# Black spots on car, not tar!



## Rampage (Mar 3, 2008)

Hi,
I own a white Seat Leon and recently bought some Tardis which I thought would be the end of my troubles with tar.
It removes tar very easily, but won't remove some much smaller black / brown specks. These spots probably cannot be seen from more than 12" away, but I know they're there!

Does anyone know what these marks are? They are on all panels on the car. Clay removes them (eventually) but I'm not a fan of claying as it makes my wrists ache too much!


----------



## MattDuffy88 (Apr 6, 2009)

Might be industrial fallout, my dads Cinquecento is covered in the same small brown/black marks, but he is an engineer and there is alot of fallout from the casting firm next door to them.

Maybe use a more aggressive clay to make removing them more easily and see how that goes?

Matt


----------



## rgDetail (Jul 16, 2009)

perhaps tree sap or the likes? My girlfriend parks her car next to a few bushes and trees - its forever getting covered in stubborn little spots like you have described...


----------



## rubbishboy (May 6, 2006)

It's fallout, little bits of metal that has landed, stuck to the paint and gone rusty. I spent more than a day and several clay bars trying to get the same off my white Leon too, it was also in the door and boot shuts as well. :doublesho

I persevered with the claying, but you will find sometimes they come back as only the top little bit was taken away and there is still a bit in the paint that will go rusty again. Neil_S did a write up where he used a fallout remover which may be worth considering as an alternative. http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=120380


----------



## Rampage (Mar 3, 2008)

Thanks for the reply's.
I had forgotten about this as today was the first day to got to finish off the car!
In the end I used tardis to remove the tar and I left a lot of the smaller spots (that you can only see from 6" away anyway!)

There is a big collection of these spots in the boot shut which does look like filings stuck inthe paint rusting.

I also found out Tardis is really good at cleaning door hinges / greasy engine bay area's, that wheel cleaner wouldn't remove. The door hinges had been a pain in the past as the garage over lubricates with with super sticky grease!


----------



## Orca (Apr 16, 2007)

I have a white car and get plagued by these little dots. Do you find you can remove them with your fingertip, rubbing like an eraser when spraying clean water over the car rinsing off?

I reckon it's tar from the roads, kicked up and atomised in the air. We also get some really strange clusters of black spots on the lamp shades in our back room. I wonder if it's some kind of insect excretion! Maybe it's the same on the car - I often see quite a collection of insects after a fresh waxing.


----------



## Rampage (Mar 3, 2008)

Mine can be removed with the fingernail, but it won't do the paint any good!


----------



## Orca (Apr 16, 2007)

Fingertip, rather than fingernail for me. After shampooing, holding a strongish fan spray to the paint to rinse off and rubbing the dots under the spray seems to get them off. Sure, it's not going to do much good for the wax/sealant, but it's better than leaving them or claying them off.


----------



## Guest (Aug 11, 2009)

I don't see any reason why using your fingernail won't do the paint any good, might cause very light scratching, easily sorted out.

It is your fingernail you want to be more worried about!

I wouldn't advise using wheel cleaner on anything other than the wheels, nor TARDIS on the door shuts, it really isn't intended for this, don't make a habit of it, and rinse throughly after using either products, get a good degreaser like BH Surfex HD.


----------



## Rampage (Mar 3, 2008)

I can't see the problem with using Tardis on the door hinges? 
We already know it's fine on paintwork, at the worst it would stain bare metal. Which wouldn't be noticable as the only bare surfaces should be covered in grease.

I have a very good degreaser (Fenwicks), but I wouldn't want to use this on my paintwork!


----------



## Rowan83 (Aug 21, 2007)

I had this problem on a recent detail i did.... car in question was a WHITE Megane R26 and it was a nightmare, lol.

Took me over 2 hours to clay just the bootlid and remove all the black crap that was on it.


----------

