Ashes to residual ashes: take care of your car in areas of falling ash
For those of you who have to deal with falling ash from fires, such as the folks in Southern California right now, the most important car care tip for you could be not to let ash interact with water on your car or remain on the car for a long time. If ash and water -- even nighttime dew -- get together on your car's paint, the water reacts with the calcium, potassium, phosphorus and magnesium in ash and might result in chemical etching. It essentially has the same effect as pouring Drano on your car. And you wouldn't do that. While it's impractical to wash your car every night before putting it to bed, at least wipe it down.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mobius_1 2:37PM (11/22/2008)
Reminds of that neglected M6 a few weeks back... Quick, somebody write "I wish my wife was this dirty" on every dusty car they see.
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Aldo 2:42PM (11/22/2008)
"It essentially has the same effect as pouring Drano on your car." You say that like you've tried pouring Drano on your car. Now that makes me wonder, if the sink gets clogged will putting ashes and water down there help?
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notYou 3:03PM (11/22/2008)
Logic 101.
The similarity of the interaction of Drano and Ash on your car's surface does not equate to a similarity of Drano and Ash's interaction with goshKnowsWhat in your drain.
Ex. While a hammer whack and dropped brick on the surface of your vehicle will leave a mightily similar resulting ding (or worse), that dropped brick does horrible at pounding nails (unless you're really, really lucky with the drop).
Make sense?
Aldo 11:18PM (11/22/2008)
Ah you got me, but wouldn't you drop the car on the brick and hammer, not the brick on the nail. =)
Aldo 11:19PM (11/22/2008)
Ah you got me, but wouldn't you drop the car on the brick and hammer, not the brick on the nail. =)
Rocketboy 10:22AM (11/23/2008)
So, I should or shouldn't drop a brick in my sink to unclock it?
I'm confused.
LoneWolf 4:47PM (11/22/2008)
So what is Drano?
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CJ 5:09PM (11/22/2008)
http://www.drano.com/
Tony 7:03PM (11/22/2008)
It is why God created car covers.
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tekd 6:06AM (11/23/2008)
Hmm, if ash can give crazy chemical etching I almost think you could use this to make some crazy finishes for your car.
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Shane 11:01AM (11/23/2008)
That'll buff right out!
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RockStoneSteel 8:51PM (11/24/2008)
I'm not buying that advice at all. Surely wiping off ash would be more like sandpaper than hosing it off. And wipe it off nightly? Yeah, right. While the chemical reaction with water may cause an issue if the concoction sat on the paint for a significant period of time, rinsing the vehicle with water would doubtfully cause an instantaneous problem.
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Nightcrawler 11:35AM (11/24/2008)
If you are "not to let ash interact with water on your car", how are you supposed to wash it? Vacuum it clean perhaps?
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