Did I ruin my paint?

S

Sad little man

New member
So I had a side of my car repainted about nine months ago. I finally decided it was time to put a badge back on the fender, and got a tube of this stuff and proceeded to strip off the wax on the fender, put a bit of the adhesive on the badge, and go to it. Well, shortly after I put the badge on the car, I realized that the adhesive was way too messy and goopy to look good, so I kind of aborted the whole process, pulled the badge off, and started taking off the junk left behind.



But, to my alarm, paint came with it in a couple of spots. :soscared: Luckily it's only under where the badge will go, and it's only a spot or two, most being pinhead sized, and one being about 2x10mm. But the other scary part is that the paint where the adhesive was now seems slightly softer than the rest of the paint. I can just barely catch my fingernail in it. Not enough to go into it really, but moreso than if I touch the rest of the paint. Just feels like fresh paint. The spot where the badge was also looks raised from the rest of the paint if you look at just the right angle, but is still adhered to the body.



Does anyone know what on earth that stuff did to my paint? Looking at 3M's website, it says it contains methyl ethyl ketone, a solvent, so I would imagine it kind of softens up paint in order to bond with it, but it should re-harden, right? My gameplan at this point is to just use some double sided emblem tape on the badge, and put it on in the same spot after touching up the little chips underneath, but I'm worried that whole spot has been weakened.
 
Ouch! MEK is nasty, nasty stuff. used to use it to remove blems from printed circuit boards back in the day. It's illegal for industrial use now, I'm surprised that 3M can still put it in their stuff for OTC use. Get a good buzz you breath enough of that stuff!



there's no question that MEK will soften your paint. I'd feel lucky that a whole bunch more of the paint didn't come off. I guess the best thing to do is to wait a few days for your paint to cure again, then put the emblem back on with DS tape instead. I've used both 03410NA mounting tape and 06382 Acrylic plus tape with great results. A little harder to trim down so it doesn't show, but it comes off nicely if you need to and sticks really well.
 
Sorry to say that I'm not positive. I know the MEK will evaporate within a few seconds and it makes sense that the paint will get hard again, but I'm no expert in that area. I know that soldermask melted by MEK will get hard again, but soldermask is an epoxy based coating and not paint. Heck, it's worth a shot anyway, I'd do that before I started looking for a repaint.



Sorry I can't be more help, I know that sinking feeling very well. There are a lot of people here smarter than me, hopefully someone will chime in that knwos for sure.
 
pb_foots said:
Ouch! MEK is nasty, nasty stuff. used to use it to remove blems from printed circuit boards back in the day. It's illegal for industrial use now, I'm surprised that 3M can still put it in their stuff for OTC use. Get a good buzz you breath enough of that stuff!



there's no question that MEK will soften your paint. I'd feel lucky that a whole bunch more of the paint didn't come off. I guess the best thing to do is to wait a few days for your paint to cure again, then put the emblem back on with DS tape instead. I've used both 03410NA mounting tape and 06382 Acrylic plus tape with great results. A little harder to trim down so it doesn't show, but it comes off nicely if you need to and sticks really well.
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Yes, MEK can be nasty stuff if not used properly, but it is not illegal for industrial use. Some areas may have regulated against it's use because of a VOC restrictions, but it's still available and can be used and is being used in many applications. Your wifes finger nail polish remover may have some in it. :nervous2:
 
LOL, that's why she spends so much time on her nails!



Must be just California that outlawed it, I know we had to switch to some stuff that didn't work as well a long time ago.
 
I decided to bring the car out into the sun to try to cook off whatever got into the paint as quickly as possible. Sure did a number on the paint. Won't look bad once the badge is on though. The paint's integrity still seems pretty good. It just kind of made that spot shift or run a little, but it seems pretty dry and tough now. I can't believe something that's meant to go on paint would be this corrosive to it. :mad:
 
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