It looks like we do inspire envy . . . lots of it. My less than a month old Dreamer (2007 Prius) just had it's first encounter with vandalism. Someone had the wonderfull idea to splatter an egg right at the front lower portion of the driver's rear door. There's scratch circular pattern (from shell?) which actually peeled the paint, and also the reast of the egg was smudged to the front door and the rear door as well. There was yolk hanging from the lower section of the doors, the chasis and some even made it between the door and the inside painted section. The car had three wax coats (did it myself) and I didn't make much of it until my boss made a comment that egg actually corrodes the paint. Now I am concerned.

As much as I grieve for such an act, I would much rather take the other approach which is fix it ASAP to prevent any further damage, and should the person come back to admire his/her job, catch it on video and then see if it is a co-worker. Should it be an associate, it could mean trouble, but that's not for me to decide. It would not be funny though.

Now, is there any chance of getting the dealer involved in this? Any ideas or suggestions for economic but propper fix? I don't want to give a thug the chance to admire this kind of "job", let alone let my car to start corroding. I'm all ears!

 

Probaby correct if you leave the egg on the paint for too long. Maybe rinse the area with mild solution of vinegar and water. Remember that soap is alkaline as well so you want to neutralize the egg pH with something slightly acidic.

The EGG … I took a free range chicken egg and measured its pH:

 

Hummm . . . interesting and bad news as well since by the time I came back to the car the thing was already solid. My work schedule that day (and three other days a week) was in the 14 plus hours . . .

I already washed the area by using some regular car shampoo and water, and applied a good amount of wax to the area again as well. Will touch base with the dealer just in case something horrible starts happening after a month or so (delayed reaction or something). Nonetheless, I will have to get area fixed since the shell not only scratched the paint, but peeled it therefore the car body is exposed in several tiny areas. I feel if I let this stay as is indefinitely it may rust in time and ruin the paint.

6.5 is not as acidic as I would expected it to be, I bet an stressed person's hand sweat goes way beyond that. I peeled a silver plated flute (greenish effect and all) when I as young and learning, when I learned to relax the effect totally subsided.

 

I think you'd be better off going to a good body shop. I had a nasty ding corrected on the front passenger-side door on my 3-week old Prius, caused by an anonymous driver swinging a car door open against my car. A collision repair person is the person who will actually do the work, and is an expert at that sort of thing.

Harry

 

Tell me if I'm wrong, but this doesn't seem too extreme one way or the other. I'm a former chemist, I've almost finished a degree in pharmacy and currently working on a Ph.D. in pharmacology. (not trying to brag just giving my credentials) Since you have access to a pH meter I'm assuming you know what it would mean and may have your own opinion.
Neutral is pH 7.0. Normally, pH is between 1 and 14. Anything below 7 is acidic, anything above is basic, but it's all relative. Thus 9 is much closer to 7 than it is 14.

In addition, Coca cola has a pH around 1.8 so that would seem extreme and would burn the heck out of us if we touched it; but we touch it all the time. It's not entirely the extreme of the pH, but the rate of reaction. Thus we have all heard that Coca cola can dissolve a tooth, but that's if we leave it all night long. I don't think we sleep with Coke in our mouth all night long (but just to be safe I usually rinse with water after drinking soda). I believe the white on an egg is mainly proteins and water. Nothing too corrosives.

Thus, I wouldn't consider it "very" alkaline. But, I would wash it off as soon as possible. In my opinion, I would worry too much but contact a body for their opinion on what they have seen an egg do. I don't think the dealer will do anything unless real damage takes place (paint visibly damaged other than scratches).

Good luck.

 

Hi Toad..

I think you got it right.. I found this problem last year when drving from Fl to Houston, TX. At night approx 1 AM, we saw a 2-3 stressful ignorance, boring in life kids were sitting on the bridge between FL and Alabama border, they threw a couple eggs on my Honda.. we saw, we smelt it too that eggs with some shell on the winshield and on side of the roof. We stopped having coffee, checked it out... we know that was eggs.. We cleaned it up with plain water rightway... BUT we did not get all it out because it was very dark.

All the way, I just forgot about it.. It caused somewhat fadding on the top and the side of the roof. We just used rubbing compound.. but still can see it.. It wasn't bad.. but we know that eggs has some effects to the paint. We knew about that before and we thought we had cleaned all up.. But still..

You're right about it..

 

I had a similar experience when I came home from San Diego to visit my family in Michigan for a few weeks. I went back to SD and the eggs had etched the window and paint on the drivers side door. VERY VERY irritating. This was on my 97 escort though, not the Prius

 

Update. I am happy to report that nothing actually happened to my car's paint after these months. It seems that a good deal of wax (before the mess off course) goes a long way. I had used a big deal of wax on my car just a week before, I take it prevented the damage all together. Another factor is it never got sunlight except for the one day it happened. To remove it, I only used water and car shampoo. Didin't force it out but allow it to hydrate again and then it practically fell by itself.

 

I had some kids throw eggs at my and I slammed on the brakes and put it in park and chased them to their house and told the parents I was going to call the police and sue. They gave me $500 on the spot to pay for damages. I quickly got back to my Highlander and drove to the nearest carwash and got one done. No damages whatsoever because I had put a thick coating of wax not to long before that and I got $500 out of it.

 

Coke is a 1.8!!!! Really! Yikes!