Dried on yellow road paint

mini1

New member
I was working on a Suburban today, and it had the worst case of yellow road line paint I've ever seen to date. I've seen some bad cases in the past, but this takes the cake. It looked like someone ran straight down a freshly painted line for a mile. The paint was all over both the front and rear fender wells, all down the running board and some even made it up onto the doors. It had happened some time ago and was very hard. This is a corporate shuttle, with many drivers, so I have no idea who did it.



I tried everything from tarminator, to Goof Off, to acetone, mineral spirits and only the Goof Off actually softened it up. The yellow paint came off the doors easily, but the fender wells and black plastic running board were a LOT of work. I ended up using a combo of lots of Goof Off, acetone and lots of fingernail scratching. My nails are now trashed and I wasted at least one extra hour removing this.



What products dissolve road paint off black plastic without marring the plastic? I know I'll see another vehicle like this again in the future.
 
You have to make sure you charge enough in these situations. I like to ad a couple of hours labor in these cases. I tell the client, I will do what I can with epoxy based bridge or road paint. Inner fender wells I repaint with satin black to avoid scrubbing. Lower areas I do what you did ....scrape and scrape. I use WD-40, tarminator, nail polish remover, do a test spot first. I use a slippery degreaser , then scape with a PLASTIC razor blade. The key is to get enough revenue where you dont loose your shirt in the job. Its always labor verses revenue. You cant work for nothing!
 
I keep lacquer thinner in a sure shot. I usually spray it on the area, let it sit, then spray again a few minutes later, then it usually just pressure washes off.





John
 
I have found it helpful to soak the stain. I wet a papertowel with solvent and stick it to the affected area rewetting as needed. I prefer letting the chemical work rather than my nails. Perhaps you could be working on other tasks while waiting. Like rewriting the bill to charge for the extra work! :chuckle:
 
teacherray said:
I have found it helpful to soak the stain. I wet a papertowel with solvent and stick it to the affected area rewetting as needed. I prefer letting the chemical work rather than my nails. Perhaps you could be working on other tasks while waiting. Like rewriting the bill to charge for the extra work! :chuckle:



I tried letting every product sit for some time and nothing really worked. I'm not overly concerned about charging more for this vehicle, because the company that owns it has several other vehicles that are now waiting for me (none of which have road line paint problems). They will be spending a lot of money with me. I do know that in the future, I'm going to bill road paint removal by the hour.
 
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