2ndof2

Hope everyone had a nice Christmas. I've got an interesting question. We've been having gale force winds on and off here in Santa Barbara over the past few days. Trouble is we also have tons (literally) of airborne ash from many weeks of forest fires. My car lives outside in a carport area and is usually covered up. I took off the cover yesterday because in high winds dirt and dust always tends to get under the cover and I don't want the flapping cover and abrasives underneath destroying my paint. Unfortunately the amount of ash in the air makes my car look like its covered in grey baby powder right now, and from the looks of it, a bunch of the stuff has probably gotten into the central opening at the top of the front bonnet/hood area. Is there any way to safely get the stuff out of there? I was thinking I could blow it out with compressed air or a power washer but I don't want to do anything that I may regret later on. Any thoughts?

vjd3

Vacuum it out, maybe, with a detailing nozzle? Can't be too far in there.

2ndof2

^
Good and obvious idea. Now why didn't i think of that Vic? Will have to look into a vacuum that will work. My arsenal of Dirt Devils just isn't going to cut it this time!

YA911Fan

Just wash it as you normally would followed by an extended and thorough rinse to get rid of any acidic residue from the ash. I doubt you'll have much luck vacuuming out the ash that has already gone into the opening.

2ndof2

I like the vacuuming idea but haven't looked to see if its even possible without disassembling anything. The plan is to hit the entire car with compressed air, then power wash it but wanted to get the ash out before it gets wet and becomes a real mess. Where does all the junk that gets forced into that intake go under normal use anyway?

YA911Fan

I would nix the compressed air idea -- you could blow ash into places which might be hard to wash out. Natural condensation would then turn that ash into an acidic dew.

But one or both of us might be over-analyzing this!

btw, I would also skip the power wash using the same logic

Mike J

Just take off the grill and use a shop vac. I have an old one that will suck cats off the carpet...a weak vacuum will not get all the dust out. Worse comes to worse your pollen filters will catch the dust and you will have to replace them sooner...

Cheers,

Mike

2ndof2

I just blew a whole bunch of ash off the car this morning with my air compressor being careful not to blow stuff into openings like the air vent. We're expecting high winds again today so I'll probably do it all over again in the morning. Then rain on Fri. Saturday this thing is going to get a nice soap and high pressure water bath after its third "compressed air bath." Will have to see about a shop vac in the meantime since I have a couple of days. I hate it when this car gets all dirty - takes too long to clean it!

Bull

I was living in Washington State when Mount St. Helens decided to vaporize itself, and dealing with that type of ash was no fun. While everyone saw/heard the horror stories of the initial big blow, there were many subsequent "steam venting" occurrences that would put ash into the lower atmosphere, which was later dumped in random areas.

That ash was likely a different compound, but water was the worst thing to use on it initially! It would solidify and stick to surfaces, etc. Using a vacuum was the best answer, as compressed air only put it back in the air to settle somewhere later, and moved it from hard to reach areas to impossible to reach areas. Blowing it around also caused you to breath in more of the crap.