Matte Black

[mis3]

I was in my condo garage the other day and overheard a dispute between the maintenace company and a condo owner.
He has a fairly new SL550 with matte black exterior. The roof of the garage leaked and there were white liquid stuff dried on his hood.

I am curious. How should this be cleaned off? Since it is matte black, I cannot use traditional meguiars cleaners/waxes.

[Michael Stoops]

This is going to be tricky at best. Unless whatever that white stuff is on the paint comes off with just a quick detailer or a wash, the owner could have a major problem on his hands. As you already know, based on your last comment, that anything with any level of abrasives in it is going to start imparting at least some gloss, you can't use a paint cleaner to remove this stuff. Any scrubbing of any kind is going to potentially do the same thing - part of the reason why it's often recommended to not even clay a matte paint finish.

You may find that a glass cleaner, distilled white vinegar or body solvent works best, if it works at all. Of course, whether those or anything else work is also going to depend on just what this substance is. Any clue what might have leaked out of the garage roof? Just some really hard water that left a huge calcium deposit on the roof? Well, "just" is sort of inaccurate since a serious calcium deposit may have etched into the paint, and then he's really in trouble. The distilled white vinegar can do wonders if the calcium deposit is fresh, but if it's seriously etched in, game over.

[mis3]

I passed by the SL today and the car was OK. No idea how they cleaned it.

I am not sure if I like these new matte colors. It looks cool but I prefer the shiny look of regular paint and clear coat. On top of this, it seems extremely hard to maintain the paint. There is no way to correct the paint. How do I remove bird droppings, tree sap, scratches, etc.

[Michael Stoops]

You can remove bird droppings and tree sap with traditional methods, but if that bird dropping etches the paint, or you get a scratch, then you're stuck. You can no longer use any sort of an abrasive product to remove those below surface defects without creating a shiny spot. Over the weekend we saw a brand new BMW 6 Series Gran Coupe in a matte metallic brown color that was just absolutely gorgeous, but again, keeping it looking that way is going to be tricky down the line.