what is paint overspray?

[solman]

This may be a dumb question but is overspray something that you might find if your car has been repainted or could a new car also have this condition. I see the term mentioned many times in detailing threads but not sure how a car might come to this condition or what it might look like.

[David Hayward]

It's when a car is not masked off properly in a body shop and the paint mist that is in the air while spraying lands on the finish. Leaves a finish that I'd just not smooth and slick feeling. I can't describe feelings very well so sorry about that lol. But it can also happen a lot when people do a little home spray paint job on am item a little to close to their vehicles so it can be a little more common than you would expect.

[Setec Astronomy]

Any car can get overspray, and it can come from a lot of places. Certainly it can happen in a bodyshop, and not just from the spray booth, but they spray other stuff there during the course of repair and not just in the spray booth.

Mike Phillips likes to say that "car guys" get overspray on their own cars because they are always painting something in their garage. As David Hayward mentioned it could be from your neighbor doing some rattle can or HVLP work, but it could be from a pro painter doing something on a house/fence, to driving under a bridge that's being painted, or any number of industrial activities from painting the outside of buildings to roof coating, etc.

That's the classic really, where they are doing some painting/roofing on an office building and the overspray blows over to hundreds of cars at the next building.

[solman]

OK I got it now
Thanks