Worlds strongest substance (glue?) splattered on my 2022 M3

Concrete maybe? 🤔 Sorry I can't help with any of that 😬 I'd ask a body shop for advice

Have you tried rubbing alcohol? Not great for the paint if used often but certainly better than that plastic scraper. It looks like you have already scratched the hell out of the paint with that. Scraping it off is not the answer. You need a solvent of some kind that works

You try just water? Like getting a rag soaking wet and placing it over the gunk. Otherwise anything that might remove it will probably also ruin the paint. Unfortunately you’d probably need a body shop

My guess with be wet cement that dried

Wd40

Magic eraser

Try 3M Adhesive Remover.

OOOh that hurts to see ya scratching it with the plastic scraper! Try solvents. Goo-Gone was a good idea. Try pure alcohol (not rubbing-alcohol). Try xelene. Actually if its concrete splatter or other mineral based deposits, you're in a tough spot. Try a rag soaked in vinegar - let it linger on a blob, and gently try to push it off - NOT scratch it off. Let it linger for a minute or two - see if it lifts the gunk off. The vinegar might cause a haze in the shine - you'll have to polish afterwards (but you're there already). If that doesnt have an effect, try "Iron-X", "CarPro" etc "Iron Remover" - it will turn purple when you spritz it (telling you the gunk is iron based). Its supposed to be car-paint safe. I've not personally tried this. Just relaying HiveMind knowlege. There's also concrete remover products "Back-Set", "Prosoco" avail at some auto-parts stores. Mildly acidic, basically just "stronger vinegar" - and likely will cause an ugly need for polish and waxing. But you're there anywhere for sure at this point. Good luck.

Absolutely dont do this. That will scratch paint faster than this plastic tool.

To me it looks like resin, have you tried with simple petrol, you wet it, wait a minute for it to soften then remove it with a cloth.

Time to find a good detail guy.

that's a write-off

try gasoline. i know, the irony.

Brake Cleaner and it’ll be gone yesterday

Exactly this. He is just scratching that paint like crazy...

Wrong color to be cement. Almost looks like gorilla glue

There are some good ideas here for solvents to use. Don’t do anything that will scratch. You can also try some gentle heat.

Where do you get “pure alcohol”?

Try bug and tar remover, if not take a q tip and carefully try to apply acetone

Wd40

Home Depot in the paint dept, sold in quart and gallon cans. I think $7/qt ?? I mean "pure" as a contrast to drug-store rubbing alcohol which is appropriately diluted.

Take it to a shop they can clean it. Stop scratching the poor car.

I’d avoid using vinegar (a strong acid) on your car’s paint.

Use a tungsten block

That looks like traffic line paint that they use to paint the road lines and markers. If it is, unfortunately, you aren't going to be able to get it off. Because it's not really paint. It's melted thermoplastics, and the only time you had to get it off was when the paint was still warm and you could scrape most of it off. It's not designed to be removed easily once it has cooled, and no solvent is really going to be able to remove it. That's how it's designed so it wouldn't come off the road easily when people drive over it. If it's the thermoplastic paint, it's already permanently bonded to the paint and you won't be able to remove it without taking off the car's paint. This most likely is a trip to a bodyshop, and you can try to ask r/autobody. Did you accidentally drive over a freshly painted line that had not fully cured and cooled off yet? Sorry to be the bearer of bad news... [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoplastic\_road\_marking\_paint](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoplastic_road_marking_paint) You need to find a detailer that might be able to reduce the visual effects . they might be able to help.. [https://autogeekonline.net/threads/white-road-paint-removal-need-help.65227/](https://autogeekonline.net/threads/white-road-paint-removal-need-help.65227/)

I’d ask around for the highest rated true detailing shops around. Not the guy working out of a van, but a place with a building and hopefully countless chemicals in there. See if they can figure out what it is and what can remove it.

It's 99% pure vs the standard 70% alcohol used gor cleaning and sterilization.

Oof, the scratches in that clearcoat from your plastic tool

That was good. Take my upvote.

Happened to me once. They painted the lines and did not cone them off... I did not realize it was all over the passenger side of my car till it dried.

Troll bogies

3M bug remover. Spray, wait, wash car. You’ll still have to possibly scrub the gunk but it will loosen it up quite a bit.

What would it do to the paint?

At the drug store you can find the standard 70% isopropyl as well as 90%. I would start with the 70% and then try the 90%. If that isn’t doing it then it likely isn’t soluble by alcohol. No real need for “pure” alcohol. I would then try some wd-40 or gasoline. Past that, it is probably time to find a body shop. Edit: any wax or ceramic coatings will most likely be removed or at least greatly diminished from the alcohol, so I would recommend re-adding any coatings to the area afterward

😂

Back country Kentucky or West Virginia 😂

Take it to a detailer. You already need paint correction/polish and only doing one section is going to look like crap so you need a full correction and that's a detailer's job and talk to them about the gunk.

I'd sooner apply slight heat before I put rubbing alcohol on paint.

Also a reasonable idea. I have used rubbing alcohol on my model 3 multiple times because of a pine tree that drops sap in my front yard with excellent results. Then again, I have always been very vigilant to keep the car coated with something at all times and I use a ceramic infused waterless wash right after removing the sap

Diesel fuel will take that right off for you. It's what I use to remove road tar.

I always thought that stuff was supposed to dry almost instantly so they don’t have to cone it off? It must have been VERY fresh. Sorry about your luck

Luckily you did a crazy amount of more damage trying to remove it.🤣

Take it to a body shop and use your insurance so they can sand that shit off and repaint your car.

Why are you doing that? Stop. It’s not working. Worried about damaging that paint? That ship has sailed.

Are you trying to scratch the paint of purpose? Is this some kind of rage bait?

«I was worried about damaging the paint.» My friend. Take a good look at your own video. You have alreday scratched the hell out of it with your «tool».

Some cloath with water on it and let is soap, might be easier after that. Then use some demi water or something to clean it.

The way you have handled your clear coat until now, might as well use a grinding wheel on an angle grinder.

Tar remover will get this off. It might take a few applications. Keep it off plastic trim. Be careful with very pure alcohol (>70%) others are recommending that can cause damage to the clear coat.

Rubbing alcohol is isopropyl alcohol, not ethanol. Usually near pure ethanol is sold as methylated spirits, and they don't use methanol any more, just a bitterant.

Try tar remover

Try cutting compound.

Specifically 3M specialty adhesive remover. It’s great for taking off road paint as well. You can also try something like Koch Chemie Eulex. Also a solvent. Then you will need to polish the paint to fix all the scratches you added in your video…

this was like 30 years ago.

Specifically 3m Specialty Adhesive Remover 38987. Had white road paint all down the side of my M3P and was recommended this. Still takes a ton of elbow grease with a good towel but came out and left no scratches or swirls. Plus, I've found this stuff is what goo gone should be. Just requires a bit more attention, since it is a solvent product.

Try a snow shovel.

I assume they mean 99% isopropyl

stop that hire a local pro

The plastic scraper won’t work. Try a shovel instead.

Have you tried a metal shovel?

Its painful to watch you scraping the crap out of the paint. Look into specialty Chemical sprays to remove it or go to a pro before you make it any worse

Paint? PAINT?? When you party with brake cleaner, baby, you don’t NEEEEEED paint! (It could mess your paint up depending on how you use it lmao)

Tree sap

\[Update\] I took it to a detailer who tried a few things and then gave up. I tried all the solvents suggested and nothing worked. I soaked things for an hour but nothing changed. Finally, I took a heat gun and my plastic scraper and when to town. The heat loosened the material and, with enough friction and time, I was able to remove about 90%. There were a few areas that stripped away all the paint down to the metal, but fortunately those are small and not in particularly noticeable areas of the car.

The heat ended up being the only thing that made a difference. I was able to get most of it off with a heat gun and my scraper. It did a number on the paint in a few areas though.

When you manage to fix it, quote me and tell me how you managed to fix it.

You should try a metal shovel like that one guy shoveling snow off his car

Everclear

That 10% of stripped paint area might be vulnerable to oxydation and getting rust over time.

Bro those micro scratches

Maybe try a metal shovel?

Damnit, you beat me

A sharp razor blade with the corners taped off would do it.

Had a similar residue on mine when I bought it (used). I soaked a cloth in boiling hot water then placed on the spot with residue for about a minute or two and then scraped it off with a plastic scraper. Got most of it off but still have some spots that are only noticeable up close

Very sad to see. I would have thought googone would have worked

The car is beyond repair.. send it to me, me and Elon will take a look at it personally.

A number ?

How were you able to infer that? Are you a mechanic ? Just curious .

I spent the first 3 years of my early retirement from the software industry at an automotive vocational program at a community college I wanted to learn autobody and refinishing so I could paint competently my own cars...so i was there for around 6 hrs almost each workday working on cars for about 3 years. On the 4th year, this March, I decided to return back to the software industry to work on AI because I got an offer too good to refuse. https://photos.app.goo.gl/QL5UAitM9KhNZbN17 Just like everything else, I figure it you want to do better, you got to learn from the best. And that school had some of the best autobody talent that left the industry to retire and teach.

Sorry to hear that. I was hoping I was wrong, but from what you describe, you ran over a freshly painted thermoplastic road line/marker and some of it splattered on your paint , and melted and fused with your clearcoat. The yellow color sort of suggested that. The small spots where it is stripped all the way down to bare metal you will want to get a touch up paint pen and cover bare metal with it. Aluminum wont rust like bare steel, but it does oxidize and if it is unprotected, could compromise the bonding strength of the nearby paint and you start to have bigger chunks of paint lifting off. Touchup paint wont make things look perfect, but the purpose of is to prevent further paint damage from bare metal exposed to moisture

Looks like tree resin? Try heat and alcohol.

That’s cool! Thanks for sharing .

His next post “How do I remove all these scratches on my paint?”

An expression meaning that scratches were left

Just buy some everclear 💀