How to remove dried out Polish

[Heijneker]

Hey all,

An uncle bought a relatively new car, 1.5 years old, 20K miles, from a used car dealership. A very nice car. However, accross the front end, there are a lot of very tiny white spots.

I believe this is caused by the polish the dealership used, filling and drying in the small stone chips, which would otherwise be unnoticeable. Reason I think this: it has some polishing stains on the black plastic trim. But more importantly: I caused the same exact problem myself once on another car, using an old polish. Looked exactly the same, lots of tiny white spots on the front end.

My question is: how do I remove these tiny white spots caused by dried out polish from the car, which are filling in the very tiny rock chips? And also the stain from the plastic trim? Back then (on the car I caused this problem on) I tried using an APC, but to no succes.

Thanks.

[Ron@Optimum]

I was going to suggest concentrated Power Clean, but you said you've tried APC in the past.  That rules out Paint Prep as well.  Have you tried polishing,  maybe by hand?

[Heijneker]

Sadly I don't have any polish(ing machines), I might get some water based polish and try it by hand indeed. Good tip.

Hmmmm, why wouldn't Paint Prep work if OPC doesn't work? I was actually most excited to test (a) Paint prep or IPA solution! Maybe even test Acetone in a unnoticeable section of the bumper, with extreme quation and see what it does over time.

However, I can recall reading somewhere that IPA is harmful to paint. Any thoughts/info on that and how that relates to Optimum Paint Prep?

[Ron@Optimum]

IPA does not harm paint, was the suggested wipe down product prior to developing Paint Prep.  Power Clean is more generic, but Paint Prep removes wax, sealant, and polish, so might be a good choice.