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M2 Technical Topics > Cosmetic Maintenance (Wash/Wax/Detailing/Exterior Restoration & Repairs) > Car is getting hammered with ash from fires

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      10-27-2020, 06:07 PM   #1
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Car is getting hammered with ash from fires

My car is parked outside of my office for the entire workday and has been getting ash dumped on it regularly, and especially that last two days with the fire in Irvine.

What should I be doing to protect the paint and how should I go about removing the ash?

The car is waxed, but not ceramiced yet. I am getting some rock chips taken care of and then going for a full detail and ceramic after I get some exterior mods done next month before PPF.
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      10-27-2020, 06:51 PM   #2
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A car cover?
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      10-27-2020, 09:15 PM   #3
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I did some googling and it sounds like rinsing it and then doing a proper soap down is the way to go. Ash has some chemicals in it that will damage the paint when it gets wet (in fact Lye is made from ashes)


https://thenewswheel.com/the-best-wa...cars-exterior/
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      10-28-2020, 12:45 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by m3username View Post
I did some googling and it sounds like rinsing it and then doing a proper soap down is the way to go. Ash has some chemicals in it that will damage the paint when it gets wet (in fact Lye is made from ashes)


https://thenewswheel.com/the-best-wa...cars-exterior/
Yeah, that was my concern as well. I was thinking about just spraying the car each evening with some water that had gone through my softener, but I was concerned about the resulting hight PH.

Washing with soap every day isn't really realistic, so I guess I'll just wait until this fire is over and then washing it normally.
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      10-28-2020, 05:29 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CalAcacian View Post
Washing with soap every day isn't really realistic, so I guess I'll just wait until this fire is over and then washing it normally.
It sounds like as long as the ash stays dry you'll be safe, when it gets wet you need to get it all off immediately so that may be the best strategy.
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      10-29-2020, 10:59 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by m3username View Post
It sounds like as long as the ash stays dry you'll be safe, when it gets wet you need to get it all off immediately so that may be the best strategy.
This. Getting the ash wet and letting it stay on there is bad, even dew in the mornings.

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Originally Posted by CalAcacian View Post
The car is waxed, but not ceramiced yet. I am getting some rock chips taken care of and then going for a full detail and ceramic after I get some exterior mods done next month before PPF.
I'm not sure if different brands of PPF will withstand ash better but I have 3M on one of my cars and it got absolutely trashed by ash that got wet. Significantly worse than the painted surfaces.

We've dealt with our fair share of ash in Oregon and what I do is blow the ash off with the leaf blower before I wash the car or really any time I see ash on the car just to be safe. That seems to work well if you catch it early.

But don't be mislead thinking that a few coats of wax will protect the paint because it won't. When all the covid lockdowns started this year I knew my car wouldn't be driven so I threw on a couple fresh coats of wax. A few days later my dumbass neighbor decided it would be a great idea to burn a big tree he cut down on a rainy day. It was literally raining ash and it didn't dawn on me to wash off the car. There was significant etching on the top surfaces and areas on the side panels where water and ash ran off the car. Countless hours of paint correction and it looks OK but not like it was. At least it was only my daily driver Fiesta ST.
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      10-29-2020, 01:25 PM   #7
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Guess I'm leaving my car in the garage for awhile
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      11-03-2020, 11:57 AM   #8
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Let me give everyone some motivation to keep ash of your cars. This is what the 3M paint protection looked like after a few days of ash and rain:



You'll have to excuse my poor wash job that left a few bug guts but all those countless little spots are where the PPF got etched. Luckily the paint doesn't look that bad but it's not good at all. The paint on a 6 month old car went from looking like new what you'd expect on a 5+ year old car sitting outside all the time, even after a few rounds of polishing.
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      11-03-2020, 12:58 PM   #9
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That's insane. So sorry to see/hear that.
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      11-04-2020, 10:37 AM   #10
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Originally Posted by robertm View Post
That's insane. So sorry to see/hear that.
Thanks but I'm really not that upset about it. It's only a Fiesta ST and I specifically bought it so I had something I could just drive and not care what happens. I use this car for skiing, mountain biking, and most of my track days...it gets used and abused.

It would have been a totally different story if this happened to my M2C or my wife's truck...
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      11-04-2020, 02:53 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Economatic View Post
Let me give everyone some motivation to keep ash of your cars. This is what the 3M paint protection looked like after a few days of ash and rain:



You'll have to excuse my poor wash job that left a few bug guts but all those countless little spots are where the PPF got etched. Luckily the paint doesn't look that bad but it's not good at all. The paint on a 6 month old car went from looking like new what you'd expect on a 5+ year old car sitting outside all the time, even after a few rounds of polishing.
Several of our vehicles have been uncleaned and covered in ash for months after the Norcal fires. This thread and your posts inspired me to get off my arse and get them washed.
Only the beater cars were exposed though, the S2K was under a car cover and the M2C is garaged. But no rain here in the last 6 months or so - good for the paint, bad for the fires ...
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      11-05-2020, 04:26 PM   #12
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Supposed to rain in SoCal this weekend - just a heads up
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      11-07-2020, 12:39 PM   #13
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I got the outside cars cleaned just in time - we actually had some light rain yesterday.
And with the recent temperature drops we are starting to get heavy condensation on the cars overnight.
I forgot that I have a white truck.
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