Line painting season in PA

[gesfour]

I will start out my first post by accepting the criticism I deserve for having no pictures but I was more focused on fixing the problem than taking pictures.  While driving last week on a road that we travel all of the time, my wife (who was driving) and I rounded a corner and encountered a PA Dept. of Transportation line painting crew.  Typically, PennDOT puts up signs well in advance of any painting projects.  This time they did not. 

We were much more fortunate than the cars in front of us (who were weaving across the white side line and the double yellow center line) but we ended up with a fair amount of white paint one side of my wife's car.  Thankfully, the bottoms 5 inches of the rocker panels are clad in black plastic so most of the paint was confined to the cladding and the wheel wells.  Had we been in my car, which is painted all the way down to the bottom of the rockers, it would have been a bigger deal.   

What I learned in this whole process is the key is getting it off as quickly as possible.  The "paint" is more like an adhesive than what we think of traditionally as paint.  Anyway, my wife and I worked for about an hour and got 99% of it off with a simple bug sponge and wash soap.  She had the idea to use an old credit card to attack the wheel wells.  It worked very well and didn't damage the wheel well material.  I will need to pull the rear wheel at some point to get a few little spots that I couldn't reach completely cleaned up.

Watch for wet paint out there!

[Kitzy]

You had me at PennDOT...

Glad to hear you got most of it off.  I keep a box of plastic razor blades on hand for such things.  Hopefully your wheel wells don't have that carpeted sound deadening material like my last vehicle.  I can't imagine the process for removing that.

Tapatalkin...

[Too Stroked]

Would a gently wielded Scotch Bright pad maybe work in the wheel wells?

I can also tell you that Acetone works if you use it right away. One of the marina owners got fresh yellow road stripe paint all over the sides and wheel wells of his new black F-350 this past spring. Against my recommendations, they went at it with the acetone and got everything off.

[sscully]

I would think one of the marron / ultra fine Scotch Bright pads would work fine in the wheel wells, that is if they are not painted 

That is what I cleaned the G6 wheel wells with before testing with OptiSeal.

[gesfour]

The Scotch Bright pad is a good idea, Tom.  Interestingly, the front wheel wells are smooth black plastic and the rear wheel wells are more like the carpeted sound deadening material.  The credit card worked best on the front wheel well, although it did a pretty good job on the rear.  It's the little nooks and crannies in the rear well that I need to work on now and I may try the Scotch Bright pad.  There is still a lot of paint in the tire treads but it's time for new tires, anyway.  So now I've been spending my time over-researching new tires.  I officially have information overload and am ready to just buy a set. 

[Rollingrock]

On the carpet....high pressure wash wand?   

[gesfour]

That's precisely what I used initially, before the bug sponge and wash soap.  It removed the big chunks.  The little that remains is just difficult to reach.  Most people - not any of us - would call it a day and never think about it again.  I actually removed most of the remainder this past weekend when I washed the car.  While I was doing this, my 4 year old daughter wandered into the garage and told me that I needed to get all of the paint out of the tires.  I offered to let her help but she decided to ride her bike instead. 

[Too Stroked]

That's precisely what I used initially, before the bug sponge and wash soap.  It removed the big chunks.  The little that remains is just difficult to reach.  Most people - not any of us - would call it a day and never think about it again.  I actually removed most of the remainder this past weekend when I washed the car.  While I was doing this, my 4 year old daughter wandered into the garage and told me that I needed to get all of the paint out of the tires.  I offered to let her help but she decided to ride her bike instead. 

Your 4 year old has serious OCD potential. 

[gesfour]

Agreed.  You've met both of my kids so you know what I am working with!  She refuses to wear her shoes in our boat because "daddy will have to clean it afterwards." 

[Too Stroked]

Agreed.  You've met both of my kids so you know what I am working with!  She refuses to wear her shoes in our boat because "daddy will have to clean it afterwards."

Somehow my son didn't inherit the OCD gene from me. Unfortunately, he's got some of his mom's "Hoarders - Buried Alive" genes.