Dirt "sticks" to paint

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Here's where at least some of the dirt comes from....


Road Film - If you drive your car in the rain your car has road film


Driving in the rain - For most of us it's unavoidable

Road Film
Road film is the oily film splattered all over your car when you drive in the rain.

Where does Road Film come from?

Oils and other fluids that drip out of cars, truck and suvs accumulate on roads and highways over time.

When it rains, these accumulated oils and other fluids mix with the rain and are then splattered all over your car in effect staining you're entire car from top to bottom. The highest concentration of road film accumulates on your wheels, tires and lower body panels.


Just look in the parking space of any parking lot...

Motor Oil, Transmission Fluid, Gear Oil and other fluids

These outlined areas show where fluids have dripped off engines and transmission, even radiators and accumulated to the point that the pavement has been permanently stained.

It's also on roads and highways...

The oil stain line that runs down the middle of the road...

The dark line down the middle of the road
It's the darker, line down the middle of roads and freeways where most of the oily fluids accumulate as car, truck and suvs drive down the road.

Now that you've read this article and looked at the above pictures, you'll remember this every time you look down the road you're driving on.


Remember, oil and water don't mix
When it rains, the cars in front of you spray the rain water mixed in with these accumulated oils onto not only your car's paint but the wheels, tires, glass, plastic, cloth tops and vinyl tops.

If it's on the outside of the car then it's getting coated with oily road film.


Road Film builds up over time..
Oily road film builds up over time and because this film is oily or sticky it attracts dirt. This can be the dirt in the air or also in rain water that's splattered onto your car from the cars driving in front of you.


Can't always be seen...
Because the dirt staining effect caused by road film build up slowly over time it's not always easy to see, especially on black and dark colored cars, but don't be fooled, if you drive in the rain your car is getting coated in road film.


The solution to the problem?
Washing your car will remove any topical road film. The problem is the dirty, oil film will tend to migrate into any voids, pits, pores or interstices in your car's paint at least to the point that normal car washing won't remove it.


It's pretty easy to remove road film, all you have to do is periodically use one of the below approaches,

Use a quality cleaner/wax or AIO. The cleaning agents and/or abrasives in the cleaner/wax will remove any road film that washing could not remove.

Use a dedicated polish by hand or machine. Any high quality polish will effectively remove any built-up road film. Just be sure to apply a wax, sealant or coating afterwards to seal the paint.


Road Film... if you drive your car in the rain it's on your car...




__________________

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Any suggestions on why this is happening

I think I have the "why" covered...

or anything I can use to "seal" the paint so I don't have to keep using the Ultimate compound would be greatly appreciated.

The best way to seal paint now days is by using a coating. Not a car wax or a synthetic paint sealant, but a paint coating.

Here's my article that explains what's what....

3-Categories: Waxes, Paint Sealants and Coatings


The above article can be found in my article list and it's also in the second edition of my how to book in all its forms.

Articles by Mike Phillips


Here's white paint coated....

Cleaned & Coated in 3 Hours - 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee

To the OP

If the car in question is a day driver, and/or a single stage paint, and if you live where the car sees rain so that means spatter off the cars in front of you when you drive in the rain and the car is parked outside at least part of the time, then no matter what you put on the paint you're going to need to do something periodically to keep the paint both clean and protected.

Nothing lasts forever.

That's the purpose of a good cleaner/wax. That is a product that will,

1. Clean
2. Polish
3. Protect

In one step.

Meguiar's NXT Tech Wax is not a true cleaner/wax in the sense of the term and category but it does offer some light chemical cleaning. If NXT Tech Wax wasn't keeping the paint clean you can do one of two things,

1. Apply the NXT more often.

2. Use a true cleaner/wax, something with more cleaning ability.
​

You'll still need to use it 2-3 times a year to maintain that "bright" white look.

 

[CowboyTruckn]

solid in depth answers there. As probably a future owner of a white ram and past white owner this absolutely got my attention. Thank you mr Phillips

 

[GreatAvalon]

I really like the RAM Sport Crew cab w/ the Sport hood on it. Thinking about getting one in a year or two.

 

[07GTCSvert]

I think I have the "why" covered...




The best way to seal paint now days is by using a coating. Not a car wax or a synthetic paint sealant, but a paint coating.

Here's my article that explains what's what....

3-Categories: Waxes, Paint Sealants and Coatings


The above article can be found in my article list and it's also in the second edition of my how to book in all its forms.

Articles by Mike Phillips


Here's white paint coated....

Cleaned & Coated in 3 Hours - 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee

To the OP

If the car in question is a day driver, and/or a single stage paint, and if you live where the car sees rain so that means spatter off the cars in front of you when you drive in the rain and the car is parked outside at least part of the time, then no matter what you put on the paint you're going to need to do something periodically to keep the paint both clean and protected.

Nothing lasts forever.

That's the purpose of a good cleaner/wax. That is a product that will,

1. Clean
2. Polish
3. Protect

In one step.

Meguiar's NXT Tech Wax is not a true cleaner/wax in the sense of the term and category but it does offer some light chemical cleaning. If NXT Tech Wax wasn't keeping the paint clean you can do one of two things,

1. Apply the NXT more often.

2. Use a true cleaner/wax, something with more cleaning ability.
​

You'll still need to use it 2-3 times a year to maintain that "bright" white look.

Thanks, Mike, a lot of really good info.
FYI - I purchased "A complete guide to a show room shine", just haven't had tme to get all the way through it, so you giving me these specifics really helps out.



A couple of questions for you:


1) Once you apply the coating, can you wax or put sealant over it? If so, is it nessesary to do so?

2) If I can put wax/sealant on top of the coating, will I still need to use a cleaner wax, or will the coating protect the dirt from embedding in the paint?


2) How often do you need to do the prep/coating steps again to keep the paint from getting dirt embedded in the paint?

 

[cshamilton]

I've been playing around with a few white cars and products lately. I highly recommend DG501. It's cleaning abilities are incredible. I maintain my wife's white jetta pretty meticulously and I was stunned at what I got off with DG501.

This is for a friend, I'm working on fixing this filthy, disgusting, terrible shape Escalade. This is a terrible phone quality pic of the car the day after the first or second wash, can't remember. After, I foamed with DG901, then with DG901+1oz Zep Citrus. Agitated that solution, and rinsed. Then, Full hand wash, then a second full wash. I was trying pretty hard not to scratch any paint further.

Anyway, I clayed the paint for 4 hours and went through a relatively new Griot's 200g clay bar, and then after almost destroying a second megs consumer clay bar, I went out and got some Megs aggressive and got what I thought was 90% of the contaminants out of the paint. I was out of dg501 so I decided to try out the p21s paintwork cleanser. I used the PC on speed 3 with pretty light pressure, I didn't have the best lighting so I wasn't sure it was working properly, but I did about half of the hood, and was stunned. I used the "on the fly" pad cleaning method and finished the hood. This is what I had afterwards. BRAND NEW PAD, and this was on the hood. Mind you, I was showing my friend how to wash and clay, and 90-95% of the hood passed the "plastic bag test."

Long story short, grab p21s or DG501 or some other paint cleanser or AIO- as everyone else has said.

 

[Methodical]

Welcome to AGO! :welcome





A while back I wrote an article that completely explains what you're describing only I used a streetrod that is garage kept and one of the points I made in the article was that if the paint on a garage-kept streetrod gets stained with dirt then how much more so a daily driver, especially any daily driver that is not garage kept.

Instead of just adding the link to the article, allow me to cop and paste the entire article, too many people are scanners on the Internet and the article is meaty and the pictures tell the story.



Here's why you need to polish paint...

Video showing before and after
Dirt Stained Paint - Why to polish your car's...​

My buddy Mike owns this really cool 1932 Ford Phaeton with yellow paint that to the average person looks pretty good. But a little polishing using a tape-line shows why all of us need to periodically polish the paint on our cars, especially our daily drivers, and the reason for this is because the paint becomes stained with a film of dirt that clouds the true color of the paint.

Here's a section I've taped off on the cowel because me and one of our forum members already buffed out the hood when he stopped by to test out polishers.

On the left I've clayed the paint and then machine polished it twice and then applied a coat of wax. You can clearly see the left side is now a brighter color of yellow and the right hand side has what appears to be grayish film over the paint.

Here's the same picture above with graphics....

Of course I finished polishing the rest of the car to test out some new products...

Products worked well and now the dirt staining has been removed off the entire body and a coat of Max Wax has been applied.

The paint on your car gets dirty too...

The car in the pictures above is a garage-kept, sunny day only street rod, yet... the paint was still stained with dirt.

If the paint on a car that is always stored in a garage except for sunny days gets dirt stained paint, what do you think happens to cars that are daily drivers?

How about cars that are daily drivers but are never parked in the garage?


That's right... the paint gets a dirt film over it and for this reason in order to maintain the paint and see the true color you need to periodically deep clean the paint with some type of paint polishing process. Any of these approaches will remove the dirt staining over the paint,

• Using a one-step cleaner/wax
• Using a paint cleaner also called a pre-wax cleaner.
• Using a compound followed by a polish
• Using a medium, fine or ultra fine cut polish

If the owner of the above car had not used one of the above and instead used a finishing wax, or a finishing sealant, that is a product with no ability to clean the paint, what they would have done is simply "sealed the paint" and continued the staining problem.


Medium to dark colored cars
It's pretty easy to use a tape-line to reveal dirt staining on white and light colored cars but if you were to do this on a medium to dark colored cars, chances are good your eyes would not detect the change in color to the paint.

That doesn't mean the paint on dark colored cars isn't covered with a film of dirt, it just means you and I can't see it. It's there however, and it's important to periodically polish the paint to remove the built-up film of dirt and other contaminants.

Polishing the paint will restore clarity to a clear coat and it will restore the full richness of color to a single stage paint.

It will also prepare the paint for your choice of a wax or sealant.

If you choose to use a paint coating, you'll need to do an extra step to prepare the paint for the coating and it's always a good idea to follow the manufacturer's directions.



Now that you've read this article and looked at the pictures...

When is the last time you polished the paint on your daily driver?


It's probably polishing time...

I agree with this and I am waiting for the good weather, so I can clay, polish and wax for the season.

 

[HateSwirls]

If you want to keep it simple try this.
I find the Chemical Guys P-40 to work great to help keep the paint slick and smooth.
Since I started using it I find it's much easier to wash my cars.
You can also use it as a waterless wash, has wax in it as well.

 

[sunday joe]

Thanks for responding. I do want to mention that the dirt is not sticking to the car, it is actually inbedding itself in the clearcoat or paint.

I am new to the site but I have been detailing my own cars for over 25 years, but have never run into this problem before. I have another vehicle that I have no problems with, and I didn't have any issues with the 4Runner until after I brought it to the detailer.

When waxing a vehicle I take the following steps:
1) Wash vehicle
2) Clay vehicle
3) Apply Ultimate compound
4) Remove Ultimate compound
5) Apply glaze/polish
6) Remove glaze/polish
7) Apply wax
8) Remove wax
FYI - using the word remove in these steps refers to wiping the haze away, not totally removing it by way of dish detergent or equivalent


I didn't want to say it, but is it possible the detailer was too aggressive and ate all the way through the clear coat? Is there a way to tell? There were some areas on the truck that had spots I couldn't remove by hand, that is why I brought it to the detailer in the first place. It just doesn't make sense to me that the dirt can seep through the wax and embed itself in the clearcoat.

You may not have much clearcoat left after compounding so often. Perhaps your detailer took off a lot also. You could ask at a paint shop to measure the CC thickness . You
would know then how much you had to work with.
Bill 1234 has good advice .
Good luck.

 

[ShaunD]

Just looked online for the type of paint on a 98 4runner and everywhere I saw it called natural white clearcoat. It is an off-white single stage. The name is kinda misleading but, from the pics and discussion on the 4runner forum, it is definitely SS. This is traditional of Toyota and the only clear coat I have seen on white Toyotas is the plastics that are painted. After and compounding or polishing steps I would do a 12-15% ipa wipe down before applying the lsp. This can at least eliminate a possible cause for the situation you're dealing with. One thing that happens, especially with SS paint, is after you have compounded/polished the harder outer layer, a softer layer of paint is exposed. This could possibly be why it appears to be more absorbent. Something like the Pinnacle Black Label coating with the coating prep may help alleviate this issue.

 

[Methodical]

I'm new here. Is there an acronyms page or link around here? I see lots of acronyms thrown around and I don't know what they all mean.

Thanks

 

[mdgrwl]

I'm finally done using "WAX" as my LSP. I too find dirt is attracted to it vs. coatings.

 

[MattPersman]

I had a white car as my last car and it did the same thing I used ZAIO or duragloss 501 by hand to make it look great every couple weeks. White is tough like that but it's typically only you that sees it, much better choice than black lol.