What makes Winter Road Film so Tenacious

[chefwong]

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

[Bill D]

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.

[Desertnate]

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.

[BudgetPlan1]

Brine, calcium chloride, rock salt, ‘agricultural deicer’ (whatever that is )…’tis a witches brew.

Up in Cleveland it was predominantly rock salt, in Central, OH they seem to prefer liquids; before predicted storms the roads are striped with lines of deicer.

Ohio Road Treatments: https://budgetplan1.files.wordpress....treatments.pdf


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[Thunderchicken]

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.

[chefwong]

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.

[Optimus Grime]

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.

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.