"And Let the Power of Chemistry Do the Work"

I love to listen to NPR on Sunday mornings. They usually recap all the great shows, from Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me! to Says You. But, I reserve a special place in my heart for Car Talk, the hilarious auto advice show produced by two Boston natives, who dub themselves "Click and Clack."

If this were my car, I wouldn't pour acid on it!
1957 Ford Thunderbird

This morning, a caller wanted advice on a "body problem" with his car. He claimed to have driven by a construction site, and had had concrete inadvertently splashed on the door and window of the passenger's side. The show hosts cracked a few jokes, then mentioned that he could probably scrape the concrete off the window simply using a straight-edge razor blade.


But the door frame was another matter - how do you remove concrete from a painted plastic panel? One of the hosts suggested a simple rubber mallet, but the other mentioned muriatic acid (HCl, or hydrochloric acid). He posited that the acid would seep in and dissolve the concrete, while leaving the underlying paint relatively untouched. The title of this post (see above) summed up his final comments to the caller.


Of course, you might not want to pour HCl over your hood, or the undercarriage...I'm sure mufflers, battery terminals, and engine blocks don't hold up too well to this home remedy!