Cleaning snow off your car without scratches

Since it seems to be snowing throughout the entire country now, I figured I'd post how I clean snow off my car without marring it.

What you will need:
Snow Joe (or Snowbrum), scissors, and the nicest microfiber towel you can sacrifice (I am using an Eagle).




Take the blade off the snowjoe, and lay it over your towel so that the edge of the towel folds to just past the center of the snowjoe:




Now, you're going to cut a hole just in the center where the pole screws into the blade:


The pole should go through the hole and be able to screw in:


Now, you'll see the clips that hold the pole to the blade when its collapsed. You will need to make a slit for each of them:


And then fit the clips:


Fold the other side of the towel over, and repeat for the other clips:



And you should have this:




There you go! Obviously, a larger towel would work better but all of my detailing towels are this size.
Now, as long as your car is sealed, the snow should easily just slide right off the paint in big sheets and the towel will save the paint as best as possible.


If for some reason (like me) you drop the contraction on the wet ground, just toss out the towel and make a new one. You will never get all of the crap off of it, and new ones are cheap!

I just use a silicone blade with zero pressure on it to push the snow off. Cringing when next door are using a hard bristle broom to sweep it off.

I just use my hand. Guess what? It doesn't leave scratches..

https://www.worx.com/blowers-mulchers/cordless-blowers/40v-cordless-sweeper-blower-wg580.html

Works great on the powdery stuff, anyway.

The most important thing to do is to wash your car before it snows. The snow itself generally won't scratch, but if it drags dirt with it...

abt12 said:

The most important thing to do is to wash your car before it snows. The snow itself generally won't scratch, but if it drags dirt with it...

Click to expand...

But isn't snow formed much like rain around a dirt or dust particle?
So as it melts dirt runs down on car and then you brush off.
By law must you remove?
Asking because when I lived in Wisconsin we did not but that was 30 years ago.
But leaving might not be any better as it will then slide off.
From any angle, snow is no good.

jockonabike said:

I just use my hand. Guess what? It doesn't leave scratches..

Click to expand...

Never experienced a real snow-storm eh?

Usually I just brush off the windows and drive it. Let the wind blow it off. Yeah, snow will collect on the rear window - that's why you have a wiper. If it's nice fresh pow-pow, it will blow clean before you're at 50 kmh.

Let the wind blow it off, and you're simply blowing the snow right onto the guy behind you.

Not cool.

And the cops may take offense to that...

Sandman GTI said:

But isn't snow formed much like rain around a dirt or dust particle?
So as it melts dirt runs down on car and then you brush off.
By law must you remove?
Asking because when I lived in Wisconsin we did not but that was 30 years ago.
But leaving might not be any better as it will then slide off.
From any angle, snow is no good.

Click to expand...

Snow is often formed around bacteria believe it or not! https://arstechnica.com/uncategoriz...wflakes-bacteria-important-to-snow-formation/

Any dust particles are tiny- we're talking single microns- so not really something you'll see scratches from, especially compared to road grit and salt crystals.

When you get snow like this, you can't just leave it! (Wife's car... I shoehorned mine into our tiny garage )

abt12 said:

Snow is often formed around bacteria believe it or not! https://arstechnica.com/uncategoriz...wflakes-bacteria-important-to-snow-formation/

Any dust particles are tiny- we're talking single microns- so not really something you'll see scratches from, especially compared to road grit and salt crystals.

When you get snow like this, you can't just leave it! (Wife's car... I shoehorned mine into our tiny garage )

Click to expand...

that’s awful!!

Blowers work great when the snow is fresh, but in NJ we tend to get snow overnight and then it is pretty heavy in the morning; Blowers don't do much and using your hand would either take forever or just not work at all.

Here you are required by law to remove all snow, they are pretty vigilant about it.