Bad Car Wash Chemicals. Possible Paint Damage?

NateDaGreat58

NateDaGreat58

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Hi Everyone,

Took my old 89 civic to the classic power wash station (getting ready to sell it soon), but left highly disappointed and honestly, quite angry. Looks like the water had some acidic chemicals and made it the paint finish look absolutely terrible with dried on streaks and splatters everywhere. Pic is attached below.

I attempted to see if I could buff out some of it with a cleaner wax and it helped only a little bit. I'm going to get a professional detailer to work on it since honestly this looks like it will take A LOT of elbow grease to reverse the damage.

What do you guys think? Am I SOL?

92eb008f3104e1f83ca24162daeed0de.jpg
 
Yup. They use really harsh chemicals to just try and dissolve the dirt and then rinse it off. Sometimes you can get it off with detailing clay. I have the same type of chemical staining on the doors of my car. It's white also. I got mine used and it must have been taken through the automatic washes a few times. I've managed to buff most of the marks out and you can really only see them when the paint is very clean. I'm sure @RaskyR1 may have a better explanation for you about what's happening.

I think it's dissolved road grime and oils that was loosened by the wash chemicals but wasn't completely rinsed off so it dried at the bottom of the panel. Now you have hard, crusted on dirt residue. Clay and a really strong cleaner may take it off for you. Buffing will definitely remove it but you could start with a strong hand wash and letting an APC try and break it down for you.

I would try optimum power clean at full strength. Do not let this stuff dry on there as it will create the same problem. However, it's one of the best cleaners I've used at breaking down really tough road grime.
This stuff:

http://www.detailedimage.com/Optimum-OPT-M36/Power-Clean-P287/17-oz-S1/


Try that and some clay. It may at least lessen the appearance. It's one of the dangers of using the automated systems.
 
Thank you for the detailed response! I'll look into that product you mentioned. Hoping that will help. It's just sad since this car has looked great for 25 years and now it looks terrible, especially since I took 2 hours detailing it the week before.

The frustrating thing is that I took this to a DIY power wash station place with the "water gun" and coin slot machine for operation, so I essentially did the damage to the car myself :( I even went out of my way to cleanse the system by keeping it on the "Rinse" button on full blast for about 30 seconds to make sure the suds were out of the system before touching my car. Ugh. Guess I can't trust those places anymore.
 
Yeah, I use the one up the street here but only for rinsing off some of the wheel cleaners and stuff that I use. I even drive the car home wet and wash it with ONR once I get home. It's amazing that even going through one of the "touch less" bays leaves a ton of dirt on the car that just wipes off. I hope that stuff helps and gets your car back to looking great.

ONR is great if you want to give your car a quick wash at home without the hose. 2 oz into a 5 gallon bucket and it cuts road grime surprisingly well. I spray power clean on one panel at a time if it's really dirty but the ONR is great stuff.

http://www.detailedimage.com/Optimum-OPT-M36/No-Rinse-Wash-Shine-2010-Formula-P444/32oz-S1/
 
Nix said:
Yeah, I use the one up the street here but only for rinsing off some of the wheel cleaners and stuff that I use. I even drive the car home wet and wash it with ONR once I get home. It's amazing that even going through one of the "touch less" bays leaves a ton of dirt on the car that just wipes off. I hope that stuff helps and gets your car back to looking great.

ONR is great if you want to give your car a quick wash at home without the hose. 2 oz into a 5 gallon bucket and it cuts road grime surprisingly well. I spray power clean on one panel at a time if it's really dirty but the ONR is great stuff.

http://www.detailedimage.com/Optimum-OPT-M36/No-Rinse-Wash-Shine-2010-Formula-P444/32oz-S1/
Click to expand...
That ONR stuff looks ideal for my situation, since I live at an apartment complex without a hose nearby. I could just fill up a few buckets in the bathtub and bring them down to the parking area to wash the car. If I want to get fancy, I could buy one of those single pump action water guns to act like a hose to rinse the car down haha.

Thanks for the help! Appreciate this forum so much.
 
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hahah cool man. That's exactly what I do.

I like to use a big grout sponge with the ONR. Wipe gently and squeeze out the solution to carry the dirt off the panel and off the car. I generally have very very little left in the bottom of the bucket when I'm done. Dry as you go and just do one panel at a time. There are a few guides online.
 
I used to get similar staining on my old white car from exhaust fumes and not washing the car in a timely fashion. I claybar and/or a good buffing should get that out.
 
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Nomar06 said:
I used to get similar staining on my old white car from exhaust fumes and not washing the car in a timely fashion. I claybar and/or a good buffing should get that out.
Click to expand...
That's encouraging, I certainly hope this is the case!
 
Worst case pick up a foam pad and some meguiars 205 from auto zone/pepboys and gently work the area. I know those places sometimes carry a few of the professional meguiars detailing products. Their polishing compounds 105 and 205 are very very effective. 105 is much more aggressive than the 205. The 205 shines up pretty nice and should be easily workable by hand. Those are just the common ones I've seen that you can get in a pinch. They may even carry Megs scratch X or some other rubbing compound from them you could try as well.
 
As Nix mentioned, those chemicals are pretty harsh, but your car also has single stage paint and it's probably a little oxidized too, which made it more susceptible to the staining. I good polishing should bring it back to life. ;)
 
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