Just Curious about flour

[sam]

I had a customer tell me about how his car was vandalized by pouring flour and water on the hood. He said it destroyed the clearcoat on his hood and it was going to cost 400.00 to fix it. So I’m curious as to what is in flour that would cause this to happen. I had never heard of this before and was just curious about the science behind flour destroying clearcoat. Thanks

 

[pizzanow]

Flour and water should do nothing to the paint or coating. Unless he used potentially harmful chemicals to get it off, I would declare the flour and water innocent in this case.

 

[Tom_Lehmann]

I side with pizzanow. Flour and water aka school paste would be harmless to the clear finish on the hood of a car. Now, if the paste has dried, and he tried to scrape it off, whatever tool might have been used COULD have damaged the clear coat. With the heat from the engine immediately under the hood, this is potentially the hottest area on the car, and, as I have seen any number of times, one of the first places where the finish begins to deteriorate. I’m guessing this might have been the issue, so when the paste was removed he had an OMG moment when he saw what the finish really looked like. BTW, the correct way to remove dried school paste from any surface it to keep the surface wet for several hours as this will soften the paste to the point where it can be high pressure washed from the surface.
Here is another possibility, if he tried to scrub the paste off of the hood of the car any unhydrated flour (a distinct possibility) would act like an abrasive which COULD damage the finish, but again, this is a form of self inflicted damage.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

 

[Pizza_of_the_Month]

I own a car wash in addition to my pizzeria.

In the car wash industry we use chemicals to soak a car first. This separates the dirt from the clear coat. Then we use a high pressure spray or friction to remove the dirt from the vehicle.

The mixture would have dried. Rather than soaking it and then spraying it off he must have used a sponge or something else to rub it. This rubbing would have scratched his car.

Nothing in the flour would have caused his car to be ruined.

 

[Tom_Lehmann]

To my point exactly, it wasn’t the substrate that caused the problem, it was the tool used to remove the substrate that caused the problem. In times of duress I have been known to use flour or starch as a buffing compound on painted surfaces. Works like a charm (dry, not wet).
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor