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Paint Contamination

By the99contour, May 10, 2011


  • 1,424 posts

So this past winter I started noticing rust spots on my 7 month old 2010 Corolla S.

They were easily visible because the car is white.

Upon discovering them, I immediately took the car and had it detailed.

They went away for a while, but came back.

Last week I learned the source of this paint contamination; a nearby iron cutting operation that was not keeping its filings from floating in the air.

I saw a newscast that showed this plant and was reporting that it had been shut down by the EPA for numerous violations. As proof of them not keeping the filings from getting into the air, they went to the parking lot at my place of work and took pictures of all the white and silver cars in the employee lot.

Every one of our cars was damaged by the iron filings.

Anyway, now aware of the issue and knowing it won't happen again, I decided to tackle the issue myself this time.

I got a clay bar kit and went at it.

The spots all came off, but not without some serious elbow grease. Then I washed the car again, waxed it twice and made sure it was parked under cover.

It was really hard work, but I really like my cars to be clean and its worth it to me to get the car shiny and keep it well taken care of on my day off.

Interesting - thanks for sharing. Didn't think that iron contaminants could penetrate paint like that, but thinking how everyone is pushing for more eco friendly paints (ie, softer paint) - I can see how this is possible. Good to hear that the clay bar took car of that - probably looked pretty nasty when you got done with it.

I had my car in a body shop once to get some rust holes treated around the windshield. It was in there for a few weeks ... sloow ... and all manner of metal dust settled on it and lodged in the paint. Afterward I could hear a rasping whisper when I drew a towel across the paint surface. That's when I clay-barred for the 1st time and restored it to a glassy finish.

There was no rust though from oxidizing metal particles so must not have been iron.

  • 1,424 posts

Update:

The clay bar did the trick, kind of anyway.

Some of the biggest rust spots came back, indicating to me that they had penetrated deeper into the paint than others and that the contamination hadn't been removed.

None of the smaller spots have come back, indicating that I was able to remove that contamination completely with the clay bar.

I used the clay bar again on the spots that reappeared, and they again came off, but this time I made sure I got them off completely by going over them numerous times with the clay bar.

Hopefully this is the last time I have to do this.

Now my issue is that the paint on my driver's side front lip has super fine spider web cracks in the paint.

They aren't visible unless you get right up to the lip and look at an angle, but I'm going to have to get it fixed at some point.

I think that will require a repaint.

Also the car has five or six really shallow and small hail damage spots, which I believe from past experience will pop out with prolonged exposure to sunlight.

They aren't visible unless you put your head on plane with the hood, roof or trunk and close one eye.

I'm not going to get those fixed.



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