Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — Trick-or-treaters probably won't be the only ones prowling the streets Halloween night. Pranksters may be out with their tricks, and cars are not immune.
“We see a lot of stuff after Halloween,” said Sean Hogan, founder of Everest Collision Repair. “People throw pumpkins at cars, spray them with spray paint, Silly String, (throw) eggs.”
Hogan said these sorts of "tricks” contain acids that eat into a car's paint job. If left on the paint, the damage could become permanent.
Eggs are especially troublesome. Hogan said paint can stick to the protein from eggs, leaving the car vulnerable to rust.
“The paint adheres and it actually shatters like a piece of glass. Pieces will flake off, and that’s when you start seeing that strange oval, kind of like a little sunshine in your paint,” he explained.
Hogan said if the car owner notices the damage they can immediately use glass cleaner or even warm, soapy water to clean it. Even a bit later, it will dilute the acid and minimize damage. Hogan said don't just wipe the mess away with a towel.
“You want to use something that has some lubricant between the towel. If you just take your towel and wipe on it, the dirt or debris is going to scratch your paint, even cause more damage,” he said.
The best defense by far, Hogan said, is a coat of wax. It can help protect the car's finish even when the car owner doesn’t catch the vandalism until the next day.
“You have that film of wax over it, a little bit of protection that goes between the chemicals in the pumpkin and the car paint so they don’t merge. Egg is the same thing,” he said.
Hogan demonstrated how much waxing can help on an old car door sprayed hours earlier with Silly String and left baking in the sun. One side of the door was treated with wax, the other side wasn't. On the waxed side, “You can get it off with just your hand,” he said.
“The side that wasn’t waxed, you can see it’s harder and leaving a residue behind. You can see this stuff here isn’t coming off as easy. If that stuff sits in the sun to bake in your paint, it could cause real problems,” he said.
Those people who are really worried about their car getting vandalized, Hogan suggested locking it in a garage or at least putting a cover on it.
“People who want to vandalize things usually don’t want to spend their time a lot there," he said. "They don’t want to get caught. There’s consequences for their actions,” he said.
Hogan said it takes about an hour to hand-wax a car. Driving it through an automatic car wash with a wax cycle also will help protect the finish.
Hogan said vehicles made over the past decade feature a clear coat paint that resists damage better than ever before.
