Date:         Fri, 4 May 2012 19:48:22 -0400
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Re: Van was egged, how to remove?
Comments: To: Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To:  <4FA463DB.1040904@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 07:18 PM 5/4/2012, Rocket J Squirrel wrote:
>Really? It's that simple?

We'll find out.

>  I'll be hornswoggled.

Oooh...with a banana slug?  May I watch?


>Somehow I picked up the impression that raw eggs hardened into a
>tenacious, epoxy-like substance which dug into the paint finish and
>required expert attention and advanced cleaning techniques to remove.

The white contains albumen, a protein.  I'd expect it to wash off
fairly well as it takes up water.  If it gets too hot in the liquid
state though it "denatures" i.e. changes the physical shape of the
molecule and becomes insoluble, or hard-boiled as Doctor Science
would put it.  The yolk contains fat, an emulsifier called lecithin
and I don't know what else ( an itsy bitsy chicken sometimes).  Egg
yolk is used as a binder to make egg tempera paints, which are used
by patient icon painters (impatient ones use acrylics).  Egg tempera
lasts for many centuries* and is quite water resistant but not
waterproof as such.  So I certainly expect you'll have more trouble
with the yolk, but it's not really waterproof and not mechanically
strong AFAIK.  A wetting agent (common folk use dish detergent) and
gentle scrubbing with warm water I expect will do the trick, but I'm
not promising.

It takes the lecithin of six egg yolks to stabilize one quart of ice
cream.  I thought you'd like to know that just now.  Also, if you
don't use mystery coolant you won't get mystery coolant leaks.**

*I don't think anyone knows how many, yet.

**Might try starting with everything dead cold and putting ten psi in
the system (bicycle pump on the overflow nipple, pump in until it
starts to push back on the pump), then go up front with a strong
light and watch for a while.

Yrs,
d