do salt spreaders damage paint?

[ReaperHWK]

I am just wondering.



When a salt spreader dump truck drives by, I try and give it as much room as possible so that the salt doesn't hit my truck.



Today I was driving on a 2 lane road and a huge truck drive right by me throwing salt, sounded like a machine gun shooting at my car!



Haven't had time to really look since my truck is really dirty.



Has anyone ever had any damage from a salt spraeder? My bro says he thinks that the salt jsut breaks up when it hits the paint, and it really doens't damage it. He used to have a beater and followed the salt trucks around, he says he never found a dent from it.



ANyone?

 

[Street5927]

What you have to keep in mind is that anything can damage paint...heck dust can cause scratching as it blows across your finish as you drive down the road. Rock chips, etc CAN happen from salt. One other thing that you need to consider is that in some areas, such as where I live, they not only apply salt, but they mix it with ash and other anti-skid material, which could definitely cause damage to your paint.

 

[ReaperHWK]

What you have to keep in mind is that anything can damage paint...heck dust can cause scratching as it blows across your finish as you drive down the road. Rock chips, etc CAN happen from salt. One other thing that you need to consider is that in some areas, such as where I live, they not only apply salt, but they mix it with ash and other anti-skid material, which could definitely cause damage to your paint.

Yes true. I was just wondering if anyone DID get damage from one, i.e you had to file a claim because your car got F'd up majorly(like hail damage).

 

[Lonnie]

Based on your brother's answer, I don't think it matters to his "beater". Rock salt is still hard and in some cases sharp, so yes, think it could chip your paint. Sometimes you get a clump that falls out from a salting truck, like those that form on the spreader, and that can dent your sheet metal bodies. Personally, I would not follow behind a salt truck.



The REAL problem with salt is the corrosion it causes to exposed metal surfaces. The sodium ions form a weak acid with the water (melted snow) that attack steel (iron) and aluminum metals. Drive ANY vehicle for the 5 months of winter when salt is used as we do here in the upper Midwest and eventually it WILL rust (except Corvettes, Fieros, DeLoreans, and some early Saturns), especially where metal seams are (Like wheel-well lips) where salt-n-snow collects and dwells for a long period of time. Once this corrosion gets under/into those areas, the vehicles begin the process of looking like "rust buckets". You can try to clean/wash these areas as diligently as possible in the winter, but as stated, eventually the elements and chemistry take over. One of the WORST misnomers that people have here in the upper Midwest are cars that are driven in the winter are in better shape if kept in a heated garage. The warmer temperatures of such a garage actually contribute to and accelerate this rusting process. IF the owner were to wash out their lower parts of the vehicle after being driven in the salt-n-snow, it would mitigate the effects, but who does so. Like I said, ANY car driven in the upper Midwest year-round for more than seven years will begin to have rust somehere. That's a real problem to detailers for vehicle owners who THINK that the detailer can remove this "light" surface rust appearing in (under) the paint with a quick polish-and-wax job. I can make it look good, but it doesn't solve the problem, and next year it will look just as bad, if not worse.



People drive some pretty scarey-looking vehicles around here. :scared:Makes you wonder about the physical safety of the vehicle. Even the "intelligent" demolition-derby and figure-eight drivers wouldn't use these vehicles for their destructive competition purposes.

 

[imported_Gears]

The salt that road crews use in their trucks is the lowest quality available. Lowest cost = lower quality.

This salt has rocks and anything else that was mined with the salt.

I drove a salt truck one winter and I would imagine that I was cutting cars in half as I drove past them. :razz:



When I would come upon illegally parked cars that were difficult to get around I would go super slow past them as I blasted them with the spreader. :happy:

 

[David Fermani]

What you have to keep in mind is that anything can damage paint...heck dust can cause scratching as it blows across your finish as you drive down the road. .

Keep in mind that paint is flexible and has natural scratch resistency, so I'd have a hard time believing that dust is hard enough to cause even the most miscroscopic damage. Same goes for rain unless you're driving very fast through a hurricane. Now road salt and road sand can and will chip away at your finish. I remember getting blasted by those county snow plows.