My wife ran up against the painted wooden edge of our garage door while backing out the car. Now we have a scraped bright green against our dark grey, which shows up quite a bit.
I used a lot of elbow grease, plus some soap & water, hoping that it might just be water based paint that would come off somewhat easily. It didn't work. Then I tried mineral spirits, hoping that might take it off.
Most of the paint is on a plastic or rubber "bump guard", but a small amount of it is on the actual driver side door.
Anyone have any suggestions on other concoctions that I might try to get it off?
Some kind of a soft abrasive. You have a balance between taking off the paint and scratching/dulling the finish of the car.
Try a scrubby sponge. Or perhaps try Goof Off. If that doesn't work you'll need to polish the mark off. In the home: toothpaste. At the auto parts store: rubbing and buffing compound.
"scrubby sponge" will likely destroy the car's paint (usually they are some flavor of scotchbrite.)
I would use polishing compound from your FLAPS followed by wax of choice. If you don't have any and don't want to buy any for whatever reason, Bon Ami on a damp sponge may work in a pinch.
I did the same trick while cleaning snow off my pretty little silver Toyota....used the handle of my broom to push some ice off the bottom of the driver side window and left a streak of blue paint on the door. I suspect it merged with the clear-coat. Got a little of it off with finger nail.
One of those green scrub pads, like you probably have in your kitchen, used dry. You'll probably have to touch up the clear-coat with a spray can, though. Wipe down the area with something to remove the wax and dust before you do so.
If your wife is challenged by narrow spaces like that, you may wanna add a strip of some non-marring plastic material to that edge of door frame, or replace the entire stop strip around the doorframe with one of the plastic alternatives that provide a better weather seal anyway. I think they only come in white, though.
Not criticizing your wife, by the way. I've scuffed the RH mirror on my van a couple times, backing out without paying enough attention. It swings out of the way, but it still scuffs the paint.
I'd first try a little enamel reducer, probably wipe right off. Clean off the reducer with water so any remnants don't sit there and attack your paint.
Or, a paste wax such as Turtle contains light abrasives that should/ might work with a little (or a lot of) elbow grease.
Or, a body shop might take care of it in 15 minutes for $20-25.
When I worked at a dealership body shop, a long time ago, we'd do crap like that for nothing for customers. -----
If it's latex paint, go to HD, paint shop, or local hardware store and look for a product specifically designed to remove latex paint. I had the exact same thing happen to my car and that's what I did. It only loosens latex. I just applied it with a paper towel, waited a few minutes and the whole thing wiped right off with a rag., no rubbing at all and no abrasion that you'd get from more aggressive methods.
Green pads would be brutal...I'd try a magic eraser before I'd use the
3M green scrubber.
When my parents built a new home, my mom marked the center of the garage to aim for....took some nylon line, suspended a tennis ball on it and hung it from the garage ceiling. The ball was at the point where the hood ornament was when the car was in the right spot.
My Dad did the same thing so he wouldn't pull in too far and block the refrigerator door from opening, or not pull in far enough and block the garage overhead door from closing. Come to think of it, Dad had problems with doors in general. ;)
My 1997 Mercedes had a hood ornament - the stand-up kind.
I checked Toyota's website...they have a bug and tar remover, allegedly safe for clear coat on their cars. I'm going to check with my dealer on Monday...might give me a freebie :o)
I just went from '84 Buick to Toyota Corolla...I can't see any of the front end of the car when I am in it. No wonder people bump into things. At least the mirrors are good.
That only works if you have stereoscopic vision. Since my eyes point in different directions, I pretty much look through one eye at a time. It always amazes the eye doctors that I can choose which eye I am looking through, without covering the other one. No problem as long as I am moving, since parallax gives enough cues. But standing still or creeping dead ahead, not so much. I have a boat fender hung on a rope on the wall of my too short (due to last minute bump-out previous owner added when he was doing the addition) garage- when my short-wheelbase minivan kisses the boat fender and the rope moves, it is forward enough to close garage door. There is an outlet on the wall I use as an aim point over TDC of steering wheel. I have to park both cars at an angle in the garage, to be able to open the doors. (Did I mention my previous owner was an idiot? 2 more feet in both directions, and that garage would be much more useful.)
But that wasn't the issue- backing out without wiping stuff off the side of the car is. Again, because of my impaired stereoscopic vision, I have trouble telling how far side mirror is from side of garage door opening. I have to go real slow as mirror passes the door, and bob my head around, to get visual cues. Usually 0-dark-30 at the time, so all I have is reflected light from the headlights.
I'll never get to enjoy a 3D movie either- I have to wait for the 2D version. Theater 3D gives me a headache in about five minutes.
Yep, ordinary polishing compound will do the trick. A friend had such a paint scrape and a few minutes with polishing compound on a soft cloth removed all of it. A pass with Meguiars glaze #7 followed by Wax #26 and you couldn't tell there was ever any issue.
Thanks folks, it sounds like I need to get some polish and get busy.
Hey, I just finally sold my 1996 Buick, and it had a hood ornament. I found it very useful in judging exactly where the front of the vehicle was, and I'm VERY annoyed that the new ones don't have it.
Between being snowed in, taking care of grandkids on sick/snow days and having flu, I've been slow getting around to doing anything about the paint rub on my pretty little silver Toyota. I rubbed a streak of blue paint onto the door from a broom whilst removing snow. Got the Turtle Wax, in a pour bottle, not spray....soft cloth and fairly strenuous rubbing got all of the blue paint off with no visible difference in the gloss on the clear coat. 16 oz. can, about $4.99; I used about 4 drops :o)
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