Small stain spots on White Yukon Denali lower body cladding

[denalitwin]

On my 06 white Yukon Denali, I have very small stain looking spots (numerous 1/16" spots) on the lower body cladding wheel well inner areas, front & back of the tires....



I thought they were water spots thrown up from the tires, cleaned areas, first used a clay bar with no luck, then used Meguiar's Show Glaze #7 by hand with no luck.



Can I use a DA with a very mild machine polish on the factory OEM painted plastic body claddings?.....



Any help would be much appreciated....thanks..

 

[ronmart]

A picture is worth a thousand words. Let's see what you have.



Depending on what it is, you may simply need something like 3M Adhesive Remover. If it is etching, then you'll need a orbital polisher with a polish (exact polish depends on what you have which is why pictures are critical).

 

[denalitwin]

I tried to take pictures...the small stains are so light in color they do not show up on pictures.....these spots are very very light brown/yellow color, about 1/16" diameter, 8 to 10 spots on each area (all 4 corners, front & back, picked up by or thrown up from the tires)......



I would try a DA if I knew that it would be OK on this plastic body cladding.....

 

[mblgjr]

Is the cladding painted?



Have you tried hitting the area with clay?

 

[ronmart]

I tried to take pictures...the small stains are so light in color they do not show up on pictures.....these spots are very very light brown/yellow color, about 1/16" diameter, 8 to 10 spots on each area (all 4 corners, front & back, picked up by or thrown up from the tires)......



I would try a DA if I knew that it would be OK on this plastic body cladding.....

Yes, it is safe to polish on that, but you are correct that you need a mild abrasive because a flex additive is added to the paint on plastic panels to keep the paint from cracking when the plastic flexes. The side affect of this is that this additive causes the paint to marr easier.



It sounds like the remnants of tar so some 3M Adhesive Remover should take it out rather easily. If that didn't work, and I'd be suprised if it didn't, then I'd use something like or equivalent to Griots Garage Machine Polish 4 first to see if that works, and if doesn't then go down to 3.

 

[Shelbrain]

What kind of tire shine do you use...could it be sling off from the tires?

 

[denalitwin]

I have tried to take a couple of pictures...do not know if you can see anything....



ronmart...thanks for the info, I will proceed with the 3M first, then maybe use the DA



shelbrain...I use Mothers, don't recall what it is called, have used it mant times before.

 

[mblgjr]

Looks like general tar/road grime remnant stains.



Clay, 3M Adhesive Remover, or Goo Gone might be some things to try.



Any kind of mild solvent and some elboy grease should take them off.



Meg's Scratch X also does well for areas like that, it seems to have some mild solvents (or something similar by hand).

 

[seth812]

have you tried a paint cleaner like AIO?

 

[denalitwin]

Need to be a bit careful here as this is on the Factory Painted OEM plastic molded cladding.....NOT METAL.....these stains (and that is what these are) ....these are factory painted, I assume base/clearcoat (I may be wrong), but as 'ronmart' noted, softer



Yes, I have tried by hand to clay them...Yes, I have tried to use a hand polish, so I proceed with a bit of caution before I get to aggressive.



I will try the 3M Adhesive remover first, then move on to use a my DA Griot's random orbital, with #4 polish, unless someone may have had a similar situation that they solved....thanks



NOTE: I think I know where these stains came from. About 3 days ago I drove thru an interection that had a very small amount of water that was accross the entire intersection, it was only about 1/4" deep, I slowed to about 5 MPH and crossed (I had just washed my truck), this ever so slight bit of water was picked up by my tires and a small splatter up on the cladding....I drove home, got out, cleaned the little bit of splatter and noticed the stains.....what ever was in that water????