What makes Winter Road Film so Tenacious

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chefwong

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I'm sure someone has the -scientific answer- of salt, sodium, calcium, magnesium....or what not.

Just gave the car a heavy long HP PW rinseoff and while it knocked off surface dirt, the panels are still fairly caked with a surface film of white and brown -film- as well as I'm sure some gritty mix of XYZ that doesn't dissolve/rinse clean with a a heavy HP PW rinsing. It needs strong soap, and a good 'old fashion mechanical wash....

I just wanted to do a quick rinse - as the roads are still filled with crap and the next drive will just bring it back to the same condition.

Aside from me calling it salt crust, what makes winter mix so dang tenacious. It doesn't even dissolve with a constant HP water flow on it
 
After you folks up there deal with all of that, prepare for the pollen. It's starting here now and vehicles are going to need at least touchless washes practically daily especially for those with allergies. Seems like if it's not one thing it's another.
 
The stuff is really tenacious when it gets layered on for a while and dries to the paint.

Do they apply the salt in your area with a liquid spray or do they just dump salt. Around here they use both. The liquid is a salt mixture they combine with beet juice to make it sticky and stay on the road better. That stuff is terrible and they use it on bridges and overpasses around me. I've been other places where they spray that stuff everywhere.
 
I believe, without any scientific basis whatever, that the beet juice makes it stick worse (like it does on the roads). I started driving in old Clevetown back before anybody invented the liquid deicers, and my recollection is that the old road salt didn't cling like the stuff they use here in the Motor City. But then cars back then were rusted through in 3 years.
 
Off topic but while on topic of winter muck ......I cannot believe why I did not have an Undercarriage Wand. I suppose as once get's older......u try to ache less.
Hand down, bar none, the Undercarriage Wand is of the best detailing -tools- I have added to my arsenal in the last 10 years. I've been using it on the weekly washes since getting it.
 
Thunderchicken said:
I believe, without any scientific basis whatever, that the beet juice makes it stick worse (like it does on the roads). I started driving in old Clevetown back before anybody invented the liquid deicers, and my recollection is that the old road salt didn't cling like the stuff they use here in the Motor City. But then cars back then were rusted through in 3 years.
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This right here. Once road crews switched from rock salt to brine it was game over for unprotected paint jobs. The brine is designed to get into every crack and cranny in the roads and inadvertently does the same for cars. Once the slightest bit of moisture in the air hits the brine, it activates and begins eating away at whatever surface it’s attached to.
 
Bumping my thread. I've used my MTM undercarriage wand for the last 2 winters...which is my main use of this tool. It kinda sits dormant spring--->fall unless I've driven in some aweful foul wet weather and just want to get it extra clean, I'll use the UC wand

However.....it has come to my realization just HP water doesn't do much and a salt film does remain with a plain H20 HP rinse. Granted this may depend on what salt : brine your local municipality puts down. Granted, the car is not on a lift where I can see how it looks after a under carriage wash.

I recently washed our dailys recently and the wheel wheels got a good HP rinse.....good as in one heavy HP rinse during my pre-rinse as well as a second pass just for good measure. Without no chems, no mechanical agitation, just HP rinse (which is what the under carriage is getting).On both plastic and felt lined wheel wells, they looked awfully *white* once dried ,after my HP rinse..which has re-spurned this topic

Off to revisit salt neutralizers
 
Salt away is a decent product and Eastwood has some quality salt neutralizer as well.
 
Thinking out loud...Isn't the oily film that bonds the salt and other crap to the paint that makes it difficult to remove with water.

Yvan made a comment that for a low ph decon wash you need to get rid of the oil using a higher ph soap first to be most effective since the oily film will impact the low ph decon.
 
I never went forward with the salt neutralizing products as I could not figure out the =application=.
I don't care about the salt neutralizing for paint as cars get's washed in the winter still almost - weekly- depending on when a day allows it to be washed...I might have to skip a week depending on ambient temps. Main concern is just the water icing up ...I'm guilty of washing when the outside weather is 33-34F only to have wash water freeze on the panels as I wash due to ambient wind chill :rolleyes:

I considered doing it in-line with the pressure washer but dilution ratio was iffy.
The obvious choice is a sprayer extension head....but it just seemed award and cumbersome wielding a long sprayer wand on ones knees......trying to spray the product under the chassis.
 
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chefwong said:
I never went forward with the salt neutralizing products as I could not figure out the =application=.
I don't care about the salt neutralizing for paint as cars get's washed in the winter still almost - weekly- depending on when a day allows it to be washed...I might have to skip a week depending on ambient temps. Main concern is just the water icing up ...I'm guilty of washing when the outside weather is 33-34F only to have wash water freeze on the panels as I wash due to ambient wind chill :rolleyes:

I considered doing it in-line with the pressure washer but dilution ratio was iffy.
The obvious choice is a sprayer extension head....but it just seemed award and cumbersome wielding a long sprayer wand on ones knees......trying to spray the product under the chassis.
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Is there a way to connect a foam cannon to the undercarriage sprayer and dispense it that way? Just thinking out loud here.
 
chefwong said:
I considered doing it in-line with the pressure washer but dilution ratio was iffy.
Click to expand...
SNP209 said:
Is there a way to connect a foam cannon to the undercarriage sprayer and dispense it that way? Just thinking out loud here.
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It seems to me the way to do this is to use the SaltAway "mixing unit" on the inlet to the pressure washer, shouldn't that provide the proper dilution ratio to the undercarriage sprayer?
 
Bunk mentioned *oily film*. I never actually considered the salt or brine oily at all.....in my head, it was just dried grit more than anything. However, I am doing a mechanical wash after a HP spray....on the paint in my routine. My buckets are also piping hot......about 1/4 max Hot from the tap, and 3/4 boiling water.....right off the stove. I literally have 3 stockpots - 25 qt in total of boiling water to fill my 2 wash buckets as a general estimate

It's actually too hot to touch when the buckets are filled....but once I'm done doing the HP rinse and the buckets sitting outside in winter weather....the water is cold enough to dip ones hands even with the nitrile glove on. If it's still too hot with the nitrile glove, I will give it some cold water to temper it but generally, I am using as hot as I can bear when doing winter washes. I'd like to think the heat helps cutting the crud...

I'm planning to give the wheel wheels a mechanical wash on the next wash however, I wonder what would the results be with a hot:warm HP rinse off only and no chems or mechanical brush taken to them.
 
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I've been VERY Spoiled this year and I did not realize how spoiled I was until today. Here I was doing weekly washings, squeezing it in when the weather was above freezing. I've washed as low as 32F, when the day high was warm enough for water not to freeze on the panels.......timing it so it water would dry:evaporate before evening temps. And I was blown away I did not even really have to think about a pre-wash with a high PH touchless like chemical

Took the car out for it's first maiden spin after the -winter weather we got.
And it's blasted all over with grit galore...the stuff that makes one think about a proper strong high PH was before the contact wash (which I hate as it just wrecks my LSP). I just got a harsh reminder what a real winter wash calls for o_O
 
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