Fingerprints on paint from sunblock

[NZ ECO1]

Hi all,
I haven't struck this before so I thought I would throw it out for some help. I was doing a basic exterior clean on a customers 1996 Toyota Prado (Mid sized 4WD for those of you outside NZ or Aussie) and there are finger and palm prints over about 30% of the paintwork which customer advises were caused by having sunblock on their hands. Washing the car didn't have any effect on them at all (although they did "disappear" while the car was wet).I tested a little UC on a foam pad by hand which improved them by about 50% but with the car that age the UC also markedly improved the surrounding paint. To go over every spot affected this way would leave the paint in a rather patchwork state. Before recommending to the customer I DA polish the whole thing has anyone struck this before who could comment on the likely results so far as removing the fingerprints this way is concerned? I don't want to overstate the likely results to the customer. I did also try a little tar removing solvent to see if that angle worked - they disappeared at first but returned as soon as the solvent was wiped away/dried.

Thanks for all your help.

Stephen

[Detailing by M]

Re: Fingerprints on paint from sunblock

sounds like your going to have to buff the whole car. I's try 205 on a mf cutting pad and see what that does. If that doesn't work then 105 should remove it with no problem.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Fingerprints on paint from sunblock

From the description it sounds as though you're dealing with some faded, oxidized paint that has been partly rejuvenated by the oils in the sunblock that was inadvertently applied to the paint. As you stated, even using a bit of Ultimate Compound by hand makes the paint look better, so this just further reinforces this. A once over with UC on a polishing pad with the DA should clear everything up and make the paint look much better overall. It's a win-win, really, since not only do you clear up the sunblock hand prints but you restore the finish to a higher level than it currently is.

Come to think of it, you might even be able to get away with a good one step cleaner wax via DA to fix it all, and wax it, in a single step. Do a test spot first though just to make sure this actually does what we're hoping it will.