Does Vaseline Damage Car Paint? (All You Need to Know)

Have you ever applied Vaseline to your car? Maybe not. Most people are not sure about this fact. Vaseline is a petroleum jelly that we mainly use on our skin in winter, but it has different versions that can be used every season.

Today we will talk about Vaseline and car paint. People want to make their car new by giving it an excellent finish and outlook. They find Vaseline is a good one to apply due to its oily texture.

Does Vaseline damage car paint?

Vaseline doesn’t damage the car paint directly. But it can help to ruin the car through a chemical reaction. Since Vaseline has hydrocarbons, it can damage the car skin through a chemical reaction, namely polymerization. It can attract dust and other debris to the paint and damage the surface.

Vaseline can also hurt the car’s paint with polymerization. It’s a chemical reaction with the hydrocarbons and the paint chemicals. Also, the most significant part is the attractive dust feature of the jelly.

Since Vaseline is petroleum jelly, it can attract too much dust. If you live near the beach or sandy area and apply Vaseline to your car, you will get sand stuck to the car’s paint. You cannot get rid of them quickly and need to wax them or deep clean the car.

So, it’s not a good idea to use Petroleum jelly to protect the car’s paint or make the car look brand new. You should not do it. It will indirectly damage your car’s paint. When you find a duct on the car’s paint, you will go for car washing and deep clean it.

You might need to use any soap or detergent or other chemicals to remove the dust. That will ruin the car paint within a while. It will be challenging to remove all the dust.

Is Vaseline safe on car paint? Will Vaseline soften paint?

Vaseline is entirely safe on the car paint. You can apply Vaseline pretty much on every car’s paint, and it will give some solution as well. But you cannot put too much of it and make the entire paint oily. It will ruin the paint.

Moreover, Vaseline can soften the paint and remove the stains from the car paint. It will be a wise decision to some extent. If you have some small stains and the paint is dried for weeks, you can apply it to get a softener.

In a nutshell, Vaseline will soften the paint. You can apply the Vaseline through a microfiber and wipe it through the entire car’s body. Allow it to dry and set it for 8 to 12 hours to go through the dried paint perfectly. It will turn it into soft paint.

Before applying the Vaseline to soften the paint, you must deep clean the car skin or where you want to put the Vaseline. Then, dry the area properly; only then can you apply the Vaseline. It will work on the dried skin and turn it into soft paint.

Does Vaseline take the paint off cars?

Vaseline doesn’t take the paint off the cars. It even can’t do any harm to the car’s paint other than attracting the dust and sand. The sand will stick to the petroleum jelly and won’t go off naturally. You will need to get your cash a warm wash.

Vaseline has the hydrocarbons ingredient, making it durable and adequate for dry paint or strong stains. Whenever you find some small stains on your car that you can’t remove by deep cleaning, you can use Vaseline.

The Vaseline will soften the paint and remove the stains overnight. It might take 8 to 12 hours to get things done, but it will not damage the car in any way. You can make the car paint shiny by using Vaseline onto the paint.

What happens if you put Vaseline on car paint?

If you put Vaseline on your car paint, you will experience both positive and negative sides of it.

Oily Texture:

Vaseline is a petroleum jelly with oily ingredients to make the surface moisture for a long time. The same happens when you put the Vaseline on car paint. The paint gets the jelly and becomes oily for a long time.

To avoid an oily texture, you can wipe the petroleum jelly and apply it through a soft microfiber cloth. It will help you to a great extent.

Soften the Paint:

If you have dried car paint for a week and you are looking to apply something on it to make it smooth, Vaseline should be your first choice. It will soften the paint and make it smooth overnight.

You should apply the Vaseline after deep cleaning the car paint and removing all the dust. Then, you can use or put the Vaseline on the paint and let it dry for 10 hours.

Get Sand and Dust:

The petroleum jelly or Vaseline will attract too much dust and sand on the paint since it has an oily texture.

Once the sand and dust come near the paint, they will stick to it. You cannot clean them with bare hands or only water.

If you live near the sea beach or sandy area, you will face this problem pretty much every day. So, it’s better not to use the baseline too often.

Remove Stain and Scratch:

You might get some scratches on your car’s paint while driving. Maybe you drive near the other objects and get some scratches.

You cannot remove them or get rid of them unless you use Vaseline or follow different methods.

Here the Vaseline will make the paint soft, and you can easily remove the scratches by wiping through them once the paint is soft. You can use the soft microfiber and get things done.

How to get Vaseline off the car?

Applying Vaseline on the car paint is easy, but removing them is difficult. You need to follow our tips and get Vaseline off the car.

Wash with Warm Water:

You cannot remove the Vaseline with cool water; you need to use warm water.

First, clean or wipe the entire car paints with warm water and remove the available Vaseline. It will help you remove the extra Vaseline, but you cannot remove them all.

If you use cool or normal water, it will not help you remove the Vaseline. You must use warm water, not boiled or hot water. Hot water will damage the paint that you must avoid in most cases.

Apply detergent or Soap:

After cleaning with warm water, you must apply the detergent to the car’s paint. Then you can wipe through the same clothes and remove all the Vaseline from the vehicle.

Here, you can make a detergent mixture and warm water, apply it to the car’s paint, and clean it further. In that case, you should carefully mix the detergent and put a bit more detergent powder or soap into the warm water.

Go for the warm wash:

If you find those issues difficult, you can go to a garage and ask for a warm water deep wash for your car.

Remember, all car wash shops don’t offer warm water wash. So, search for the warm wash car shop, then go there.

You can ask them to apply some extra detergent to remove all the Vaseline. You may need to spend some extra bucks, but it is worth it.

Dry the paint and car:

You must dry the car after deep cleaning it and remove all the Vaseline.

Otherwise, you will still get dust and sand on the surface or car’s paint because the deep clean will require too much warm water. The water will still be on the car’s paint.

So it’s better to dry the paint properly and then start driving. If you drive a wet car, it will get dust and debris. You need to clean it again; that’s why you should dry the vehicle with a dryer or let the water go off the car.

Will petroleum jelly hurt car paint?

Petroleum jelly will not hurt the car paint; instead, it will soften the paint and make it easier to remove the scratch or stain from the car paint quickly. You need to apply petroleum jelly for about 8 to 12 hours or leave it overnight.

If you have traffic paint and badly need to get rid of them, you have to put Vaseline on those areas. After that, you need to wait for a long time and let the petroleum jelly soften the paint. Then you can wipe through the warm water and get rid of the traffic paint.

Final Thoughts

Since Vaseline has hydrocarbons and an oily texture, Vaseline doesn’t damage the car’s paint. You can use it to remove the traffic paint and scratches. You should remember that Vaseline will attract dust and sand and will face difficulties cleaning it soon.