Hi all

Been to get my beloved VRS cleaned today and it seems to be coated in some kind of irremovable crap... I do lots of motorway driving and don't recall going over/near anything that might have been sprayed/coated. I've cleaned it twice now and I can't seem to find anything that will cut through it. I've resorted to dry buffing the surface with a j cloth, but I don't have the time or patience to do the whole car.

Anyone got any suggestions of what might remove it?

Clay bar .

Meguiars Smooth Surface Clay Kit from Halfords Price £23.99 3 For 2 On ALL Car Cleaning Products

There is a cheaper kit around iirc

HTH

Did you try, on a small area, a mild solution of petrol in water?

Try some glass cleaner. Autoglym Fast Glass is supposed to be safe for cleaning muck off paintwork. I've used it on small patches of tar and it's been fine.

It would help if you could post up a couple of pics of whatever it is thats stuck on.

But without seeing, I'd agree with fatty that clay bar is probably your best bet

I'm recommend stop trying to remove it by 'dry buffing' immediately :eek: - you may risk severely damaging your paintwork, seeing as you don't know what it is.

We'd need to see more info about what it is, but I may use clay as a 2nd line approach, after using a degreasing agent over the paintwork, or perhaps a paint cleaner. For degreasing, I'd use Virosol or Meg's APC in a strong concentration.

Whichever method you choose the paint will need protecting afterwards (sealant/wax, or both).

Steve

Clay bar .

Meguiars Smooth Surface Clay Kit from Halfords Price £23.99 3 For 2 On ALL Car Cleaning Products

There is a cheaper kit around iirc

HTH

Totally agree!!

Just clayed and then polished mine after it got covered in some unknown sticky grime and its now smooth as....well you know :-)

I took it to a local valet company (Metro Valeting in Gateshead) as I couldn't be on with spending hours using a clay bar (although it was a very good suggestion - thanks) and asked them if they could sort it...

They managed to polish it out/off in about 30 mins, polished the rest of the car and were excellent. No idea what the 'crap' was, but it only seemed to be at the rear and rear sides of the car and didn't come off by washing it - can only assume it was something oil based...

If it happens again I'll post some pictures.

Cheers for all the suggestions.

Just as an addition and for anyone looking at this in the future, I'd personally recommend the Bilt Hamber clay bar over Meguiars for three reasons:

1. You get a lot more bar for your money so lasts longer. It's only about £12-14

2. They do two different grades of clay bar so you can choose depending on how cacked up the car is.

3. You don't need to use detailing spray as a lubricant like with, I think, all other clay bars. You just use water as the lubricant instead so that cuts the cost down as well, and obviously you don't have to worry if you're using too much or too little and whether you're gonna run out and have to find somewhere that's got detailing spray in stock.

Just an opinion. :P

Also as an aside, Autoglym Fast Glass is partly designed to take the white polish residue you might leave on black trim after a good detailing session. Personally, I mask off the black strips with 3m blue waterproof tape (code 3434) but it's still handy to know!

Might try the Bilt Hamber clay next time

Steve

Might try the Bilt Hamber clay next time

Steve

Maybe split some Steve? Get both flavours and have half of each? Could sort it out at the Stretton Fox meet.

Worth a whirl Andy, yeah. Got a few details likely to be undertaken over the spring/summer so likely to be a need

Steve

It's good stuff!

Personal regime is:

Bilt Hamber clay

Shampoo using double bucket & grit guard method

Dry with decent towel, eg. Chemical Guys Miracle Dryer or Sonus Der Wunder

AutoGlym Super Resin Polish

AutoGlym Extra Gloss Protection

Collinite #915 (although #476s is also good, it just has less carnauba wax than 915)

While we're here, I also recommend Chemical Guys Jetseal 109 for putting on alloys over SRP. Keeps brake dust off well and makes weekly cleaning quite easy. Just washes away all the usual road crap. Valet Pro Bilberry Wheel Cleaner gets good write-ups too for the initial clean. It's not abrasive or harsh.

Personal choices, but it all works for me,

To be honest, If you keep a fairly tidy car, you should only need the Bilt Hamber Autoclay (soft) for regular cleaning but they recommended to get the normal Autoclay (slughtly cheaper) for the first time.

For your perusal from Elite Car Care's website:

The new softer auto-clay compliments the existing firmer bar. Its ideally suited for claying intricate areas of modern panel folds and folding the bar to reveal clean clay is going to make the whole process quicker too.

While we would suggest that our original bar is still preferred for the super-smoothing of not previously clayed paint, or removing overspray, the soft bar is a perfect more routine compliment to it, allowing the more regular detailer to keep silky smooth paintwork with the absolute minimum of effort and fuss.

Both of the Bilt-Hamber auto-clay bars are formulated with finely divided low hardness minerals so that the abrasive effect is reduced when compared to other brands. Both still use just water as a lube (so you can now save money by not needing lube for 2 different consistencies of clay) and both will continue to rely on their shear effect to remove contamination rather than wearing away the embedded matter. Clay bars that rely on abrasion abrade paint too, and yes.. Soft Clay will be gentler.

Unlike many other clays on the market, Auto-clay is formulated to use normal tap water for lubrication. Some clay bars contain surfactants such as powdered detergents or soaps and long-term use of these can have adverse effects on paint systems - Auto-clay contains no surfactants, detergents, soaps or other soluble materials.

Grit contamination cannot be removed by washing, waxing or polishing. Cutting compounds remove a thin layer of paint but still leave the grit behind. Auto-clay is a superior synthetic clay bar which effortlessly lifts contamination from paint surfaces, leaving them super smooth. It also comes in a neat plastic box for storage between uses.

Even more user friendly from the pack - soft and pliable.

Perfect for more regular work.

Improves durability

Gentler action.

Still water compatible.

Still a big 200g - twice what you get with many other bars.

Comes in a plastic sealable container

I'm personally a fan of the blue 3M clay bar (and their imperial hand glaze, but that's another topic...)

Much, much stickier than the Meguairs one - although I do use it with the Megs quick detailing spray as a lubricant.

Yeah, horses for courses. I just like being able to use autoclay with a garden hose spray head trickling almost permanantly on my paintwork to lubricate it. I do have some Meguiars Last Touch detailing spray (which smells FANTASTIC!!!) but I only use it for actual detailing; to wipe off dust with a microfibre and the odd bird poop when it happens.

I took it to a local valet company (Metro Valeting in Gateshead) as I couldn't be on with spending hours using a clay bar (although it was a very good suggestion - thanks) and asked them if they could sort it...

They managed to polish it out/off in about 30 mins, polished the rest of the car and were excellent. No idea what the 'crap' was, but it only seemed to be at the rear and rear sides of the car and didn't come off by washing it - can only assume it was something oil based...

If it happens again I'll post some pictures.

Cheers for all the suggestions.

My guess is that it was tar from a newish road surface given the location - if you get to it quickly it's sticky like treacle but if left it will go hard and seem impossible to get off. There are plenty of branded tar removers around but best bet in the future would be to try some WD40 - their website specifically recommends it for this use and says it is totally safe for car paintwork, and in this suing culture they wouldn't say that unless basically correct!