Road sign stains:: Paint balls, factory faults or something else?

[antowan]

Check out this picture.

http://mybroadband.co.za/photos/showphoto.php/photo/9550



The stain is only visible at night with car headlights and camera flash.
Look at it without lights and the stain disappears.
This can be found on plenty of signs around Pretoria and Johannesburg. Not sure about other areas around South Africa.


The obvious thinking would be that it is a paintball or other projectile that stained it.

What is it for sure? I think you get road signs that are shot at with paintballs, bullets etc, but the frequency of these particular stained road signs around Gauteng made me wonder. What exactly is it that is staining it?

Have you seen this in your town or suburb?

If it is indeed paintball related, then this must be one hell of a popular sport with a sign sniper on every corner... :D

[The_Pumpkin_King]

was the sign indented? if not i would guess bird poo

[DJ...]

That bird must have been travelling at one helluva speed to hit the sign sideways. I'm inclined to go with paintballs but I suspect the reflective paint they use must be playing a factor considering it is only visible under artificial light. Maybe the paint in a paintball round affects the reflective paint/coating (not sure what they use on those signs) and what you're seeing is a splat of sign with no reflectiveness...?

[Sackboy]

That's a high-velocity impact mark. Paintball is water-soluble AFAIK, so I doubt it's that.
The reflective character could be caused by whatever solvent was used to try and remove it.

[scotty777]

perhaps it's not a chemical damage that is taking place and damaging the reflective coating on the sign but rather a physical damage... A paintball moves pretty damn fast, and perhaps it's the impact of the ball that is damaging the reflective surface. Not much in nature moves at the speed of a painball... however, that still doesn't explain the running of the pain on the sign though... but maybe it is a chemical reaction because the paint maybe water based, but the paint it self could be slightly reactive(well it irritates my skin) which is damaging it...

[Morgoth]

Back when I was delivering newspapers to earn pocket money in school I saw a bunch of guys about 10-13 of them drunk driving in a bakkie stealing a street sign in, basically they just hang on the thing until it came down, next stop they were acting like a bunch of idiots spraying every stop sign that came past them, but this one seem to be a factory fault to me. I didn't have a phone or pen or good memory with me then to remember the registration number and phone the cops, didn't bother either I was only 13 years old and they more or less 20 ish, but my point is vandalism is big pain. have you ever tried finding a street while driving in your car , lost because there is no street sign? i see it more often in Pretoria .

[Jase]

Most paintballs are supposed to be water based but I have yet to come across one that didn't leave a stain on my clothing. The cheaper the paint, the more crap is mixed in with it. The stain in the photo looks like it was made by a paintball (judging from experience).

As for speed of a paintball, speedball regulations were 300 feet per second (91meters / second if I am correct?) max although you could crank that up in certain markers to 500 quite easily.

[ic]

Check out this picture.

http://mybroadband.co.za/photos/showphoto.php/photo/9550Apart from the 3 blobs that nearly form a vertical line down the middle of the sign, there is an off-centre [to the left] piece of 'artwork' that appears to be a primitive caveman holding a spear who has just been struck by lightning and consequently has very frazzled hair.

I suspect the reason for these anomalies only showing up at night, has something to do with the reflective nature of the signs at night, as well as what was used to create the anomalies [e.g. paintballs], and then what was used to clean the anomalies off of the signs - thereby creating a slightly less reflective area than that surrounding the anomalies which then only shows up in high contrast conditions, e.g. at night with decent illumination.

[Magnarmalok]

IC you make it sound like a black hole :/

[Legions]

paintball for sure

[.Froot.]

Anyone care to add 7.62mm or 9mm rounds as part of "road sign stains"? :D

[Dixie]

It's a Painball that hes been cleaned - paint balls have a certain caustic element in their mix - shoot any wall, painted with an enamel paint, and leave it for a month - that paint starts to come away from the wall...

[antowan]

It's a Painball that hes been cleaned - paint balls have a certain caustic element in their mix - shoot any wall, painted with an enamel paint, and leave it for a month - that paint starts to come away from the wall...

But so many signs? The frequency doesn't add up or are all paintball enthusiasts such sign snipers? It is all over town. I am still erring on the side of factory fault. Maybe some liquid dripping onto the sign surface during production?