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Removing plastic "scrape" from body panel

K

KMc

Golden Member
We have a 2008 Hyundai Accent hatchback that our daughters drive. A few years back, the older daughter had a minor "incident" (long, aggravating story) whereby the rear view mirror of the car next to her touched her car and then slid along the quarter panel from essentially the back edge of the door to the rear of the car. So now there is a long black streak (the car is white), about 3 ft. long, where a thin layer of the black plastic from the mirror has been deposited.

I've tried various solutions and waxes, but nothing seems to really be effective at removing this material. Any ideas?
 
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I'm sure you've been through rubbing compounds and stuff like Goof-off, right?

I might suggest pure IPA...isopropyl alcohol. As long as you have >90% pure, it's remarkable at removing all sorts of stuff without damaging paint, clear coat, etc.
 
So, tried rubbing compounds or at least polishing compounds? Almost guarantee rubbing compound will take it off, but then you're going to have to follow that up with polishing compound and then wax. And don't get too wild using it, it is an abrasive, after all.

I've had very good luck using Meguiar's Ultimate Polishing compound to get stains, weird paint rubs, etc., off cars, boats, etc. Will take some work and sweat....but should work.
 
I've tried some waxes, but that didn't really do much. Obviously, I want to use the least abrasive compound possible, so I didn't want to go the rubbing compound route unless absolutely necessary. Looks like I'll try some polishing compound next.
 
Try some of the polish from a headlight restore kit like Meguiars.

I had a nasty black scrape mark on my Jeep, and that took it off with a couple of passes.

You can't even tell it was ever there. I used the polishing ball with a cordless drill.
 
LTC8K6 said:
Try some of the polish from a headlight restore kit like Meguiars.

I had a nasty black scrape mark on my Jeep, and that took it off with a couple of passes.

You can't even tell it was ever there. I used the polishing ball with a cordless drill.
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Yep, something like a fine polishing compound. Or maybe one of those scratch removing things. I bought the Quixx stuff and I'll be damned, it really worked and on some darned bad scratches I thought I'd have to fill in with paint to get them to at least visually disappear.
 
Hopefully you see this, I know it's been a while but I was wondering if you ever got that plastic streak out. I have the same type of streak from the exact same cause, but only 1 foot long. If you had found a way to remove it I'd love to know how you did it. Thanks

KMc said:
I've tried some waxes, but that didn't really do much. Obviously, I want to use the least abrasive compound possible, so I didn't want to go the rubbing compound route unless absolutely necessary. Looks like I'll try some polishing compound next.
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Some of the tar removers you buy are rubbing compound based in that they're an abrasive suspended in a cleaning solvent. I'd give that a try.
 
Wax won't do anything. Try some paint cleaner (Meguiars is pretty good). If that doesn't work, maybe seek the help of a professional auto detailer or body shop. If your paint isn't damaged they should be able to help.
 
I'd pull out the clay bar.
Can't say for sure it's efficacious, but it's removed spray paint droplets that drifted onto my car's paint.
Also it stripped off some sort of metallic dust that had bonded with the paint during its stay in some dodgy body shop.
 
Just take it to a place like "Bumperdoc" ( http://www.bumperdoc.com/ ) and have them look at it and advise what to do. They may just tell you how to treat it or give you a repair quote that you can live with. (Modern cars with clear coats are not really easily fixable. It needs to be professionally done. Also if you keep mess'n with it, then it the affected area will just become larger/more noticeable.)
 
Buff it with a cleaning wax. They have VERY fine abrasives - about as fine as you get. But you're going to have to buff. Any solvent that can remove the plastic is going to remove the paint too.
 
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