Hi All,

I'll be extremely glad if you folks could help me out with this.

I have a magnetic black Z. I recently hand-washed the car after several months and I found to my horror that while the dirt and grime washed cleanly off of the hood of the car, it just wouldn't come off from the door and fender panels, or the rear hatch and bumper. After washing, drying and detailing it, I ran my fingers over the surface, and the texture feels very coarse and rough (in contrast, the clean hood surface feels perfectly smooth and soft).

I can imagine two possible causes:

• I had taken the car to an autocross on a rainy day. The track surface was an ugly mixture of water, mud, grass and brake dust. Could the brake dust have acted as a catalyst in allowing the dirt to penetrate the clearcoat? I did wash the car immediately afterwards, but this brings me to my second point:
• Between the last time I hand-washed the car several months ago and now, I used to take it fairly regularly to a touch-free car wash. A friend had recommended me against doing this because he said the high-power water jets could do more damage than good, but I in my infinite wisdom decided to ignore his advice and go ahead anyway.

Either ways, do you have any suggestions? FYI I was using Meguiar's gold class as my detergent. I can get some pictures if you think they would help. I'm willing to shell out a some bucks to get professional help (I live near Marlboro, MA, in case you know anybody).

Related issue: In another spectacular display of my laziness and carelessness, I let a large amount of brake dust accumulate on my stock wheels. I didn't have the patience to clear it off after the track event, and as if that weren't bad enough, I drove in the wet with the dust happily in place. As you can imagine, my wheels are in terrible shape with no way to get the corroded dust off. Any chance it hasn't penetrated too deep and I can use some compound to get it off?

Please help me out people, and I PROMISE you folks, my beloved car, and myself, that I will take better care of her in future.

 

I would start by using a clay bar on the paint to see if that helps. If it's more like road tar, the clay bar doesn't always work (IME) and my preference is to use WD40.

As for the rims, try some diluted all-purpose cleaner or P21S wheel gel (see Detailed Images site) and some elbow grease.

 

This thread needs some photos.

 

WD40...doesn't that remove the clear coat?

 

Clay Bar

 

Claying will usually do the trick, but it is hard to tell if there was any real damage without pics. The wheel cleaner is an awesome product to really take care of wheels that you value.

P21S Wheel Cleaner Gel


Wheels see more abuse than people think, clean them and protect them!!!

 

No, the dirt is not baked into your clear coat. The paint is rough, and that is normal because dirt gets stuck to your clear coat. As mentioned before, the clay bar should solve all your problems but use lost of lubrication and do not use water as lubricant...

For you wheels, you can safely clay bar those too or I would suggest P21S Total Auto Wash for a presoak.

 

Thanks a million for your suggestions, everyone. I shall try out the clay bar and get back to you with my experience. I'll post some pictures too - if the bar doesn't work, then the pictures can help diagnose the problem, and if the bar works then the "before" and "after" pics should be interesting.

BTW any recommendations for which clay bar to pick from the Detailed Images website, Clear Kote vs. Chemical Guys? Any for the lube (Luber vs. Quik Shine)?

Thanks again!

 

WD40 is just mineral spirits and shouldn't remove the clear. But it does dry the area out a bit and should be hit with a cleaner wax or something similar to help protect the paint.