PW stains?

[anathema]

I have heard a little blurb here and there about PW collecting stains (unless its properly waxed/sealed)...

Anyone with PW care to elaborate? As a future PW owner (40 days!!!) I am slightly concerned!!

Agranger?

Anyone?

[BoCRon]

Mine has gotten a few stains (Georgia red clay ). But they've come right up with the claybar. The secret is to not let anything sit on the paint, like you ever would!!!

Annette

[kenchan]

i had a white pearl car in the past (beautiful color, btw) and one thing
i would be very careful of is not to use dawn soap directly when there
is some tar/oils/bug gut juices left on the paint.

that soap removed the wax and then stained the tar into the paint...
Lessons learned: keep car well waxed (given for any car), remove tar
and wax together with claybar. then wash with dawn to remove the
rest of the car's wax.

[anathema]

Hmm.. so wash, claybar, then dawn wash, then go from there?

[kenchan]

that will be a thorough cleansing.

next step would be to talk to OctaneGuy (he should change name to
OctaneGuru).

Originally Posted by anathema

Hmm.. so wash, claybar, then dawn wash, then go from there?

[agranger]

The claybar - dawn wash is a good place to start.

I generally do Dawn first, then clay, then a wash with a good auto shampoo to clean away the clay bits and prep the surface completely.

I've never seen the Dawn staining issue that Kenchan mentions, but it sounds very plausible. I generally get after tar pretty quickly with an old Turtle Wax product... Bug and Tar Remover. It's chock-full of solvents and strips away all wax and sealants, but it does a great job of lifting tar and sap w/ very little wiping/grinding of the finish. If I know that I'm going to be claybar-ing the whole car soon, I get a head start on the finish the week before, removing all of the tar/sap and doing touch-up work on any chips in the paint.

PW does get stained by Cosmoline (the petroleum product sprayed in every nook of the car before shipping from the UK) that seems to drip from every open pore of the car for the first 6 months... especially when aided by a warm Texas summer. Again, the key is to get it off quickly and, if it does stain, just let it rest and keep it clean for a few months while the oils evaporate and the stain disappears.