I had my front bumper repainted about a 6 weeks ago. Last weekend while washing and waxing my car I noticed some surface roughness on the front of my hood as a result of some minor paint overspray. (I guess they should have masked it better).

What’s the best way to remove this overspray and smooth the finish out?.

 

try claybar first. if that doesn't work, i dunno, but claybar is always the first step in removing paint contaminants.

 

^Claybar it. Claybar removes overspray most of the time.

 

The easiest way: Take it back to the body shop and have them do it.

 

^ that's actually the money spending/expensive way of doing it

 

Thanks, I'm familiar with clay bars but I have never used one. I know there are several manufacturers and "cuts" (light, medium, heavy).

Any recommendations on which one(s) would be the best for this application would be appreciated.

 

Most clays that you can find OTC are fine grade, which means they don't marr the finish much if at all, which is good if you're doing a yearly detailing and wanna take off some pesky contaminants.

The problem with fine grade clays is that they are not strong enough to remove all types of overspray. My stepdad's car had white overspray from a neighbor who painted his house. I gave Mothesrs yellow clay bar (fine) a try and I was getting no where fast. Picked up some clay magic medium grade clay



and went to work. It immediately began removing overspray. Only issue I ahd is that since its a more aggressive claybar, it left lots of back and forth marring. I have been into detailing for a while so I know I used enough lube. No problem as I quickly just polished afterwards.

 

No it's not. They should remove it for free considering that they put it there. I haven't worked for a single body shop that would charge a customer for removing overspray that they put on.

Unless it's just more convenient for you to do it yourself.

 

with a bright colored car like DG you should be good with medium grade. black cars get dull with coarse grades

if clay bar doesnt work (it should) use some polish

 

The problem with taking it back to a body shop is 9 times out of 10 they will make the paint in worse condition then when you originally brought it to them, they are not detailers and typically don't care about things like overspray, swirls, marring, hologramming, etc.

It's best to properly do it yourself or take it to a qualified detailer. Joy provided some insightful information on clay.

Let us know how you make out.

George

 

yes, claybar would be optimal. follow up with meguiars scratch x, polish, sealant/wax. you should be good after that.

 

Thanks for the advice to all who posted here.

I rather try and do this myself so I ordered bars of light cut and medium cut clay from detailedimage.com and I'll work on removing the overspray this weekend.

 

Today I finally had time to try to remove the overspray on my hood with the medium cut Clay Magic bar. The results were nothing short of amazing!!! The medium bar removed all the overspray very quickly with minimal effort. I could both hear and feel when it had removed the overspray on the area I was working on. I then did the entire car with a blue fine cut bar, and finished it off with a coat of sealant wax.
I have never owned a car with such a smooth, awesome looking finish.
Clay bars rule! Thanks again to all for the advice!

 

have the area buffed...i had half my car oversprayed.. had it buffed... came out PERFECT

 

DocJohn,

Thanks for posting your experience, I'm glad everything worked out as planned. Make sure you maintain your car properly after you put in all that work claying it.

Thanks again for your support!

George