GM white paint... whats the deal

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CacheHX

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ok so the other day my buddy was washin his white gmc pickup i think its about a 2003. he told me to come look at his paint... so i did... his whole paint job is speckled with what appears to be rust comin up through the paint... figured it was just something with that particular pickup... (he has always taken immaculate care of it too...)


but then last night I pulled my moms white 09 gmc yukon in the shop just to wash it.... ended up finding the same thing all over it too...


I tryed taken some pics but my camera just wont capture it.


so what the heck? is this pure bad luck or does GM have problems with white paint?
 
im seeing it too and it might be rail dust or industrial fallout but it will come off with clay .. im upselling all my details on white gm truck by claying a section then having the customer feel the difference in the clarity and smoothness of the surface ..makes product removal easier too
 
Do you live/work/park anywhere around trains tracks? It could very well be rail dust. I live 2 blocks away from a train station so a lot of the cars in my area are plagued with it. The rail dust bonds to paint work and through moisture and time starts to rust on the paint. I would give claying a try first and see if it will remove the spotting.
 
I've seen that on a number of cars, not just GM, not just white. Likely cause was rail car brake dust. It embeds in the paint during transit and if it isn't removed using clay bar, what you see is what happens after a while.

Your Yukon is an '09 so you have a fighting chance - use clay and then a full machine polish followed by sealer.

Regards,
GEWB
 
Common on most white vechiles. Claying removes it but you have put a little passion behind the clay bar.
 
from what my buddy talked like... it comes back consistently (some places are worse than others and always come back consistently)

Is this your experience that it comes back?
 
rail dust makes sense.... but we live in a small farm town. there is a set of tracks but very rarely a train and dont live close to it
 
Haha.. Trust me, it travels. How else do you explain dust that gets picked up over here in America ends up in Europe. :laughing: Give claying a try. If that doesnt work then the next step is a Decontamination Wash. A clay will only sheer off bonded contaminates on the top of the paint but if the rail dust has had to chance to embed itself than the rusting will always return. A Decon wash will actually dissolve/remove the iron particles instead of shearing off the top portion of the rust.
 
hmm interesting I will have to give it a try an see what happens. thanks
 
i know of a decon wash but i havent tried it because i dont do that many of these cars
 
CacheHX said:
ok so the other day my buddy was washin his white gmc pickup i think its about a 2003. he told me to come look at his paint... so i did... his whole paint job is speckled with what appears to be rust comin up through the paint... figured it was just something with that particular pickup... (he has always taken immaculate care of it too...)


but then last night I pulled my moms white 09 gmc yukon in the shop just to wash it.... ended up finding the same thing all over it too...


I tryed taken some pics but my camera just wont capture it.


so what the heck? is this pure bad luck or does GM have problems with white paint?
Click to expand...

If both of these cars have a clear coat finish then the problem isn't related to white paint, it's just that the white paint is showing the rust colored stains easier to your eyes.

If you parked identical cars in the place where this damage happened, but one was a clear coated white car and one was a clear coated black car, it's pretty safe to assume the same type of damage or contamination would happen to both paint finishes.

The difference is that with the white color you'll be able to see the damage to to the contrast factor between the color white and burnt orange where as with the clear coated black car it not going to be visually apparent.

Make sense?


gewb said:
I've seen that on a number of cars, not just GM, not just white. Likely cause was rail car brake dust. It embeds in the paint during transit and if it isn't removed using clay bar, what you see is what happens after a while.
Click to expand...

Just to note, claying won't alway fix the problem permanently. Claying acts like sand paper and abrades off particles that are sticking up on top of the surface. It can "pull" contaminants out of the paint but it primarily works by sanding or shearing contaminants off the surface and then the tackiness of the clay holds the contaminants onto itself.

If in fact rail dust, which is steel particles, are embedded into the paint, if the tops of the metal particles are abraded off but the rest of the particle is left inside the paint then the problem or orange speckles of discoloration will just come back.

Here are two companies that offer a chemical solution to the problem versus a mechanical approach, (mechanical approach = claying or sanding).



Note I didn't link to their specific product pages because,

A) The URL Code for the Finish Kare product page isn't correct and will become corrupted.

B) The URL Code for the ValuGard page changes over time and that would make my link above a dead link

So the links to to what appears to be pages that will endure over time and from there you can search around for the specific information you need.


Autogeek stocks the Finish Kare Decontamination System

Finish Kare Paint Decontamination System



:)
 
Grizzly said:
Common on most white vechiles. Claying removes it but you have put a little passion behind the clay bar.
Click to expand...
Agreed!
I have a white 2003 Chevy Truck as well, and I work next to (truck is parked less than 50') railroad tracks. This is also in the industrial center of the city.

Claying is regular for me on it. The rust spots tack some passion like Grizzly said - but they will come off.

DLB
 
Mike I use the Valuegard system have for around 5 years now & it works great. If you buy the kit it comes with a super soft scrubber that take everything off without scratching. If anyone buys it they will love it.
Great info as always Mike.
 
The trucks are shipped from the assembly plant (many times in Mexico or Canada) via train. The vehicles are not sealed off to any of the elements, so any and all rail dust will land on them (plus get baked on by sun and rain). Of course the dealers will not try to remove it, since most people would never notice. So many times these specs have lived on the vehicle for quite some time. White vehicles show these specs more than other colors, but my silver truck (made in Mexico) was coated with them. Clay gets them out eventually. Use stronger clay if you have it. I purchased the FK1 Decontamination stuff, but have yet to use it. Given how much I love the 1119 and 425 I'm expecting the rest of their stuff to work as advertised.
 
my understanding has been that a lot of it is brake dust, although i could be very wrong. if its brand new i would assume it was rail rust or possibly from the truck it was hauled on. as stated before it ends up on all vehicles(look at a silver or pewter vehicle very closely especially behind the tires and rear hatch and im sure you will find some. whatever it may be is recurring and will be part of a general maintenance routine.
 
CacheHX I thought the same thing the first time I noticed those rust colored dots on the paint so I understand your concern.

Claying took hours to remove those contaminates because although the surface was smooth as glass after claying the contaminates were still visable (to a lesser extent then prior to claying) so I kept on claying and claying and claying. I had Wolfgang Paintwork Polish Enhancer which is basically a pre-wax cleaner so it finally occured to be that I should give that a try. since the paint was already clayed the cleaner removed the rest of the dots easier and quicker then if I had continued to clay the paint.

I would suggest a thorough claying and then using the wg paintwork polish enhancer ( i am sure there are other cleaners out there by other brands but i love wolfgang and its the only prewax cleaner ive tried). it is definitely a lengthy process but the job will be done right.

I have not tried the decontamination kit and I trust Mike Phillips recommendation that its probably the ideal solution to the problem but claying and then cleaning the paint will remove the dots to the naked eye.

Now question for Mike Phillips, just because I dont see the contaminates any longer after my process above, does it mean that theyre gone or so small that they wont damage the paint?

And all you people with dark colored cars need to spend a little more time claying and decontaminating your paint!!
 
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