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Cleaning splattered house paint off car

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An overloaded pickup truck about a hundred feet in front of me lost a can of house paint out of the back, it splattered on the road in front of me. I swerved and thought I'd avoided the puddle of white paint but some got splattered on the rear quarter as shown as well as along the matte plastic trim under the right doors.

I am assuming this will come off the matte plastic trim with a Scotch-Brite sponge used for teflon kitchenware, but before I tackle the paint, was wondering if anyone has any suggestions about how to remove the paint from the body panel without damaging the clear-coat?

Happily this is in an area that won't be too noticeable...

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Automotive Clay.

It does a great job at taking contaminants off of automotive paint. I used it to get road paint off of a BMW fender once.

Do to autozone or advance auto parts and ask for automotive detailing clay and the. Use it as instructed on the bottle/box.

If you want to roadtrip to ohio I will be happy to help. I'll even put up your gas money. :biggrin:
 
That happened to a Corvette I owned 10+ years ago. Though I think it was road paint and not house paint. Anyway I used WD-40 to loosen it and wipe with a soft towel; whatever else was left I got off using Zaino Z6 spray and a clay bar. I hope that works for house paint though.
 
A neighbor once painted his fence with a spray gun and oversprayed over the fence onto my MR2.
An auto detailer managed to get the paint off with just a lot of heavy buffing with an orbital buffing machine.
(But I think the clear coat was gone after that.)
 
Don't clay, it'll grind the grit into the clearcoat.

*****ALWAYS TEST IN A SMALL AREA FIRST*****

Get some paint thinner, lowes or home depot, and gently start rubbing the painted area with mf towel. Keep changing towel surface often.

Wear gloves, well ventilated area, and don't over-scrub or let thinner sit around too long. Let product begin breaking down the paint from road.

Once it's all off, do a light polish/wax and you should be good.

We see this happen every now and then, and that's what we do at our shop.
 
Update:

The white paint came off with just my fingernails - it was on an area I had previously treated with Glare, so presumably that surface treatment had prevented the white paint from adhering (presumably latex, but don't know) and it came off pretty easily.

The white paint that splattered on the plastic trim, on the other hand, does not come off easily with a Scotch-Brite pad and elbow grease, and I am reluctant to use solvents on the plastic.

Is there any danger to using a power-washer on the plastic parts and under the wheel wells?
 
Yeah that plastic is surely a lot more porous than the polished painted areas. I don't see how a power washer would hurt it - just limiting to that plastic and not focusing on the painted areas. Just for giggles have you tried putting some vegetable oil on there and let it dwell a little bit? Worth a shot before you try any more aggressive solvents. Maybe peanut oil. If not that, maybe try isopropyl alcohol?

p.s. I'd use a fine brush (toothbrush if that's all you have handy), not just a towel
 
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