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I was driving along the other day and must of driven over a wet yellow road line. Needless to say, some of the paint splattered up onto the wheel well and the cladding behind the rear wheel. I am scared to death of trying to clean the cladding for fear of damaging it. I was curious if anyone here had any tips on the removal of this horrible stuff.
Thanks!
http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/da...s/IMAG0020.jpg
Sawzall should get the job done!:winky:
Maybe try blasting it with a pressure washer at the car wash places. I was able to blow off all the clear "Restore Refinish" stuff off my cladding. Maybe if you get to it right away maybe it will come off. And it definitely doesn't hurt the cladding, no matter how close you get with the pressure washer. Good luck.
It's the inner part of the plastic, so you could paint thinner it and wouldn't be too noticeable! Or some rubbing compound may take it off without deforming the plastic in there. It's already smooth inside the wheel well so maybe even try some 1000 grit sand paper. I would try the pressure washer first like Sue advised, because there's a good chance it wouldn't even stick or cure well to dirty/oily plastic anyhow.
Like Kat & Bob said, try to see if the high pressure spray at the car wash will remove at least part of of (I've had good luck with that, too.)
Before you spend any more money, you might try some household cleaners. It may require a little muscle power (as long as it's coming off - even slowly - you're moving in the right direction.)
VX specific...
I would up with a thick glob of tar on my cladding (the textured part below the rear marker where you can see it.) I used plain ol' Bug & Tar Remover to get rid of it and didn't have any discoloring, residual film or change in the texture. Yours should be easier since it's on the smooth part of the cladding. It was a slow process and required a LOT of elbow grease. I mention this product because I've also had good luck using the same stuff to remove road paint from other vehicles.
I also inherited a horrible product meant to darken the cladding called Bondo Restore Black (I DO NOT recommend!) when I bought my VX. I used SuperClean Cleaner/Degreaser to remove it. BE CAREFUL because it's some evil stuff. I accidentally sprayed a few drops on my fuel fill door and it discolored the paint. DO NOT use withing WEARING GLOVES gloves. By the time I was finished my hands looked like hamburger. I used it full strength on my cladding and it didn't harm it at all. In fact, it looked great! That left me with the impression that our cladding is some pretty hearty stuff!
But, it's always best to start with the wimpiest chemicals and only work your way up to the heavier stuff only if needed.
Thanks, I have a few ideas now, though there is a little on the textured parts as well, just not as bad.
I'll let you know how it looks and I start removing this...
I also think you might be able to lightly "pick" some of the specs off with a fingernail w/o damaging the cladding. Or even use a scotch-brite kind of pad to lightly chip it off w/o marring the cladding surface.
Also, would one of those clay bars pull some of it off? I haven't used my clay bar yet, so I don't have any idea how well it work on this. Kind of like when we were kids we used Silly Putty to pick up stuff.
I know clay can be used to take overspray and stuff like that off paint and glass, and I've heard of some people using clay on their wheels, but I dunno about using it on plastic. It shouldn't hurt anything, but I don't know how effective it will be when used on the cladding.
Our cladding plastic is resilient to mineral spirits, while most paints are not, esp when fairly fresh. I'd try that.
Goof-Off may work too. Maybe WD-40???
I had the same issue with yellow paint - just left it and it eventually wore away...
-- John
ROFL
Doable if you drive a Proton. If you drive an Ebony ... not so much.:)
to change that boring old ebony into an exciting Proton VX
Oddly enough, it was a proton that I had my eye on to begin with, but kodiak would not sell. :) But I would not give up my ZEUS for the world!
Once you go ebony, you never go bebony.
Oh yeah... and +1 for what JohnnyApollo said. Another time I got road paint in the wheel well I was too lazy to do anything about it and forgot all about it. Next thing I knew, it had worn off without doing anything.