CarbonBlack]

Re: Highway De-icers

This goes along with a question that I have wanted to ask. I hope you don't mind me asking it along with your original question

"how harmful is road salt"
"how does it harm paint (scratches, swirls, "
"how can you protect from road salt"

thanks,
nick

[Zcar]

Re: Highway De-icers

The stuff that I found on my car is about the same as normal dust. I got a bunch on my fingers from along the bottom edge of the body and rubbing it between my fingers I couldn't feel any grit so it's pretty fine/soft stuff. But, I'll agree that using a rag is not a really good idea but I just sort of dusted the cloth over the finish and didn't apply any real pressure. I don't know what the chemical is and wonder what it is doing to wires, rubber, metal and paint under the car and up on the sides.

[Ryan L.]

Re: Highway De-icers

I keep noticing you saying that it was on the bottom half of the car...any chance that you applied a tire dressing when you did the rest of the stuff to the car? If so, it could be that, from the descriptions you are giving, it sounds like tire dressing that catches dust and sprays it back out. I have that happen all the time to me...

Just a regular spray detailer and microfiber will work.

Ryan

[Zcar]

Re: Highway De-icers

I keep noticing you saying that it was on the bottom half of the car...any chance that you applied a tire dressing when you did the rest of the stuff to the car? If so, it could be that, from the descriptions you are giving, it sounds like tire dressing that catches dust and sprays it back out. I have that happen all the time to me...

Just a regular spray detailer and microfiber will work.

Ryan

No tire dressing. It's easy to see where the stuff has been sprayed on the road though because it turns the paving a much darker black than normal.

[Deaner5]

Re: Highway De-icers

That's interesting that it is black stuff that it spits out. The 35E bridger over the river has a thing that sprays out a de-icer chemical but it's a white almost blue mixture and I took am curious what exactly they spray.

Either way, if salt and such is metling ice at temperatures below freezing, I think it's pretty safe to say that it doesn't do our cars any favors. I find it interesting when I go to somewhere where they do not get snow and all of the cars look fine while you often see rust buckets in certain parts of the nortern climates with snow. Just a part of life I guess.

[andyp]

Re: Highway De-icers

It sounds like in the states they use a milder less aggressive approach to salting the roads.

Over here they spread salt/grit, its basically 1/4 of an inch diameter rocks made of salt and sand/grit. The cars drive over it and crush it into the ground. It's nasty stuff, if you see a gritter lorry comming towards your the best course of action is to dive as close to the kerb as possible, slow to a crawl and pray that it doesn't chip your paint too much. If you are behind a grit spreader on the motorway (freeway), kiss your bonnet and bumper (hood and fender) goodbye.

So count yourself lucky!

[RamAirV1]

Re: Highway De-icers

It sounds like in the states they use a milder less aggressive approach to salting the roads.

Over here they spread salt/grit, its basically 1/4 of an inch diameter rocks made of salt and sand/grit. The cars drive over it and crush it into the ground. It's nasty stuff, if you see a gritter lorry comming towards your the best course of action is to dive as close to the kerb as possible, slow to a crawl and pray that it doesn't chip your paint too much. If you are behind a grit spreader on the motorway (freeway), kiss your bonnet and bumper (hood and fender) goodbye.

So count yourself lucky!

I agree.

I'll take the salt/calcium/magnesium mixtures over sand and grit any day. The salt will wash away but the stone chips will not!

Fortunately, rustproofing on modern cars is much better than it used to be.

RamAirV1