Hello All,

Yes I'm trying to be as vague as possible! So I cleaned and waxed the truck this weekend but seem to have some spots I can't get rid of. When I say spots, they are elevated specs on my paint. Imagine you just used touch up paint and it left a black little bubble on your paint, tiny too, roughly pin size or a little larger.

Well this is what I have all over my hood and some of my ARE cover.

I clayed the truck and used Meg paint cleaner but that didn't work. So I gave up and put NXT over it. Any hints on trying to get whatever this is, off?

Duke

 

My guess would be tree sap.

 

How would I go about getting that off?

Duke

 

Ive heard of people using WD-40 or rubbing alcahol. Which ever you choose you must wax afterword. Do a search and there may be better solutions.

 

Can you 'fleck' it with your fingernail? Does it seem to be hard or sticky? Need more description.

 

Well I 'fleck'ed at the spots with my finger nail and they won't seem to come off. They are really hard and not sticky at all.

I'd try and take a picture but I don't think they'll really show with my camera. (ie. flash would just show a reflection and no flash might be too dark)

Duke

 

Did you clay these areas? What do they look like. Try to take a pic.

 

I'll take a pic and post it tonight. Yeah I did clay them.

Duke

 

It could be tree sap or a little bit of road tar. Try using a bar of detailing clay. 1st Lubricat the area with either car wash soap and water or use a quick detailer from say Meguiars or Black magic. 2nd take the detailing clay and rub over the spot with it. It may take a few minutes to loosen it up and maybe a little pressure, then just wipe the residue from the soap or detailer off and you should be good. Just make sure you use either the soap solution or detailer, otherwise your gonna mess up your paint.

 

Let me know Duke... could be a paint defect -- could be something 'stuck' to the paint.

 

Hey RP,

Well I got home too late from work tonight to run out with a camera. However, I'll be back on time tomorrow.

I guess it could be a paint defect as there are quite a few of them scattered over the hood and ARE cover. However, the hood was repainted a few months ago and these spots were not their after the paint job. (if that helps any)

I'm coming home early tomorrow and I'll try some #80 on it and take some pictures.

Thanks again,

Duke

 

If it's a flaw ABOVE the paint, #80 won't touch it. In fact, there are very few polish products that will. The only way that they would is if they're high on the solvent side -- which some used to be. Unfortunatley, thanks to our buddies out in Region 9 (EPA -- AKA: California), a MUCH more stringent approach to car care chemicals is in place. As such, solvents are VERY limited in most of those products now.

Also, if it *wasn't* there post-paint, odds are that it isn't a body shop contamination issue and that it can probably come off of there -- just thinking out loud. How dispersed are they on your paint? Find any on the roof? Hood?

RP

 

I'm beginning to think it's some hard core sap issues. I've been parking under a tree a lot lately where either the hood or ARE cover are under the tree and the roof doesn't get under there.

(I have to park here when visiting my GF, no choice in the matter unless I stop going to her place. Imagine that conversation...."uh yeah, I can't come over any more. No it's not you, it's me. I just can't mess up my trucks paint job anymore."

I'll take some pictures and post them after work. I'm actually near the body shop that painted the truck today and I might ask their detail guy to look at it too. I trust you more them him, but you can't see it in person right now and they're not more then three blocks away.

Duke

 

Id like to be a fly on that wall for that conversasion ''Its not you, its not me, its my truck'' lol

 

Hey RP,

Well I spoke with the detailer at the body shop where the hood was painted. This guy seems to know his stuff (repeated to me a lot of the things you taught me).

We looked at the paint and after repeated "flecking" at the spots we got one of them to pop off. It's HARD CORE tree sap and there are probably ten spots on the hood and five on the ARE cover.

Bad thing is he thinks that most of them are going through the clear as they've been there so long. He advised something that I thought was big time over kill, sanding and refinishing the hood. Not repainting it, but wet sanding and working wax vodo magic that he didn't go into detail on.

Do you have any hints for big time tree sap removal? Then I'll just make sure to keep a ton of wax on the hood and take better care of staying on top of tree sap removal, as it probably got this bad because I hadn't waxed the truck in two months.

Thanks again,

Duke