Hello,
I seem to have picked up some kind of red berry stains on our beige color Geo Prism. At the car wash they were skeptical it would come off, and it didn’t. At home I tried soap and water and it didn’t. At a local parts store they didn’t know what to recommend. I see from one discussion thread that for a different stain issue others recommended to stop by collision specialists and ask. Does anyone have any different suggestions?
Try turtle wax tar and bug remover for autos.
Have You Tried A Professional Opinion?
You say, " I see from one discussion thread that for a different stain issue others recommended to stop by collision specialists and ask. Does anyone have any different suggestions?"
Have you tried the pro’s? Why not give it a try.
They can maybe suggest something that nobody is thinking of by looking at what type of paint system is on your vehicle. They may have a “bags of tricks,” like the painter did where I worked.
We used the opportunity of someone stopping by to help them, often for free, to win a new customer. Guess where they went when they needed body work?
I have had a similar problem with organic-based stains on fiberglass, which is much more porous than the paint on a car, and have had success with Oxy clean - leave it on for a while. I believe it chemically reacts with the stain somehow.
Anything that stains the paint is going to be a bear to remove. If you can remove it expect it to leave a mark. To prevent this from happening again…try waxing the car every now and then. If there was wax over the paint this wouldn’t have happen.
I would first soak some of the stains by laying a soapy towel on top of them. Then try to wash them off. If that doesn’t work, I would find a low abrasion pad to try to [i]gently[/i] scrub them off. I did this to get the love bugs off my class C motor home and it worked pretty well, even on the part of the body that is like the front end of a van. The scrub pads made by 3M are color coaded and if you use that brand, use the white one. You can also look at the grocery store for scrub pads that say they are safe for all surfaces.
I have read WD-40 is good for this kind of thing. Another recommendation is to wash them off with a dryer sheet, although this didn’t work as well for me as I had hoped.
I have had bird poo stains that looked like berry stains on a car of mine.
I couldn’t remove them , as i think in my case,they became etched in the paint surface. Just thought I’d throw that in.
Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions. I ended up going to an auto body shop and a guy there took it right off with rubbing compound. Looks fine, but I’ve since been warned that rubbing compound can dull up the paint. So I found a solution, even if it may not be the ideal one.
Yes, compounds dull the paint, because they’re abrasives. Think sandpaper in paste form. But you may not have to put up with a patch of dull paint. Proper detailing of paintwork consists of a series of steps involving progressively less abrasive polishes to remove what the previous material left behind. If all the body shop did was rub over the spot with compound, you’re one or two steps short of returning the paint to its proper luster. Unless the shop rubbed too hard and too long, and the paint on your vehicle is too thin, using one or more grades of finishing polish (Sonus SFX-2 or SFX-3, or Menzerna Final Polish II are examples) will restore the original luster. These can be applied either by hand or by random orbital buffer, depending on how big the treated area is. Then be sure to apply a good coat of wax for protection against future berry episodes. Good luck.
The SOLUTION is preventative maintenance. This could have EASILY been prevented with a coat of wax. Wax was designed to protect the paint. And that is exactly what it would have done.