Safe snow removal

C

cptzippy

New member
Have the first snow here in the KC area. My car is out at work and the carport it stays in is open on one side. What's the safest way to remove snow from a car without damaging the exterior?
 
What I do is take a snow brush, and tape an MF around the bristles. When you have snow on your car, wipe it off with the MF wrapped brush, leaving about a centimeter or so of snow on the car. The rest will just blow off quickly when you drive. The MF is on the brush for insurance, it wouldn't scratch nearly as badly as the bristles on the snow brush if you were to contact the paint in any way.



You *don't* want to make contact with the paint at all, remember your car is still covered in salt/road grime under the snow, which would marr like crazy if you were to touch the paint with something with all that dirt on there.



You could also just use your arm to push the snow off, but that would leave your sleeve covered in snow and certainly wouldn't be comfortable having a soaking wet sleeve when it melts.
 
My cars are inside at work and at home but I have used a leaf blower before as the car was warming up on those rare occasions where they did get covered in snow. Worked fairly well.
 
just leave it on the paint, I clean off the windows and leave the snow, the heat of the car will melt the snow and create a liquid barrier for the snow to slide across, greatly reducing the marring. Kind of like clay lube idea.



I go skiing a lot and live in snow country, and have yet to have a problem. Then again, we have the greatest snow on earth, light and powdery.



Cheers,

GREG
 
Bigpoppa3346 said:
What I do is take a snow brush, and tape an MF around the bristles. When you have snow on your car, wipe it off with the MF wrapped brush, leaving about a centimeter or so of snow on the car. The rest will just blow off quickly when you drive. The MF is on the brush for insurance, it wouldn't scratch nearly as badly as the bristles on the snow brush if you were to contact the paint in any way.



You *don't* want to make contact with the paint at all, remember your car is still covered in salt/road grime under the snow, which would marr like crazy if you were to touch the paint with something with all that dirt on there.



You could also just use your arm to push the snow off, but that would leave your sleeve covered in snow and certainly wouldn't be comfortable having a soaking wet sleeve when it melts.
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I second what bigpoppa says. I usually leave a thin layer and let it blow/melt off. The microfiber around the brush is a great idea just for the added factor of safety.

Just remember you are going to get marring in the winter no matter what. If you drive your vehicle and it sits outside it's going to happen. How badly it happens depends on many things.
 
I use one of those sno brum's that they use at dealerships, great at pushing snow off and it won't scratch the paint.
 
lazzman said:
I use one of those sno brum's that they use at dealerships, great at pushing snow off and it won't scratch the paint.
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I have one of those, I use it on service loaners and rentals.



The foam *can* mar paint, but mainly, the problem comes from pushing grit (trapped in/under the snow) across the finish.



If you want to use a Sno Brum safely, leave the last layer of snow on the vehicle (sometimes easier said than done).
 
Bigpoppa3346 said:
What I do is take a snow brush, and tape an MF around the bristles. When you have snow on your car, wipe it off with the MF wrapped brush, leaving about a centimeter or so of snow on the car. The rest will just blow off quickly when you drive. The MF is on the brush for insurance, it wouldn't scratch nearly as badly as the bristles on the snow brush if you were to contact the paint in any way.



You *don't* want to make contact with the paint at all, remember your car is still covered in salt/road grime under the snow, which would marr like crazy if you were to touch the paint with something with all that dirt on there.



You could also just use your arm to push the snow off, but that would leave your sleeve covered in snow and certainly wouldn't be comfortable having a soaking wet sleeve when it melts.
Click to expand...



Thanks for the suggestion ... I usually just clean the windows if it's only light snow. On heavy snow I lift the scrapper to avoid touching the paint.



Guys ... there are some states (New Jersey for example) that you have to completely remove the snow before you drive or you will get a ticket.
 
efnfast said:
Whatever you do, don't use a metal shovel :LOLOL



I just leave it on
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAA Why not? OH becuase of this:



BMWscratch1.jpg
 
efnfast said:
Whatever you do, don't use a metal shovel :LOLOL



I just leave it on
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What is wrong with a snow shovel?????? :nana:



snow_removal.jpg




I heard "the sound" of pant being scraped only to look over and see my neighbor doing this.
 
I let the car run while I am snowblowing- usually about 1/2 hour. I put on the defrost and this melts a good portion of the snow. I then gently push off the snow with my hands. Only use a brush for the windows.
 
i posted a similar thread in the hot tub area..... big poppa mentioned his MF covered bristles..... i used this but instead of taping it to the brush, i put the contraption insde of a sock....zip tied the band of the sock leaving enough to fold it over to cover the zip tie.



works great
 
the way I look at it is that will have to polish in the spring no matter what. So the fastest method without leaving scratches is just fine by me; swirls I can deal with. Avoid the brush that has a scraper on the other end.... it has a habit of finding the paint.
 
Greg Nichols said:
just leave it on the paint, I clean off the windows and leave the snow, the heat of the car will melt the snow and create a liquid barrier for the snow to slide across, greatly reducing the marring. Kind of like clay lube idea.
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wouldn't this cause huge balls of ice to fly off your car when you're driving, potentially causing the people behind you to wreck? unless you meant you don't drive it like this, simply melt the snow then clean it off.
 
nonsensez9 said:
the way I look at it is that will have to polish in the spring no matter what..
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I guess every situation is different, but I'm sorely disappointed if I have to polish come spring.
 
Accumulator said:
I guess every situation is different, but I'm sorely disappointed if I have to polish come spring.
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I'll take this opportunity to improve my washing technique. Here's a picture of my vehicle during a "thaw" cycle of winter where temps are above freezing for a few days. After snowfalls the roads are plowed and "sanded", a combination of dirt and gravel. Anyways, you can see the results of the thaw below. It is not getting dirtier at this point, any new dirt that gets on the car is displacing dirt that is already there, probably inducing swirls in the process. I could probably avoid that if I washed daily or more, but regardless... perhaps there is a process whereby I could remove this mess about 7 or 8 times a year without inducing marring during the wash. During the winter, my garden hose is not available, so I am limited to touchless and pay'n'wand, or pay to rent a bay and use buckets. suggestions welcome. thanks



filth.jpg
 
ouch,

looks like the sand treatment on streets elsewhere is worse than salt.......

at least in looks.............salt just eats away at everything
 
nonsensez9 said:
I'll take this opportunity to improve my washing technique. Here's a picture of my vehicle during a "thaw" cycle of winter where temps are above freezing for a few days.. During the winter, my garden hose is not available, so I am limited to touchless and pay'n'wand, or pay to rent a bay and use buckets. suggestions welcome...
Click to expand...



Actually, that's *not as bad* as some of our vehicles get! Not by a long shot. But who cares since I can spend four hours washing in a heated shop :o



SO...since you don't have access to your hose, or, presumably, a heated shop, I bet you're doing the best you can already with the touchless/pay-and-wand approach.



I can't help but wonder if heavily layered KSG would help :think: While it sounds utterly goofy, I've some to suspect that it actually helps shield against marring if you get a thick enough build-film of the stuff. My minivan has the softest paint of all our vehicles, it gets the dirtiest, and I'm far less careful when washing it....yet it stays incredibly marring-free. I credit the KSG for any diffs between how it stays compared to our other, more pampered, vehicles.



OR...consider some LSP that releases dirt better than whatever you're using now.



What I'm driving at is that it might pay to go with functional aspects when choosing your winter LSP as opposed to looks/etc.



But hey, I'm just tossing out ideas for consideration; no question about it, you're facing come challenges given the wash conditions you have to put up with.



And yeah...I bet that more frequent washes (of whatever type you can do) would help with RIDS as there'd be less "big stuff" stuck to the paint just waiting for somebody to brush against it (note the absence of dirt behind/around the door handles...uh-oh :nervous: )
 
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