I've got overspray on a newly purchased car, claying/compounding/polishing is do little to nothing to remove it. What are my next options?

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Richie311

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Pretty much what the title says. Previous owner had the headlights restored and the person used some sort of clear gloss paint to seal it. He didn't quite tape and cover everything so there's a decent amount of overspray on it. And in the right lights it's extremely noticeable.
Claying and polishing did absolutely nothing. Compounding seems to be sort of taking it off slightly but it seems to be more or less just polishing the overspray if that makes sense.
What are my next options?
 
Maybe a light wetsand with 2500 or 3000 grit, but unless you're totally comfortable doing so I wouldn't recommend it.
 
If compounding doesn't do it, you have two options. Wet sand or razor blade.
 
Richie311 said:
Pretty much what the title says. Previous owner had the headlights restored and the person used some sort of clear gloss paint to seal it. He didn't quite tape and cover everything so there's a decent amount of overspray on it. And in the right lights it's extremely noticeable.
Claying and polishing did absolutely nothing. Compounding seems to be sort of taking it off slightly but it seems to be more or less just polishing the overspray if that makes sense.
What are my next options?
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Welcome to the forum. First off, some pictures would be helpful. Secondly, you said you used clay. Can you please explain what grade clay you used??
Also, you stated you compounded, what what pads, what tool, what products??

I would not jump right to wet-sanding OEM paint (there are other methods to exhaust before going that route), Be aware that the edges around headlight fittings, corners and seams are areas have thin layers of paint and CC. Read this article first: Clearcoats are thin by Mike Phillips

Secondly, I would try a heaver grade of clay, start with a medium. There is a possibility you may end up marring the paint, however, polishing with a DA, product/pad combo will eliminate the marring. See this video: YouTube

Mineral spirits may be another option.

For compounding, try using a microfiber applicator with a fair amount of product and work it in by hand over in small sections where there is overspray. You can exert more force in a tight area, you may have to go over the area with a DA/Polish.

Hope this helps!
 
LSNAutoDetailing said:
Welcome to the forum. First off, some pictures would be helpful. Secondly, you said you used clay. Can you please explain what grade clay you used??
Also, you stated you compounded, what what pads, what tool, what products??

I would not jump right to wet-sanding OEM paint (there are other methods to exhaust before going that route), Be aware that the edges around headlight fittings, corners and seams are areas have thin layers of paint and CC. Read this article first: Clearcoats are thin by Mike Phillips

Secondly, I would try a heaver grade of clay, start with a medium. There is a possibility you may end up marring the paint, however, polishing with a DA, product/pad combo will eliminate the marring. See this video: YouTube

Mineral spirits may be another option.

For compounding, try using a microfiber applicator with a fair amount of product and work it in by hand over in small sections where there is overspray. You can exert more force in a tight area, you may have to go over the area with a DA/Polish.

Hope this helps!
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View attachment 63118View attachment 63119

On the picture on the right directly right of the headlight is where I've tried various clays and compounding. The clays I used were from the Meguiar's G1016 kit and the Mother's California Gold Clay kit which I believe are not aggresive. Could you reccomend some medium and heavy grades of clay? The Compounding tools i used were a Griot's 6" DA, Meguiar's compounding MF pad, and GG's BOSS Fast Correcting Cream. I also tried it with an Orange LCC pad. I did this several times and got basically no where besides the overspray only getting a bit more polished.

I should also say the car is a '08 Lexus ES350 which I've been told has fairly soft paint(which looking at the chips/blemishes on the hood I'd agree) so I'm hesitant to try really aggresive methods like Wetsand and razor blades but I'm not afraid to if it will get me started.
 
Richie311 said:
View attachment 63118View attachment 63119

On the picture on the right directly right of the headlight is where I've tried various clays and compounding. The clays I used were from the Meguiar's G1016 kit and the Mother's California Gold Clay kit which I believe are not aggresive. Could you reccomend some medium and heavy grades of clay? The Compounding tools i used were a Griot's 6" DA, Meguiar's compounding MF pad, and GG's BOSS Fast Correcting Cream. I also tried it with an Orange LCC pad. I did this several times and got basically no where besides the overspray only getting a bit more polished.

I should also say the car is a '08 Lexus ES350 which I've been told has fairly soft paint(which looking at the chips/blemishes on the hood I'd agree) so I'm hesitant to try really aggresive methods like Wetsand and razor blades but I'm not afraid to if it will get me started.
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Welcome to AG! Wow...did the owner do that himself? I would hope someone didn't charge him to do that to the car. If I'm seeing that picture right it doesn't look like they taped it very much at all? Not knowing exactly what it is, or how long it's been on there it's hard to make a recommendation. I think I might try mineral spirits on a spot and see if that does anything.
 
DaveT435 said:
Welcome to AG! Wow...did the owner do that himself? I would hope someone didn't charge him to do that to the car. If I'm seeing that picture right it doesn't look like they taped it very much at all? Not knowing exactly what it is, or how long it's been on there it's hard to make a recommendation. I think I might try mineral spirits on a spot and see if that does anything.
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He said a friend tried, and it's been on there a few weeks. I've tried paint thinner to no avail, I'll give MS a try and see what that does.
 
Are you referring to this area?

overspray.jpg


I would always try the least aggressive method first. Starting with a heavier clay: Meguiars Professional Detailing Clay Aggressive - C2100
Then as stated above mineral spirits, and or a paint cleanser. You could also take a small amount of M105 or M101 on a microfiber applicator and work a small area by hand.

Wet sand would be last resort, and if you opted, I'd start w/ 3m Trizact (5000) if possible. It would be a "scuff-n-buff", meaning a very few light section passes, with no pressure. You're only looking to remove the contaminants bonded to the paint, not level the paint as you would doing paint-correction. And you would have to use the rule of thumb as you get close to the body line on the wheel-well. That body line paint will be very thin, so measure your thumb nail from line, and mask it off with tape... Don't go near the body-line.
 
Are you referring to this area?
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I would always try the least aggressive method first. Starting with a heavier clay: [url]https://www.autogeek.net/meprdeclag.html
Then as stated above mineral spirits, and or a paint cleanser. You could also take a small amount of M105 or M101 on a microfiber applicator and work a small area by hand.

Wet sand would be last resort, and if you opted, I'd start w/ 3m Trizact (5000) if possible. It would be a "scuff-n-buff", meaning a very few light section passes, with no pressure. You're only looking to remove the contaminants bonded to the paint, not level the paint as you would doing paint-correction. But be cautious and use the "rule of thumb." As you start to get to the crease or body line of the wheel well, that body line is going to be very thin on paint. It would take nothing to burn right over that body line.
 
Rsurfer said:
If compounding doesn't do it, you have two options. Wet sand or razor blade.
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Can you give us a tutorial of how to take a razor blade to the paint? Your car’s black.. Demonstrate on yours? Lol.
 
Either the earlier aggressive clay mentioned, or the Optimum Black Clay.
 
At the body shop, we've always been able to clay off over sprays on paint. Kind of surprised it didn't work for you. We were able to remove primer that got on the paint as well!

There were times we had to clay a long time before getting results. I would suggest to keep claying until results are noted. Can be up to 50-80 times or about 10 min or longer.

Tom
 
TMQ said:
At the body shop, we've always been able to clay off over sprays on paint. Kind of surprised it didn't work for you. We were able to remove primer that got on the paint as well!

There were times we had to clay a long time before getting results. I would suggest to keep claying until results are noted. Can be up to 50-80 times or about 10 min or longer.

Tom
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I'm gonna pick up some aggressive clay tomorrow and give that a go first. I went over various areas with the clay have for about 2 hours straight. Well over 100 times on each main area. My clay may just not be heavy enough.

Really hope I dont have to wet sand it.
 
Eldorado2k said:
Can you give us a tutorial of how to take a razor blade to the paint? Your car’s black.. Demonstrate on yours? Lol.
Click to expand...

I did, but it was a beater and it did take off the overspray without damaging the paint.
 
How about trying a fallout remover. What a nightmare people do dumb things sometimes huh
 
View attachment 63242

So wanted to give a slight update, haven't had time to sit down and try the things you guys mentioned until today. Mineral Spirits/wax and grease remover/aggressive clay all did absolutely nothing. So I bit the bullet and decided to try some wet sanding. Started at 3k then worked my way through polishing with 3.5" yellow LC pad and Griot's FCC then a LC 3.5 Green pad with Meguiar's 102. If I didn't like the results I would up the aggressiveness of the sand paper then work my way back down. What you see above is 1500->2000->3000->LCC Yellow/FCC but NOT polished with M102 yet as It's lunch time with the GF now and I don't wanna be late. The blemishes and spots you see are rock chips as Lexus apparently makes it paint out of the softest material known to mankind.

Over all I'm okay with the results, you wouldn't know it if I told you that it was there but if you get close you can see the "line" where the overspray clear coat meats the factor paint. I think I might be able to get it out but it will take some time.

I should also say what exactly is happening as I'm not totally removing the over-spray. The clear coat the guy used, I found out after contacting the friend, was Max 2k Clear coat. And the reason it has oversrpay to begin with is the newspaper that he used to cover the hood after taping it was apparently really crappy and the clear coat soaked through it after about 8 coats. Max 2k is some serious stuff so basically what I'm doing is just polishing out the over-spray and leveling the bumps from it.

So now I gotta work on the rest of the car since I have some sort of hope of getting it out. Better than nothing I suppose.
 
Thanks! Also I should say I used m205 for polish not 102.
 
LOL, he put 8 coats of clear on the headlights?
 
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