Massive Black Dot Problem

My first thought was a clay bar, then I googled "clay bar sap" and came up with some other interesting possibilities. You might check them out.

Try clay magic or a similar, the stuff is amazing. I've used it for years, and it takes off everything. Rusted brake dust, sap, bird crap, paint scrapes from other cars, tar, and paint overspray, to name a few.

Lane [ l a n e @ p a i r . c o m ]

Can you tell me how to spell "Aquasol"? We can't find it, and keep looking.

Re: clay bar: be says he's tried this, and didn't work. I did the Google search another poster recommended "clay bar & sap." my husband looked at the results and either all were clay bar type products he's tried or other types of things he's tried.

Yes, we can open a store about now.

Jenny

Try Maquires or Mothers clay bar that shoud get most of the spots off. Once clean, wash with maguires Gold, then wax with maguires Gold Class wax (no, I work for neither, I just love thier products) then seal your paint with Dupont Teflon spray wax.

If you are unable to park anywhere else, also consider a car cover. The Teflon will stop anything from sticking to your paint, just wipe stuff off.

after that, just wash the car with the gold class then spray the Dupont Teflon on with the car still wet, wipe and let dry then buff to a shine. Youj can get these products from any autpo parts store and they are inexpensive.

Cheers! marx404

I hope I'm not being annoying, but this was John's response when I emailed him the suggestion:

taking off the residue left after I scraped the big dot off.<

- Jenny

Thank you! ~ I hadn't seen this... I forwarded it to him.

Jennie

Its worth a shot anyways. I have had good luck with all of the affore mentioned products. At last resort, if those trees are indiginous why not stop by a local Saturn dealership and speak with a professional detailer?

marx404

Turns out he said he'd tried just that one - the brand that was posted. My husband called a friend of his last night (a mechanic? works with cars somehow) for an opinion and I believe left a message.

My dealership moved away--far away; they closed--but I can certainly call the next closest one. That's a good idea. You should see our cars - hideous. People even comment: "What is that on your car?"

Jen

I am currently working on an insurance claim right now for the same problem. The person we insure has alot of black dots that actually sit above the paint. If you scratch at them they will cause a pit in the paint . She isnt sure where they came from . Initially blamed it as acid from the battery plant where she works but I am sure thats not it .

I know we , as mechanics , used to use a product called "acrosol" which was a solvent. I cant check the spelling since I am in the middle of replying to the post.

For the claim I am going to write to wetsand the spots and see what happens. If your husband has a buffer he could try and hit one of the spots pretty hard with some 3M brand polish and see what happens. I would just try one spot at a time incase it causes the damage .

Here is the product . Although its listed a product to help in tire traction on this site its actual designed use is as a solvent. We used to use it to clean up / spread / smooth uerathane sealers to fix water leaks.

I would check with the local nurseries and see how you can eliminate the gypsy moth larvae. I believe there are compounds that you can put on the tree trunks that keep them out of your trees. Do you only get the spots in the summer? If you live in an in an industrial area, it may be airborne acid that is etching the paint, and that will happen year-round. You need to eliminate the source before cleaning the finish, or it will right back.

If it is gypsy moth residue, which I doubt because I was very careful to get it all off, then this wouldn't be an ongoing (or future) problem. Gypsy moths have some sort of cycle - they come for two, maybe it's three, years - anyway, they won't be here this year; cycle done. Gypsy moths are a huge thing to themselves, and they need to be treated each year, on time. First year I didn't, had a big problem and was able to clean the car on time (poor trees though) - though those caterpillars were quite hideous. Second year, treated sooner, still a mess but I'm really pretty sure I cleaned the car well. And these dots don't follow the same pattern as bug juice - the moths were all over, but not like this all over - they were more randomly placed. This is a car full of dots.

Yes. That's why I think it's from the trees.

No, I live in a beach town, a few miles from the beach in a woodsy area- very much not industrial.

This is a good point. Is a good coat of wax not something that would make it easy enough to wash off, if washed in time? I can't think of how to eliminate the source other than to build a garage, which isn't an option. There's the tarp option, once we get it cleaned, but I can't see how whatever is coming from the trees can be stopped (well, being i don't know what it is).

Jenny

Our dots don't seem to leave pits when scratched off. We're lucky there.

Ok. Basically the same thing Keith recommended, only he mentioned a different brand called prep-sol, and yesterday I bought yet a different brand called auto-prep to try. They're all the same thing, just different brands.

I have some 3M polish that I tried using by hand, and it did work, but it took a lot of rubbing. I was thinking that if I couldn't find a solvent that worked, I would buy, borrow, or rent a buffer and use the 3M polish.

Depending on how fast your cleaner/solvent evaporates, you may find it helpful to let it sit for a little bit before rubbing it off. In the first page for "clay bar sap" on google (yes, that again), they talk about letting the solvent/cleaner (mineral spirits, alcohol, orange oil cleaners, lard, bacon grease, whatever) sit long enough to soften up the sap on your BMW before trying to rub it away.

I got suckered into buying an appearance protection package when I bought my LW300. It was called AutoArmor or something like that. It actually has a "guarantee" that nothing will stain the paint (clearcoat). So far, in three years, anything I have gotten on it has come right off, but that seems to be a characteristic of any good clearcoat. I think it is just a really good silicone-based wax, but I am not sure. You may want to talk to Saturn in your area to see what the product is and if it can be applied to an old finish. If it was applied when new, you may have a claim.

Dana C. Rohleder Port Kent, NY