help identifying/treating paint defect

[manman]

Can someone help me identify the paint defect below on a recently purchased car. I have it on both of my front fenders right above the front side of the wheel well. They're white spots that don't seem to come off even if I scratch it with my nail. Some other areas of the trim/seams have some wax or other product dried in between them, so I'm wondering if it's more of the same product stuck inside of tiny chipped areas of the paint or something? It seems strange that it's only on those two areas though. If someone could hep me figure out what it is and the best way to remove it I'd appreciate it!



http://oi39.tinypic.com/303iyww.jpg


http://oi42.tinypic.com/1gfzfb.jpg

[DetailedTaco]

E46 M3? Looks like a lot of little paint chips. Are they just on the fenders or all over the front bumper/hood as well? Has the car been tracked before?

[manman]

Hey, good eye. Not sure if it was tracked by the previous owner, but I don't see them at all on the front bumper or hood really. Bumper looks excellent, and the hood looks good outside of a lot of swirl marks

These are really the worst two areas of the car, the rest of the car looks great. I recently started to get together the things I need to start learning machine polishing/buffing myself, but I wanted to make sure I understand the defects I have before I get started.

[DetailedTaco]

Hmmmmm interesting. When you scratched them did it feel like the defects where covering the paint or where they chips in the paint? If the defects are covering the paint I would clay the car and see where that gets you. If they are chips then the only thing you can do is to either touch up or respray the effected areas.

[manman]

It was hard to tell last time I tried that, but looking again more closely, it does look like they might be tiny chips. I also noticed a few DO look like they were touched up with something, so I'm thinking that's it. If I'm right that it's white because there's product stuck in there, I have 2 questions-

best way to remove it?

Any way to avoid that happening again when I polish/wax myself?

[Evan.J]

Polish splatter maybe? Maybe the front bumper was repainted and the body shop flung polish all over.

Would make the most sense seeing how there is polish left over in areas.

[DetailedTaco]

There is really no way of avoiding getting polish/wax in the chips because there are so many and they are so small.

The only thing I can think of to get rid of the polish/wax build up in the chips is to use a 50/50 mix of alcohol and water and a microfiber. Maybe if you have a soft brush you can use that as well to agitate the polish/wax but this could cause swirls if not soft enough or not properly lubricated.