Woke up this morning to see my car ice-covered, and the windshield had a beautiful swirl pattern to the ice. Almost hated to melt it. Realised later the swirl pattern matched the swirl pattern of the dashboard. How could this be? The black dashboard should absorb light, not relfect it. Any ideas, similar sightings?
I think you've hit it, the black dashboard is absorbing light, absorbing light and heat through the opaqueness of the forming ice, and the variations in the pattern are being mirrored as the ice forms. Try leaving a picture of Jesus on your dashboard next time....you might be able to make something that you can sell on e-Bay for a lot of money.
Actually, that is probably not the cause. The initial sunlight passing through the windshield would be uniform. It would hit the dashboard and some of it would be reflected. The reflections would not be even, because of the swirl pattern of the dashboard. However, the reflected light would not necessarily have the same pattern as the dashboard when it bounced back and hit the windshield. To test this, put a white sheet of paper on the inside of the windshield and look at the light pattern. It is entirely diffuse if the dashboard and the windshield are separated by more than an inch. I thought a comment would be worthwhile because when I first got my Prius a few weeks ago, I noticed that looking out the windshield, the other cars and street appear to be wavy. I assumed this was just due to the reflection of the dashboard I was seeing in the windshield, but when I put paper on the dashboard so that I could look through a part of the windshield that had no reflections from the dashboard, the waviness is still there. It is either a defect of my eyes or brain, or the glass of the windshield is actually not smooth. That would also explain the waviness of the ice patterns. Is everyone else's windshield wavy?
That swirl pattern is horrible. My dash got armoraled shiny at the dealer and now I can barely see out the windshield because of the reflecting SWIRLY GLARE during the day. I don't know what to do except apply a cloth dash cover if I could find one. Any suggestions ?
BTW, I think maybe the swirl pattern on the dash is actually an imitation of a naturally occurring design of nature, especially in ice crystals. You may have only recognized the similarity.
Although our dash hasn't had any gunk applied to it I regularly marvel how dark it looks through polarized sunglasses. Take them off or tilt your head and it looks like a normal (dark but shiny) dash material. Put them on and it turns to black velvet.
How could I be wrong? The Ice Image of Jesus and Rosie O' Donnell on my windshield told me I was right...
Have the dealer un-armor-all your dash. That's the stupidest thing they could have done -- yes, I realize it's common practice but now you see the results. If that means they buy you a new dash top, aka big piece of plastic, so be it to get back your AS-DESIGNED MATTE FINISH. Tell them it's a safety issue and your next call is to bring the corporate smackdown on 'em. . _H*
I'd be delighted with wavy. As it is I hafta' stick my head out the driver's side window to see in front of me. Problem is, the windshield lies so flatly across the dash to reduce wind resistance that we're trying to see through much more glass than if it was on a more verticle plane. That probably causes some waviness and it most certainly increases the amount of reflection coming off the shiny dash.
This is a safety issue and must be dealt with. Going from best to worst, the options I see are: * Make appointment to have dealer restore dash to correct finish * Find out exact product used on dash, call manufacturer to find out what chemical will remove it, obtain and use chemical. * Have dealer buy Matte dash cover. * Have dealer replace dash. * Do nothing, wreck car, spend number of years in court arguing about who should buy next car.
That's good advice sir and I thank you for it. The Toyota Dealership in Santa Monica will do everything to avoid doing anything if past experience is any gauge. I'll never buy a new car again, expecially from them. In the meantime, never smear armorall on your dash !
