Spotting Caused by External Influences

Definition

Physical attack or discolouration of the paint surface due to various causes; the spots take various shapes, colours and sizes.

Causes

1] Tar  - Appearance: Dirty, brown-black spots.

2] Industrial waste gas, e.g. SO2  - Appearance: Large area or spot area gone matt (see Chapter "Loss of Gloss")

3] Acid Rain  - Appearance: No short-term visual effect, but can go matt.

4] Acid (Battery) - Appearance: Usually destroys the entire paint build down to the metal.

5] Tree Sap  - Appearance: Thread-like and droplet shaped, sometimes clear and sometimes brown-yellow marks with swelling.

6] Insects  - Appearance: Marks of insect bodies visible in the paint surface.

7] Insects Secretions  - Appearance: e.g. Bee-droppings: long yellow-brown marks.  Greenfly excrement: round, ring-like etchings.

8] Bird-Droppings  - Appearance: Appearance can vary depending on the type of bird, weather conditions and duration of contamination.

How to avoid

Remove all foreign bodies and matter from the paintwork as soon as possible.  Wash off tar and tree sap using Glasurit Cleaner 541-5 or similar. Remove all other contamination with water. Regular paintwork aftercare is required (washing, polishing, wax protection etc see chapter "After Care of Vehicle Paintwork").

Repair

Depends on the amount of damage.  For damage to the top-coat, first attempt to polish out the probem using Polishing Paste 562-1602 and finish with any standard deep gloss polish. As a second, sand the area with P1200 and then repeat as for the first attempt. For major damage, sand down to a sound substrate and repaint as necessary.