# Dirty Paint - Paint gets dirty - You might not see it but your cars paint gets dirty-



## Mike Phillips

*Dirty Paint - Paint gets dirty - You might not see it but your cars paint gets dirty- Impacted dirt on paint *

*Below*
The front portion of the fender was machine polished. The rear portion is how the paint looked when it arrived.

The difference is the front portion is now vibrant in color because the portion of paint that had become stained over time with dirt was abraded off the surface.

The paint on most daily driver cars that have NOT been polished or have not had a good one-step cleaner/wax used on them in the past year probably look like the back portion of the paint on this car even if your eyes cannot see the dirt build-up.










I thought I created a dedicated article using the pictures from this project but I can't find it? Hope this isn't a duplicate but regardless, the pictures just have too much impact, (no pun intended), to drive the point home.

*Paint gets dirty*

You can't always see the build up of dirt that impacts ONTO your car's paint. This is especially true for any medium to dark to black paint jobs but it's still happening.

The visual effect of dirt stained paint is it creates a cloud or grayness to the paint diminishing the true original vibrant color.

It's easy to fix. Simply do one of the below things,

*1: *Use a one-step cleaner/wax. The cleaners and/or abrasives in the cleaner/wax will remove the dirt stained paint.

*2:* Use a dedicated polish followed by a dedicated wax, sealant or coating. The polish will abrade off the dirt stained paint.

*3: *Use a dedicated compound followed by a dedicated polish followed by a wax, sealant or coating. The compound will abrade off the dirt stained paint.

*4:* Use a dedicated paint cleaner followed by a wax, sealant or coating. Paint cleaners are traditionally chemical only in their cleaning ability but in most cases are enough to remove the dirt stained paint to reveal a bright clean finish. Always follow a dedicated paint cleaner with a wax, a sealant or a paint coating.

_*Comments...*_

Out of all the above options the first option is the easiest, fastest and most effective option for anyone that doesn't want to do a 3-step process. Find and use a great one-step cleaner/wax.

The last option is my last preference because if you're going to go through all the time, work and energy to apply a paint cleaner you might as well apply a cleaner/wax and get more benefits from your time, work and energy.

Here's the original project where these pictures came from...

*1955 Chevy & 1947 Buick Slantback - Show Car Makeover! - Pictures & Videos*

Right after Mike arrived we did a Test Spot on the driver's side fender. While most people would look at Mike's 1955 Chevy and think the paint looks GREAT in reality, the paint was completely stained with embedded dirt.

The thing is you can't see the dirt until you buff on a section to remove it. MORE IMPORTANT is it's really only easy to see embedded dirt on WHITE CARS.

But think about it... if the paint on Mike's hot rod has embedded dirt and you can see it... don't you think all colors of car paint gets dirty BUT YOU CAN'T SEE IT?

The answer is YES and that's why periodically, especially if your car is a DAILY DRIVER, besides claying the paint you want and NEED to use some type of paint cleaner to remove the embedded dirt. If you don't remove it, then when you wax you simply seal the dirt into the paint.

The more time that goes by and the more you just wax the paint, the cloudier and cloudier it will get as you continually seal in more and more dirt.

Make sense?

Now let's take a look. Here's Mike's car and in this picture it can be kind of hard to see where I buffed on the top of the front driver's side fender.










It's still hard to see the before and after difference, but for reference, I've taken the same picture above and placed an arrow pointing to the tape-line where I buffed on the front edge of the fender and left the back side of the fender along.










Now look... see what I mean by embedded dirt on and to some level, "in" the paint.


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## Mike Phillips

We actually detailed two cars at the time I took these pictures to create the above article, here's a short video from that project...


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