Help removing surface paint contaminants

[scottfridrich]

1989 Ranger with original factory paint, two tone, body is dark charcoal gray, with bottom of rocker panels bright silver. I can see contaminants on the silver which appear to be very small, 0.25 to 0.50 mm diameter round spots which are a dull terra cotta red color. I suspect there are some on the dark charcoal area as well because if you run a finger over the washed and cleaned paint it feels rough with little tiny bumps. After reading here and doing a search have tried the following: mineral spirits, isopropal alcohol, denatured ethanol, Stoner Tarminator, acetone, and lacquer thinner, none of which seem to soften or have any solvent effect. The maddening thing is that you can painstakingly scrape them off with a finger nail, paint seems to be fine and intact underneath. It is not rust, paint, and does not seem to be tar. I tried a clay bar with lubricant and even with a lot of force did not touch the spots. I then resorted to a white polish (Turtle Wax) which did not touch it. It seems logical if you can remove them with a fingernail there should be some way to remove them. I live in Colorado which uses magnesium chloride on the roads in the winter, any connection? Thanks for any suggestions.



Scott

 

[natebood]

I don't have a lot of experience with this sort of thing, but you could try using some plastic razor blades to remove it.

 

[Accumulator]

Perhaps a more aggressive clay, which will probably leave some light marring you'll have to polish out.

 

[miked2]

I'd try an aggressive clay before going to anything like a razor blade. Meg's sells an aggressive (red) clay in their professional line.

 

[the other pc]

I second the plastic razor blades as the next step.





PC.