About a month ago I got swiped on the hway by a black Maxima that ended up not stopping. He ripped my passenger side rear plastic wheel molding, somehow gave me a rear flat and left his paint on my rear barn door and rear quarter panel. Luckily no body damage was done otherwise and I "think" I can remove this paint and clean up the car nicely ... the question is with what and how?
The thing is the barndoor silver trim is plastic and the rest is of course on the metal body, so "maybe" different methods are needed for removal?!?!

I am sure a lot of you might have had similar experiences and any feedback is appreciated. I attached some shots of the issue in question.

 

clay is your friend.

 

Yep. I had a weird paint "scuff" like that once. It took a ton of elbow grease but clay and Scratch-X took it out.

Curse the guy that hit you though. Hit-and-runners are such cowards.

 

Use a little bit of automotive paint reducer on a microfiber towel wipe off scuff then wash area with soap and water..

 

I would also say some Scratch X or some sort of mild cleaner wax with a microfiber cloth will take care of it

 

Yep agree with what has been said. If you have any Prima Swirl, that works great in place of Scratch X. Even just hand applied/rubbed in you should see results. Personally I would use media reducer if available, or if not, clay it, then evaluate it whether I can improve it with polish.

I've used Prima Swirl to remove all kinds of paint contamination, just by rubbing it with my finger.

Richard

 

That's a pretty bad one. You may consider looking up a pro in your area (go to autopia) and having them take a look at it. A safe polish may not be enough to repair the damage and a strong polish will burn the paint if you don't know what your doing. The silver plastic heats up really quick making it tricky to get out deep scratches. Best of luck.

 

You are NOT going to burn the paint with any HAND applied polish. What has been recommended thus far is sufficient. If the OP pulled out a buffer and tried to fix it, you might be right. I think the OP will be very surprised at what clay and some hand applied polish will do for this. If that fails, then consider hiring a pro. This is my professional recommendation.

 

I guess my mind wanders to the doomsday scenerio of standing at the autoparts store and picking up 3m compound instead of scratch X.

 

thanks guys ... I have claybar lying around so will try it after the next wash.
I guess elbow grease and patience will pay off.

was hoping that nobody recos compounding actually

 

When you use the Claybar, don't give up after a few strokes. I've counted well over 100 strokes and more in some instances where minute improvement was made over each pass, but if I hadn't continued, wouldn't have believed anything was being done. Also make sure to knead the pad so it's clean, and then use it. As it work, the clay will pull the paint and become darker and that's another positive sign.

Compounding is best left to the pros.

 

yah, as OG mentioned you need to keep at it with the clay for a little while with plenty of quickdetailer type spray. just to back and forth many times and kneed the clay from time to time. probably wont need any more than a quarter sized lump to do that.

if that fails, i also suggest going at it with ScratchX or any mild polish like Polish3 from Griot's, Prima Swirl and about now i sound like a broken record. oh and use foam pad for your scratchx

 

You can also use soapy water to work the clay. Just mix twice as much soap as you normally would with water. Provides good lubrication, and grit lifting/cleaning.

Mark

 

My wife once got yellow road paint on the side skirts of her old Scion tC, and it took literally 2 hours of constant claying to get it off....but it did eventually work. Like OG says, don't give up if you don't think you're seeing results....you're just removing a tiny layer with each pass.

 

Well, thanks everyone. The claying worked great!
Took about an hour but all traces are gone (well, except on the reflector, but not sure what to use there on the plastic?!?! ... any ideas?)

 

Fantastic!!! Go ahead and use the clay on the reflector too. If that doesn't work, some mild solvent like media reducer should take care of it. You've already done the hard part. Congrats!!!

 

thanks! ... i used the clay on the reflector and as you can see it worked somewhat. The reflector has those fine small ridges though and was killing the clay though ... it was falling apart. Will try some mild solvent soon.

I also removed some similar black smears with the clay from both the mirror caps. Gotta love garage parking in NYC.

thanks again!

 

I definitely saw the improvement. Replacing the reflector is always an option, lol. But yeah some solvent should do the trick. Might even see if rubbing alcohol does anything.

 

if that was my car i would mask off the surround and polish the plastic lens using my 3" orbital. i would probably use Griot's Polish3 or even scratch-x.

yes it will damage the pad, but the lens costs much more.

then wax afterwards.