This may sound crazy but I can verify it 100%. My friend with a 65 Buick Wildcat convert called me this morning practically in tears. He had a spray can of insect repellent (I don't know what brand) sitting on his work bench. He had originally purchased it to use while playing golf. It had been sitting on the bench for quite some time. This morning when he went into the garage, he noticed something on the hood of the Buick. This was just the beginning! As he looked around, he spotted the spray can (or what was left of it). The can had exploded sometime during the night, spewing the liquid content all over the Buick, the hood, fender, door and convert top. As luck would have it, the driver window was open. The stuff was on the driver seat, center console, steering column, dash, aux gauges. Whatever the stuff was in the can, it did significant damage to whatever it touched, etching the paint and plastic gauge lenses, eating the top material and vinyl seats. It will not clean off. He immediately called the insurance company and they said he should be covered OK. An adjuster will be out to look at it Monday.That is the only good news in the story. He has a major project on his hands now to replace a lot of stuff and have the car stripped and painted.

 

Dayum, that's scary

Freezing weather there maybe?

I can add this, though not car- related... for a while I stashed my shaving gel above the mirrored cabinet, up by the lights. I did not think it got that hot, but one day I heard a POP- the lights were not even on at the time- and upon investigating, I found that the shave gel stuff was all over the wall... I put another can up there, and a week or 2 later, same thing.

I no longer keep that stuff up there.

 

Interesting that we put that stuff on our skin.
That sucks man. I'm sorry for your friend. I would be interested to know if the temperature was extreme.

 

That was a part that I forgot to mention - we are in Florida and it was pretty cool overnight but it was probably about 70 degrees give or take in his garage attached to the house. I always thought those cans might be a problem if they got too hot. I think the stuff inside eventually just ate away enough of the can to weaken it. By the damage it did, it must be some nasty stuff and doesn't sound like something to put on your skin.

 

No extreme temps, yeah, that's a little freaky :-/

 

Not car related.....but.......some years ago, I had a can of Redi-Whip whipped cream topping on my refrigerator door; sometime during the day, when no one was home, the can exploded, and blew the door open, and destroyed the door seal; lost all the food in the refrig, and had a total mess to clean up! Boy, was I pissed!

 

My skin isn't made of paint, plastic or vinyl. Try splashing some Coca-Cola on your car's paint, leave it overnight, and see what happens. Then splash some on your skin, leave it overnight, and see what happens. That is a shame about what happened to your friend's car. I always keep aerosol cans in a cabinet.

 

You should see what coke can does when it explodes inside your trunk in the heat of the summer.

 

Good advice. I keep my cans of spray paint in cabinets or in the shop, away from the cars, just in case.

 

Aerosol cans don't usually explode in the cold, but are very susceptible to heat. I'm with Darrell and Alan on this one. All of mine are stored in a cabinet. Only things on the counter are tools, manuals and gojo. I hope your friends car is indeed covered by the insurance and that it can be restored to pre-explosive decompression of that bug spray.

FYI - spent aerosol cans are recyclable if you participate in a blue box or blue bag program. Check your local trash collection authority for your area. I know a lot of US cities don't participate in recycle much yet, so this is just an add on if your area does.

 

Or inside the cab of your truck what a mess!

 

How old were the cans mentioned?.
Over time they will rust out just like anything made of steel.


Roger.

 

That is a bummer. I should put my aerosol cans in a cabinet. I never thought about them exploding. Luckily, my wife's Ford is closer to the shelf where I keep my aerosol cans.

 

so was the Mrs i bet only one reason for a can of ready whip

 

x2 - Years ago left an unopened Coke on the console in my '73 Laguna. Car sat all day in hot sun. By the time I returned, there was dried Coke everywhere with gooey little Coke stalagtites hanging from the headliner....& then I got to drive it 2 hours home...

Had something similar happen here. An old can of RAID on a shelf in the garage basically rusted out. My young son came & told me 'the garage stinks'. I eventually went to look and heard a faint hissing and smelled RAID. Can had a pinhole near the bottom and was spraying the wall behind the shelf. Me=very lucky because if it had sprayed the opposite direction it would've hosed my wife's then new car....

I now keep spray cans in cabinets....

 

I have been thinking about this lately, and after reading this I will be putting my supply of spay paint in a good cabinet. Thank you for sharing this.

 

Nasty, poor guy. Hope they will fix it

 

I carry a lot of spray cans of paint for work ( surveying not tagging lol )in my ute and after having a couple go off in there last summer I now carry them in a cooler (in Aus we call em eskys), yet to have another one go off

 

Allan, the little village I live in has had a mandatory recycling program in place for about 30 years. They even require clear trash bags so the collectors can verify compliance. Nothing that's unsorted or in colored bags is picked up. I'm so used to it that I'm always reluctant to throw recyclables in the trash when I'm in a place where there is no recycle program. It just feels wrong.

 

Keeping aerosol cans -- or even non-pressurized cans of flammable liquids like laquer thinner -- in a cabinet becomes even more important if there's an ignition source nearby, such as a furnace or water heater. Vaporized liquid go kaboom.

On a slightly related note, just in case anyone else out there is as dumb as me, don't store used motor oil (or other petroleum products) in old plastic milk jugs. After a year or two the plastic jug dissolves, leaving you with a nice oil slick in your garage ......

 

You're right. I store it in the containers it comes in. I also collect it from my neighbors who do home oil changes and when I have around 10-15 gallons I take it to the local tire store. They have an oil fired heater that uses the old oil and it burns clean and hot. Their furnace also has a scrubber on the exhaust to catch any unburned particulates. Every time I drop off oil they say thank you, and when I need any service they remember me. win win.

 

Milk containers may not hold oil well, but laundry detergent bottles and windshield washer fluid bottles do, for years if necessary.

I keep mine in a corner of the yard under some bushes, then every year or so I bring them to a local guy who fixes English cars and heats his shop with waste oil.
I don't have any English cars, so don't get anything in return, but he's a good guy, and he's also close to the house.

- Eric

 

UPDATE The insurance adjuster was there today. He said he had never seen anything like that before. Non-the-less, everything is covered and he will help find shops to do good work on the replacement of the top and driver's seat. The owner is a retired body shop owner and will do the paint work himself. The estimate, $5 to 7 grand, is open and any higher costs can be submitted for approval. LOVE those Antique/Special Interest Car Insurance companies!

 

https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...-not-yoga.html

 

Agreed. This whole disaster is an excellent example of why we should all insure our toys with the collector car insurance companies (whenever possible). I doubt the outcome would be the same with any "normal" insurance company.

 

Saw this happen with a can of undercoating and a 65 GTO. Wish I had the pics. Holy Cow!