Bug Etching

[Addicted2Bling]

I have this all over my car, and quite frankly, everytime I see it it just makes me want to start crying. For real, my whole car is nicely waxed but once you step around and see the front of the hood, it's like a kick in the teeth. Bugs everywhere, splattered and etched in the paint. What can I do to remove this crap???

 

[Beemerboy]

What have you done to the car so far? clay would be a good start to see what is on the surface that can be removed..then if the clear is etched we can make suggestions

 

[Addicted2Bling]

It's in the paint good. I mean, you can feel the divits where the bugs splattered. I've never tried detailing clay, but from what I understand, detailers clay is supposed to be for paint contaminents. I was thinking this might be more of a job for wet sanding, I don't know...

 

[GearHead_1]

Chances are unless it's a single stage paint (less likely these days) and you can feel it, you will not be able to wet sand it completely flat either. If you can pick it up with a finger nail chances are it's through the clear coat. Unfortunately, you probably know what that means. Mike Phillips has a couple of posts here on DC that discuss bird dropping etchings, this is similar and might be worth a look.

 

[Addicted2Bling]

Well see the thing is is that some of the etchings go all the way to the primer and some just go to the base paint. I read the posting that mike phillips wrote, and it made alot of sense. When I have time I will take pictures and post them, but from what I've gathered it seems like I would have to use some kind of touch up paint, sand it, then use some kind of clear coat, sand it, compound it, then wax it. Or maybe just wax it without the use of compound... I'll post pics when I get a chance, but I was thinking this would be a good thing to learn since probably around half my customers have the same problem...