Snow Removal

M

MatthewR87

New member
Greetings,



Seeing as how we are going to start getting snow here in the next couple of weeks, I was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to remove snow from a black car without causing damage. I obviously do not want to use a brush of any kind as that will scratch my paint. I was thinking of just lifting the hood and the trunk to let the snow slide off on its own. However I am concerned that the weight of the snow itself might scratch the paint as it drags dirt and grime across the surface. Any tips would be appreciated.



Matt
 
MatthewR87 said:
. I obviously do not want to use a brush of any kind as that will scratch my paint. I was thinking of just lifting the hood and the trunk to let the snow slide off on its own. However I am concerned that the weight of the snow itself might scratch the paint as it drags dirt and grime across the surface...
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IMO you have the right ideas. If you can figure out how to get most of the snow off, so there's less of it (hence less weight pressing down), then you'll probably reduce the chances of it causing marring when it moves across the paint. But short of somehow letting all the snow melt off (and even then some chunks are gonna slide across the paint) IMO there's just nothing you can do to 100% avoid it.



I'm usually able to avoid such stuff, but I use very slick and very protective LSPs and, most importantly, virtually never park my vehicles outside long enough to get much snow on them. I realize that second part isn't gonna work for a lot of people...and when I did/do have to park outside for extended periods, well...that's what my winter beaters are for.



One thought though, with heavily layered KSG I hardly *ever* get marring from this sort of thing. With a literally thick coating of that products acrylic stuff, there really does seem to be a decent degree of protection, or at least a thick film of KSG between the abrasive stuff and the paint. As I think back, my MPV got covered in snow quite a bit, and it still came through winters without needing any correction.
 
Thanks for the tips. Its a new car and the Ford dealer threw in some acid rain paint protection sealant (I have no idea as to what it actually is) for free for taking the black car. I don't want to strip it off since it comes with a 5 year paint warranty, but I guess I'll have to see how the car gets through its first winter. If its bad then I'll rethink my strategy for next year.
 
Yeah, just see how it goes.



Some people are all :nono about the dealer-applied paint protection, but it works OK for a friend of mine. One thing to watch out for is that such stuff needs to be "refreshed" now and then, and you sure wouldn't want the dealership guys messing up your paint when they do that.
 
Accumulator said:
you sure wouldn't want the dealership guys messing up your paint when they do that.
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I don't even want to get in to what those guys have already done with my paint. If I had known what my car would look like when I picked it up I would have said no thanks to the free paint protection. They finally agreed to put some vinyl stripes over the worst of the hood scratches (and put some more scratches on it in the process) and I just didn't want to deal with them anymore :wall I figure I can get the worst of the microscratches and holograms buffed out at a later date
 
Snow season starts in only a couple of weeks?? Im in trouble then!:scared: For the past 11 years Ive been down south living it up in Charleston, SC and the past 4 years I was living only 200 yds away from the ocean. So last winter when my relatives up north in Ohio and Northern, Va called me up to say they were stranded in several feet of snow my response was that I too was staring at whitecaps as I was admiring the nightime sky. By whitecaps I mean the froth from the ocean waves as Im out walking on the beach in nothing but a bathing suit on and no shoes. We got some snow last year too and the local papers dubbed it the "Big Blizzard of 2010".... with our umm.... 1/2 inch. It was only the 3rd or 4th time its snowed since the mid '70's. This year Im in for it. 3 months ago my relatives in Nova lured me up here saying how good the job market and economy was up here compared to everywhere else. I still have no job but am thankful for the extra $50-100 that I can charge up here for my detailing services.



Ok I do have a question here. Being that I've never dealt with wintertime detailing is there much of a difference in regards to summertime details? I was thinking about just being sure to use AIO or something similiar on cars to give them a bit more protection during the season but what other new things does one have to do to prepare a car for wintertime?
 
MatthewR87 said:
I don't even want to get in to what those guys have already done with my paint... I just didn't want to deal with them anymore :wall I figure I can get the worst of the microscratches and holograms buffed out at a later date
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OK, sorry (but not too surprised) to hear that. You'll be buffing off their paint protection stuff anyhow then, but no huge loss IMO.
 
sahrcar said:
... Being that I've never dealt with wintertime detailing is there much of a difference in regards to summertime details? I was thinking about just being sure to use AIO or something similiar on cars to give them a bit more protection during the season but what other new things does one have to do to prepare a car for wintertime?
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Oh sheesh...where to start?



Use some LSP that's a whole lot more durable than any AIO. Protect anything likely to rust on the undercarriage. Have a warm shop to wash in and wash off the salt/grit/etc. very thoroughly before you start the regular wash, paying attention to nooks and crannies in the wheelwells, fuel filler cavity, and (if you're like me) the undercarriage.



Figure out a way to get the abrasive grit off before you do the regular wash or it'll be Swirl City by springtime.
 
MatthewR87 said:
Greetings,



Seeing as how we are going to start getting snow here in the next couple of weeks, I was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to remove snow from a black car without causing damage. I obviously do not want to use a brush of any kind as that will scratch my paint. I was thinking of just lifting the hood and the trunk to let the snow slide off on its own. However I am concerned that the weight of the snow itself might scratch the paint as it drags dirt and grime across the surface.
Click to expand...



My car sits outside 24/7, and I live in Buffalo, NY (lots of "lake effect snow"). Last year, I took a snow brush, wrapped an MF around it (held it together with duct tape), and used that to remove snow. I would wipe most of the snow off, but leave 1/2" or so on there, since even a MF will marr the dirty paint under the snow. The rest of the snow would just blow off in the first few minutes of driving. You do not want to leave a significant amount of snow on the paint, because when it slides around it will marr (not to mention being a safety hazard if it slides from your roof onto your windshield).



Now my car has hard paint, and it is gold, so there didn't appear to be much added marring. You won't make it through the winter without *any* additional marring, but you should be able to reduce the potential a good deal if you properly wipe the snow off.
 
Not like my neighbor.....



snow_removal.jpg
 
yakky said:
Not like my neighbor.....
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My beater-Audi shows signs of such, uhm...treatment, as did my Volvo wagon before that. The things people do....



But at least the snow shovel in that pic appears to be a plastic-bladed one.
 
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