Unbelievable - my car got sprayed with somthing awful!

I just went to wash and prep my finish for the winter and my car was sprayed (?) with a fine acid or clear paint. I can't believe it. I hadn't washed the car in about two months and today, I put on my winter snow tires and washed the car with Dawn to prep for a coat of Zaino followed by Mother's carnauba. The entire car's finish is like fine sandpaper!! Running a towel over it makes a "sss" noise. The top surfaces are the worst with the front hood being having the most sandpaper finish..... but really it feels pretty uniform over the entire car. The only places without the problem is lower on the car near the rocker panels where it smooths out. I can't believe I didn't notice this before.

I finished up with Zaino and wax.... don't know why I bothered..... and I do have a shine but nothing like the mirror I should have. What the heck could this have been??? The glass feels fine... if it was paint or something solid, I should feel something on the glass so this leads me to believe it was some sort of solvent.

I don't know what to do.... an insurance claim? Compounding? I don't have the energy right now to do the compounding...... may wait until the spring. This is just awful.

My car last year after a compounding and Zaino:

Last Year Shine

Sorry to hear about your problem, Bruce. I had something similar happen to my first Audi. They were spray painting a building about a half block from where my car was parked and I noticed it when I came out to the car. The breeze must have carried it the half block. It was like tiny speckles (like you get parked under a maple tree - except those wash right off with water.) all over the car - not too much on the lower sides. It did have that sandpaper feeling when you ran a sponge or your hand over it. I managed to get it off with lots of wax and elbow grease.

Have you tried claying a section? That might get rid of it. I guess it might depend on how long it's been on the car.

Good luck with it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2011 11:39PM by Guenter in Ontario. (view changes)

Bruce, sorry about what happened. I had two similar situations, the last one allows me to offer some advice. My first was when my 99 Box got keyed. But, that was "easy" to fix - take it to a body shop for painting.. My second situation is more like yours. My right front fender has about a 100 very very small, how can I describe them, etched spots. I have no idea what happened, but they are almost microscopic spots where something ate through the clear coat and paint. I can feel them with my finger nail to know they are not raised, but indented. They can only be seen from certain angles, but when they are visible they are pin point sized black dots on (in) a silver fender.

OK, so how does this help you? I took my car back to my body shop. I had used them several times in the past (Boxster twice, Civic once). It is a small manager owned shop with a great owner and tech staff that I trust. He had one of his body techs spend about an hour going from less to more aggressive means one one of the spots to see if something could be done short of re-painting the fender. Nothing worked. But, this is something you should do. Take it to a pro. They may know what is on your car, have some related experience about how to deal with it, and certainly have the tools and chemicals to try to see what works or doesn't work to get it off w/o harming the paint. My body shop did the hour worth of work for free, as I said, nice place. But, even if you pay for an hour of work, say $100, to get a pro to see what works/doesn't work, it may be worth it. From there, if there is solution to the problem that you can do at home, you will know how best to tackle the problem.

Goo luck.

1999 Arctic Sivler/black/black (sold)
2008s Silver/black/black - so predictable
2011 Outback
8/24/2011 first Grandson

Sorry to hear this, like Guenter said, try clay bar on it. One of our yard workers accidently overspraded the whole parking lot of employee vehicles with a marine two part epoxy paint. The clay bar did a very good job getting it off, not perfect in every case but it got 98% of the paint off. Don't wait around though, jump on it immedialty, the longer it sits the less likley you will have a good result. Good luck.

I would first do a test area with isopropyl alcohol. If it is sap or some other sticky stuff it should wipe off. If that doesn't get it I'd then test with mineral spirits. Next I would try clay.

i'm no detailing guru.

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com