Dirty White Paint
About the time I polished out my wife’s Honda Prelude, I also polished out another white Honda for a friend. Both of these cars were daily drivers, exposed to lots of rain and highway driving. Another item these cars had in common was a protective bra on the front of the car.
While restoring the finish on these two cars, I discovered something very important as it pertains to daily drivers. Daily drivers get dirty. I know that sounds pretty obvious, but it’s not. I’m not talking about the kind of dirt you can wash off the surface with a wash mitt and car soap. I’m talking about deep down into the pores road grime that build up on the paint and in the paint.
The paint on both of the white cars was so dirty they had what I can only describe as a dingy,
gray finish. It was a translucent
gray cloudiness on all of the top surfaces of the paint. It was very apparent if you worked a little paint cleaner into a small area in the middle of a large panel like the hood and then removed it. After wiping the worked area clean, you would see very bright, white paint, surrounded by the dingy gray colored paint.
When I first looked at these cars,
I didn’t notice the staining right off because it was evenly dispersed throughout the finish. The contrast of clean and dirty paint hit me like a ton of bricks when I removed the bras. The paint beneath the bras was a clean, bright white. The paint not covered by the bras was gray. It was a dramatic contrast. This drove home the point that paint exposed to the elements over time becomes grayed with embedded dirt on and in the paint.
This dirt revelation caught me somewhat by surprise. I know all about dirt build-up and paint staining. I just never paid much attention to it since it was never so apparent to me before polishing these two white cars and again, that's because in my detailing career I always tended to avoid working on white cars.
Detailing these two white cars taught me something very important. The paint on ALL cars becomes stained and dirty when continually exposed to outdoor environments and inclement weather, it's just on medium to dark colored cars the average person won't see the gray build-up.
Dirt and pollution, both in the air, and the water in the form of road spray on wet roads, accumulates in the pores of the paint. The paint on all cars used as daily drivers becomes cloudy and gray from exposure to outdoor environments and inclement weather, not just cars with white paint (it’s just more apparent on white paint).
The average person cannot see this staining taking place because it happens
slowly over time, and builds-up
evenly over the entire surface, so in most cases, there is never a contrasting section to tip-off the owner that their paint is becoming more cloudy and less clear. This staining effect grays your finish and hides the true color and beauty of the finish. This is especially true on cars with medium to dark colored finishes.
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