Road film left after using ONR

[hollerstiltner]

After using ONR today I noticed that it didn't get all the road film off the vehicle. The dirt was gone, but the film remained. I found I either had to scrub it off or a spay of APC on the panel before cleaning. Has anyone else experienced this? I'm considering adding an ounce of OPC to the mix or to my ONR presoak to see if it cuts through it.

I believe the film must be a slightly oily road grime that ONR doesn't remove as well as a good 2BM wash.

Chris

 

[Vegas Transplant]

Optimum Opti Clean Concentrate, Opticlean cleaner protectant, Optimum all purpose cleaner protectant

Directions:

Dilute 1 part of Optimum Opti™Clean Concentrate with 3 parts water. Spray liberally on painted surfaces and wipe clean with a plush microfiber towel. Fold and use a new section of the towel as needed. For glass and interior surfaces, apply one or two sprays and wipe off with a clean, plush microfiber towel. For lower panels and wheels, spray liberally and let it soak for a few seconds and then wipe off.

 

[2shiny]

to get rid of road film you either have to use a TFR ( Traffic Film Remover) or a cleaner or finishing polish. either way, you will have to renew the protection layer. no shampoo will get rid of it

 

[PiPUK]

I don't have any notable difficulty removing traffic films with a 2BM and wash mitt. No need for polish, no need for new LSP.

 

[hollerstiltner]

Thanks for the help guys. You pretty much confirmed what I was thinking. I'm still a little green at the onr washing and wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Road Film can be an oily film "on" the paint that will wash off.

Over time, road film is more than just an oily film it's also oil mixed with all types of dirt and it impacts "onto" the paint and won't wash off.

I have two recent article on this with lots of pictures and the remedy besides washing.

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.]

Here's the other recent article, and remember... the realy cool hot rod in this picture is GARAGE KEPT

If the paint on a garage kept car gets dirty how much more so does the paint on a daily driver get dirty?

And if your car is NOT a light color, that is it's a dark color, then you're eyes cannot see the build-up of dirt or road film but it's there just the same... and to remove it you need to use,

• Paint Cleaner
• Pre-Wax Cleaner
• Compound or Polish
• Cleaner/Wax

Here you go...



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

Video showing before and after
[video=youtube_share;LzKjGVHlMHA"]Dirt Stained Paint - Why to polish your car's...[/video]​

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...

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Here's a car I detailed for one of my co-workers and in this article I show how to use Pinnacle Paintwork Cleansing Lotion to first clean the paint. All the work was done by hand and a person can work by hand if they like but it's a LOT faster to work by machine.


How to clay, clean and wax paint by hand with Pinnacle Paintwork Cleansing Lotion and Pinnacle Signature Series II Carnauba Paste Wax




While claying will remove above surface bonded contaminants, Pinnacle Paintwork Cleansing Lotion will remove embedded road grime and pollutants as you can see when we compare the applicator pad we used to a brand new, clean applicator pad.

New, never been used clean foam applicator pad

Pinnacle Paintwork Cleansing Lotion removes road grime and dirt that stains the paint and will hinder any wax from bonding to the paint. Besides helping your wax to bond better to the paint by removing embedded road grime and dirt staining, you create a more clear finish which will enable your eyes to see the beauty of the color coat under the clear coat as well as sharpen reflections and increase gloss.

After cleaning half the hood...

:xyxthumbs:

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Here's another article on this topic... any car that's a daily driver is going to need to have the paint cleaned once in a while...


Dirt in Paint or DIP - Stained Paint - Dirt Embedded Paint

Here's an example of what dirty paint looks like, note how where Marius has been machine polishing the green paint is now a lighter, brighter color of green while the un-touched paint has a darker, cloudier look to it.


Here's Marius showing Brandon how use the Porter Cable with Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish to "carefully" clean and polish the original paint after we first rubbed the paint down with #7

I used MS Paint to draw a line around the section to make it easy to see the before and after difference where Marius has buffed and where the original dirty paint remains. This is an example of DIP or Dirt in Paint also called,

• Dirt Staining
• Dirt Embedded Paint
• Stained Paint

Here's the picture, not the difference in the color of green on either side of the black line...

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Dang.... I found another article on this topic...


How to remove stains and embedded dirt out of paint


Paint Staining
Sometimes you'll hear the word stain or staining when talking about the condition of the paint. Another term would be embedded dirt.

The 1963 Galaxy has a modern basecoat/clearcoat finish. After using the Nanoskin Autoscrub Pad over all the horizontal surfaces I removed any and all above surface contaminants. In the video I repeated the baggie test multiple times to check and ensure all the contaminants were removed and in fact they were.

So where does the dirt come from? It's embedded in the microscopic surface imperfections of the paint. Here's a brand new white foam polishing pad next to the single pad I used to machine apply the Optimum GPS.

Purpose and Goal = Restore Clarity & Full Richness of Color
So even if your car's paint looks clean and clear, if the car is a daily driver, parked outside at least for some portion of the day, chances are very good that over time the paint will become stained with embedded dirt and this is why periodically you want to use a cleaner/wax also called an AIO or All-In-One product. A pre-wax cleaner, also called a paint cleaner. Or a dedicated polish as all three of these categories of products will effectively remove any embedded dirt.

The effect of removing embedded dirt is to restore clarity to the clear coat so you eyes can see through the clear coat to the beautiful color underneath.

If you're working on a single stage paint, the effect of removing embedded dirt is to restore the full richness of color.



Quickie Detail

After I decontaminated the paint I did a "quickie" machine wax using a Porter Cable 7424XP with a white foam Lake Country 5.5" polishing pad and Optimum GPS. I don't do a lot of quickie details, especially for cars like this but I was limited with time. Big picture though is the paint was cleaner, more clear and protected when it left.

All clean now...

:xyxthumbs:

 

[2shiny]

some great articles Mike. thanks for clearing things up

 

[Bunky]

You could try something like PB's Bug Squash 1:3 (usually LSP safe) to clean any hard to remove residue.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

some great articles Mike. thanks for clearing things up

I'd say that besides swirls, scratches, water spots and oxidation, the next most common paint issue is road film which over time becomes embedded dirt and impacted dirt.

The thing is, because it build up slowly over time, the average person doesn't see it, especially on darker colored cars.

I actually wrote about this in an article I wrote back in 1997. What's weird is most people that read the article come away from it thinking it's about me not liking white cars. That's actually and factually incorrect. It's about the importance of using some type of product to regularly clean your car's paint to maintain a clean and thus clear finish in the case of a clearcoated car or in the case of a single stage paint, to maintain the full richness of color.


The Lesson White Paint Teaches Us


Plus the article has cool picture of one of the nicest 1959 Cadillacs I ever owned... I should have never sold that car...

 

[hollerstiltner]

Mike, that's some good info there! Thanks for the articles.

Bunky, I need to look into the pb bug squash. That sounds like a good idea, and on my 50mi round trip to work I have plenty of bugs. I've read it does really well, what's your opinion on it?

 

[rdf]

Thanks for getting this thread started, hollerstiltner. Though it evolved past the ONR-only question, it gave me some great information. I wash my cars, 2BM, frequently enough that I figured I was keeping them really clean. I didn't know, until reading Mike's articles, how much buildup you could get that would be resistant to normal washing. My paint still looked pretty good (I thought), but I tested a spot with Pinnacle Paintwork Cleansing Lotion, and the comparison showed there was a brown dingy haze over the paint.

What I'm wondering is, how do the new coatings hold up to non-abrasive products like paintwork cleansing lotions? If I have to remove road film every six months or so, I certainly hope I can do so without removing or degrading the coating which was supposed to last 1-2 years. Hope someone has some empirical data about this.

 

[2shiny]

Thanks for getting this thread started, hollerstiltner. Though it evolved past the ONR-only question, it gave me some great information. I wash my cars, 2BM, frequently enough that I figured I was keeping them really clean. I didn't know, until reading Mike's articles, how much buildup you could get that would be resistant to normal washing. My paint still looked pretty good (I thought), but I tested a spot with Pinnacle Paintwork Cleansing Lotion, and the comparison showed there was a brown dingy haze over the paint.

What I'm wondering is, how do the new coatings hold up to non-abrasive products like paintwork cleansing lotions? If I have to remove road film every six months or so, I certainly hope I can do so without removing or degrading the coating which was supposed to last 1-2 years. Hope someone has some empirical data about this.

I was just gonna ask the same thing. How about with coatings? If they last 2 years, as they are supposed to, how do you clean the roadfilm off of them?

and you are right Mister Philips, you should,'t have sold that car, what a beauty!!!!:xyxthumbs:

 

[hollerstiltner]

I was just gonna ask the same thing. How about with coatings? If they last 2 years, as they are supposed to, how do you clean the roadfilm off of them?

and you are right Mister Philips, you should,'t have sold that car, what a beauty!!!!:xyxthumbs:

It's funny you ask this as I started to wonder about it myself. I'm still planning to put OC2 on my truck and had originally planned on using dg501 and a black or white pad to clean it after using ironx and tarx to remove the majority of the contamination. I was thinking yearly decon. I've read where optimum poliseal was recommended so 501 should work.

I'm now thinking about the paint prep for the new DP coatings as a cleaner instead of an AIO. They should remove any leftover contaminants/stains while not leaving anything that could change to properties of the coating.

This thread has changed from the original does anyone else find OnR to not get everything. It's all good though, I like where it's headed.

 

[steelwindmachine]

What I'm wondering is, how do the new coatings hold up to non-abrasive products like paintwork cleansing lotions? If I have to remove road film every six months or so, I certainly hope I can do so without removing or degrading the coating which was supposed to last 1-2 years. Hope someone has some empirical data about this.

Oldie, but goody thread resurrection, but this prior poster's question didn't get address and after reading through Mike's posts I started to wonder the same thing. If you have a coating, what do you do to remove road grime without potentially impacting the durability/longevity of the coating?

 

[AKT]

Road Film can be an oily film "on" the paint that will wash off.

Over time, road film is more than just an oily film it's also oil mixed with all types of dirt and it impacts "onto" the paint and won't wash off.

I have two recent article on this with lots of pictures and the remedy besides washing.

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...




__________________

Hi Mike - will claying help as well? I do not have a cleaner wax but i have clay

 

[AKT]

Maybe remove all impurities, then coat. If you have a coating, i guess you could do the thorough paint decon every 2 years when you are going to re-coat the car.

Fact: i have never used a coating so my answer is theoretical at best