No, not on my MINI thankfully, but you guys always have the answers so I figured I'd ask here. Today I went to wash my wife's Scion tC for the first time in months, and found that somehow she has what I can only assume is white road paint splattered on her side skirt. The car is "Flint Mica" which is a really nice finish but obviously white paint shows up pretty badly. I have no idea how long this paint has been there, but it's dry and hard as a rock. I couldn't scrub it off, couldn't chip it off with my fingernail, I even went a bought a Mother's clay bar (which I wanted anyway for the MINI) and the clar bar didn't even make a dent in this stuff. I have some Scratch-X but I didn't know whether that would make any difference either and I don't want to do anything too harsh if it's not going to help. So, over to you super-detailing fiends.

 

Clay bar didn't work, huh? Wow. That stuff is actually used in body shops to remove paint overspray. I'd try that a few more times and see if it's making headway forst, before moving up to something that might damage the paint.

You may want to see if you can soften the paint with mineral spirits or something - just use a TINY BIT on like a Q-tip and see of you can dissolve a bit of it before returning to the clay bar. Don't get the solvent on the clearcoat if yo can help it (have an absorbant cloth handy to imediately catch any leakage). Use the Qtip to try to lift off the paint splatters and then any remnants try polishing off with the clay bar. I got yellow road stripe paint splatter off a painted motorcycle faring that way once... it took bloody forever but it did cfinally come off...

 

Paint thinner should do the job

 

if claybar didn't work i would try scratchX. if that doesn't work, i would
use a more abrasive polish on an orbital.

 

The problem is the fact that it's had so long to dry. Be careful with the paint thinner because eventually it will hurt the car's paint too. Try a little of each product in a small area working your way up. You might want to get a high grit sanding block too and literally sand them off. This happened to a friend and they eventually got the town to pay to repaint their car in a body shop!

 

I too would go with the Scratch-X. I just used it at OctaneGuy's suggestion to remove white paint (from when another car smacked my black car with her door while getting out in a parking lot - the paint transferred from her door to my rear panel) from my Cavalier. It took quite a bit of elbow grease but did remove it all.

 

I too would try the clay again... only this time work a spot for a long time. As long as you keep squirting some lube spray on the spot as you work it so it doesn't dry out, you can't clay for too long.

Just this past weekend I helped someone remove some very stubborn overspray from his red 356 (yellow overspray!). At first clay didn't seem to help, but then I just kept working it. It eventually came out. In fact, once it started to come off it didn't take long at all to get it all off.

I would say, try a minimum of 2-3 minutes on one spot for starters and see if that works. Sometimes I have the right tool for the job but I don't allow it to work long enough!

Good luck.

-Heather

 

So I just keep squirting and rubbing (insert juvenile comment here) and see what happens? Should I feel anything, I mean when I did they clay last time it just felt like the clay was slipping across the surface too easily for it to actually be doing anything. I've never used clay before, so it's probably just inexperience. I'll give it a good 5 minutes in one spot tonight and report back with the results.....

 

Yes, exactly. I agree... it really does seem strange that clay does anything at all based on how it feels while you do it. Only when there is a buildup of "chunky" particles on the paint, do you typically feel much of anything happening. The feeling will probably be very silky and smooth... as if you aren't doing anything at all. On my weekend stubborn overspray experience, I didn't feel a thing... It just finally started coming off after a bit!

Just keep at it for a few and see what happens.

Keep me posted.

-Heather

 

I ended up using WD40 and then my thumbnail when it got soft. It was on my side skirt, door, rear quarter, front and rear inner liners. What a mess. But it's ok now.

....Les

 

I vote for more time w/ the claybar as well.

You might also have some luck with Langka, as it dissolves new paint much more quickly than cured paint, but the road paint may have had too long to cure already.

 

The WD40 trick is a good one... I've used WD40 to dissolve glue and baked-on sap residue that was otherwise impervious to everything else I tried. Good tip - glad you reminded me. If all else fails with the clay bar, try WD40 BEFORE mineral spirits.

 

I hope this helps you in some way. Today my wife comes in & says a kid backed into her at a red light. What I found was white paint all across her front bumper. It looked bad. I thought, that bumpers all scratched up. About 25 minutes with a clay bar & I preformed a minor miracle. The bumper is back to it's pre hit condition. Clay bar works!!!

 

Success! It literally took 1 hour of spraying and claying to get one of the biggest splatters off, but now I know that the method works I will do the rest of the side skirt tomorrow...thanks guys

 

That's great news.

 

Yay! Glad it's working!

-Heather