mx5cartalk.com

Hi All,

I bought a black 2003 NB a little while ago, and immediately washed and started cleaning up stone chips and the like.

The car had lots of stone chips that had been retouched with 'bumps' of paint, and so I set about blocking them flat and re-polishing.

I noticed that the car had a slightly grainy feel to the surface, and looked like it had a metal flake through the paint. After dealing with a few of these 'bumps' I realised that the 'metal flake' appeared to be polishing out, leaving a shiny plain black - panic! Was I wrecking the paint?

A quick google showed that the Black NB did not come with a flake through it.

Shortly after this, I realised that the 'flake' did not stop at the panel edge, but continued on window rubbers and the glass. The whole car is coated with fine coating that gives the appearance of metallic fleck in the paint (and glass and rubber).

Does anyone have any idea what this stuff is/could be?

Paint over spray. Might be a fine dusting of clear.

Tree sap...... ( test: see if it comes off with Eucalyptus oil )

Hi.
Dont try the above tree sap method. The only safe way is to get washing up detergent from under the sink two squirts in a bucket. Boiling water and it has to be boiling a pair of rubber gloves and your hose running. Slop the mixture on and immediately hose it off. It willbe succesful as a wax candle is the same composition as tree sap and as you know when you light the candle the wax melts easiest way to explain the process.The washing up detergent carries the sap of the paint. Used by my family to keep the hire cars sap free for ever.

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