Snowbrushes: Proceed with Caution!
Beware of snowbrushes, as they could actually ruin your car’s paint job! I bet this has some of you saying, “What? Now we have to fear a harmless object that millions of Canadians use every winter to clean off their cars?”
As surprising as that may seem, conventional snowbrushes become dirty with time. Dirt from the snow that you remove from your car stays behind, lurking in the bristles of your snowbrush. Dirt is made up of microparticles that, if dragged over your car’s paint, can create what are known as angel hair or spider web scratches on the surface of the clear protective paint that covers your car’s colour.
Not only that, but the brush’s bristles wear over time, which can have the same damaging effect on the car’s clear layer. After one or two winters at that rate, the paint will lose all its shine, leading to faster overall devaluation.
How do you solve the problem?
There is a solution. Companies have developed a type of snow brush that has no bristles. Instead, they feature a flexible foam band that clears off snow without the disadvantages of the traditional brush.
It’s sort of the same problem encountered by people who wash their cars with big brushes. Sure, it goes faster, especially when you have large surfaces—like those of a pickup truck—to wash, but with repeated washings, you’ll start to see imperfections appear in the paint, especially noticeable on sunny days.
This winter, brush wisely.
