Please give me some insight before I go do this job removing paint over spray!!!

[The Wash Doc]

Hey guys, I always know I can come to MOL to get re-assured everything's going to be ok! Anyways, I have a customer who says he has paint over spray all over his truck and wants me to come out and get it off. Now I know usually people jump for a clay bar for this type of thing, but I remember when I first started out in the detailing business, I had to remove over spray on a black tahoe and just with a clay bar and my god, it took like 3 days! I tried to do some research before I go to see if maybe there's an easier method and I came across this dude on youtube who removes over spray for a living and his method is to wash the car and dry, then wax the car but dont buff off. Then try claying the waxed surface and see if that removes the paint and if not, use a carbon razor to scrape across the overspray, leveling it, then use the clay bar to remove the rest of it. Then after he did all that, he applied a polish and buffed and that was it. The whole method kinda sounds screwey to me but the finished result on all the cars he did in the you tube videos looked excellent! Can anyone please help and if that method is trash, please tell me before I go and implement it!

[Markus Kleis]

Re: Please give me some insight before I go do this job removing paint over spray!!!

That method seems wild to me - to say the least.

The whole first step seems pointless. Where he is actually doing the work is with a blade, which in turn scratches the paint (most likely) and then he fixes that with a polishing step.

As for how easily it will or won't come off, it depends on the paint type and how long it has been on there. Sometimes a claybar will easily pull overspray off, other times (as you experienced) it can take much longer. Do you know what the overspray is from?

[The Wash Doc]

Re: Please give me some insight before I go do this job removing paint over spray!!!

Hey Mark, thanks for replying back! I went out to do his truck earlier and I couldn't do it and it sucked because I missed out on that money! I tried everything that I actually had with me and it wasnt working. I wasn't about to take a razor blade to anybodys vehicle, espicially for the first time ever, so I just washed the truck and then begin to clay bar it, and I clayed the hell out of the surface and this paint wasn't coming off, it wasn't paint like I've removed before with a clay bar, I couldnt even chip it off with my fingernail. So when the clay bar didn't work, I tried using some Ultimate Compound and it actually got rid of three big scratches that were in the area I was working in, but the paint speckles were still there! I would really like to learn what I did wrong or learn what I can do next time because that really bummed me out having to leave without being able to do the job! Thanks in advance for your feedback ! Oh, the guy said that his apartments had been spraying new paint to the buildings (or parking lot?) and thats what had gotten all over his black truck, and it had been sitting in for at least a week if that tells you anything!

[wifpd4]

Re: Please give me some insight before I go do this job removing paint over spray!!!

Doc,

I have limited experience with your problem, but here's my story. A client brought his son's car to me to remove yellow traffic marking paint. The son had driven on fresh traffic marking paint and around here, and I'm sure everywhere, they sprinkle glass beads on the fresh paint to make it more reflective. The wheel wells were coated with a solid trail of yellow bumps. On the driver's side, the car was peppered with yellow bumps.

I tried clay! It didn't budge it. I was fearful of using a buffer and compound for fear of scratching the surface with dislodged beads. I read what I could on the Internet and a chemical paint remover was recommended. I bought it at an automotive paint store. Again no luck. I went to the City's street maintenance department. They gave me a can of the paint remover I already had purchased.

I told the client I had failed. He took it to a body shop. They replaced the wheel wells and sanded some of the body and painted. The client made a claim on his insurance.

I can't do what I can't do, can you?

Search the Internet, you will find companies that travel to you to fix this kind of problem. Plus there is a video, don't have the link, of a guy using a razor blade.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Please give me some insight before I go do this job removing paint over spray!!!

Wash Doc, which clay bar did you use? Consumer clays like ours and our competition that you usually find at auto parts stores are pretty mild and can easily be challenged by extreme over spray. Our C2100 red aggressive professional clay is far more aggressive that any of the readily available clays at auto parts stores and usually removes even very heavy overspray. And by heavy we mean a large volume of overspray, or even old overspray, such as you would get from spray painting something nearby, but NOT very large blobs of paint such as those kicked up by driving over freshly painted road lines. In fact, this aggressive red clay can be so aggressive that it will often haze the paint a bit, which is why we don't recommend it for more "normal" claying processes. But if the plan was to remove the overspray and machine polish anyway, then you've got the perfect case for C2100.