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Some moron has been spraying paint in the open air in our area. As a result, my nice black paintwork is covered in white paint. YAY! The Council environmental guy was hopeless (didn't even go check where the paint was coming from, so it may keep happening). I assume the best way to deal with this is a car detailer or spray shop to give it a really aggressive polishing? Any advice would be appreciated, as my paintwork was in fantastic condition and now has a serious dose of the measles

How bad is it? A friend had pink overspray on her car, came off easy enough with a clay bar, Meguiars, Mothers and Bowdens all make good ones. Any Autobarn, Repco or super cheap will stock them.

I am a bit concerned about using a clay bar myself, as I have not had a lot of practice with them (none, actually) and I don't want to end up with a lot of swirls in the paintwork. I am concerned if I do it myself that I might screw it up.

I wish I could find the person responsible, but don't like my chances (too many industrial places near us).

You wont screw it up, just wash the car first, dry it. use lots of the detailer, and you'll be fine.

clay bar is the answer.

get a friend to show you how to do it, or get it done professionally.

just try a light polish first- you will know almost immediately if this removes it. I certainly would not use a clay bar as a default setting.

Without been a dick, are you serious? You'd recommend using a polish, an abrasive substance, as a default option, over a clay bar, a non abrasive that is designed to clean things off the surface of the paint without damaging the clear?

I might drop down to the local detailer and see if THEY can clay bar it. If they can, I will hang around while they do it, as it won't hurt to learn! I have been bouncing around a few forums checking on this and it looks like the clay bar is the common ready, but apparently they are available in different grades.

If the local detailer can't do it, I will check around to see who can. They paint was perfect prior to this (it only has 10000 km's on the clock), so this is a real annoyance. It is not minor overspray either - it is a LOT of paint. I did a walk around the area to see how many people were affected and our entire street copped it. While there are spray shops in the area, they aren't stupid enough to have paint floating around in the air (it would damage the cars they have in their care as well), so I bet this is someone spraying their roof or an industrial shed etc.

According to the business behind us, one of the teachers from the local school (about 400 metres down the road) got it as well, so it must have been a lot of paint being sprayed.

quick post before work.

Use clay, worked for me. I oversprayed as I painted outside. Even though I masked the hell out of the car and a lot of unnecessary stuff covered, I still got a bit of overspray thanks to wind (garage was full of junk at the time). Clay took the bulk of it off. polish might leave streaks. I remember on my old car I used polish to take out some overspray and it actually started blending the black with the blue and I had crappy streaks in the paint thanks to the colours merging.

claybar is *very* easy to use. much easier than polish.

How to video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfEfLGL59GI

Thanks everyone

Will grab some tomorrow and try a small section first. If it looks like I am doing a crappy job, will leave it to the experts.

Video makes it look pretty easy! Will duck down to Repco or Autobarn tomorrow to grab a detailing kit. I imagine I may need more than you would for a normal shine, as the paint may be a little stubborn. As all of our work cars are damaged as well, so if this is simple enough we will be out detailing all of them.

in case you didn't already know, as a minimum after claying you will need to apply a new coat of wax. claying removes all surface waxes/sealants along with contaminants.

the general procedure is
- wash & dry
- clay
- polish/paint cleaner
- wax/sealant

Thanks.... Looks like I have a full day of car care ahead. Hope it gets the paint off.