> > >Is that the same stuff Rudy's MTA dude put on the trains, thus "forcing" the >artists to start etching their grafitti on the windows? > It was prior to Rudy G (and not Rudybaga) that the MTA began installing car washing machines that they could run the cars through and it would strip the graffiti. They also came out with cars that are resistant to the chemicals used in the removal process... the more easily to have graffiti stripped from them. They also made it more difficult to get into the yard, but this is not very effective. The most effective deterent to repeated graffiti is quick removal., the next best is proactive community relations -- like having a really kool mural painted on your wall by an accomplished graffiti artist. As far as I know there are no passive options, meaning, you put the coating on the wall & the graffiti stops. You put the coating on the wall and you keep stripping off the graffiti. The coating makes it easier to get the graffiti off. There are sacrificial & non-sacrificial coatings. The sacrificial coatings strip off with the graffiti in short order, the non-sacrificial coatings take longer to strip off. With some of the coatings they say you can use water & a pressure washer to remove the graffiti, some say you need to use a particular solvent. The question always has to be what the coatings are doing to the substrate and is it better or worse than what the graffiti, and the clean/graffiti cycle are doing to the substrate. ][<en -- To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to: <http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>