Black spot hell on White paint

**DETAILROOKIE** · 10-21-2018, 09:48 PM

Hello all,

I detailed this MDX today and it was covered in these black spots. I could feel them and take them off with my nail, so I clayed the car with Mother's speed clay and it did nothing. I clayed the car with the pinnacle clay bar and nothing. I used Gyeon Tar and Iron and nothing turned red. I re-clayed it and it didnt work. I ended up scrapping them with my nail gently until I couldnt feel it anymore , but it left a stain on the paint. I used Correcting Creme followed by speed, both with orange pads, and it removed some of the staining, but still left a ton.The car sits outside so I let the owner know this is as aggressive as I would go so we can preserve as much clear coat as possible and he understood, but it is driving me nuts that it wasnt done completely.

Help! What can this be??

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**chinee** · 10-21-2018, 10:34 PM

I recently heard/read about artillery fungus...

Getting Rid of Artillery Fungus – Haluchs Landscaping Products

**LSNAutoDetailing** · 10-22-2018, 12:05 AM

I can’t tell where you live based upon no info in your profile, however after moving to AZ from NH, we were exposed to native and a LOT of non native plants and trees that I’d never seen in NH.

With that, I’ve see spats of sap, that almost looks like bug spatter. I found out it was from a specific tree. It was orange, red and brown. Spatters in globs all over vehicles.

The problem with this car is lack of good protection, to which I hope your taking care of.
Whatever the sap, tar or substance is, appears to be penetrating the clear coat... hence the staining.

You could try a little tar-x / terminator or goo gone as a test spot, but if it’s bonded and already staining the clear that is a different issue.

At this point trying to figure out what it is will only aid in preventing more future damage.

I see you tried Speed, that would have been my next suggestion. Probably already stained the CC.

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**Calendyr** · 10-22-2018, 01:52 AM

Looks like Artillery fungus to me.

**itsgn** · 10-22-2018, 06:27 AM

It could be a thing as simple as fly/bug poop. And I'm not even kidding.

I don't think it's tree sap, because it's on a side panel, and seems to take the shape of perfect spots/circles, and doesn't show any deformities in the shapes that would be expected for anything that falls down with relatively high speed onto a vertical surface.

**DETAILROOKIE** · 10-22-2018, 09:53 PM

Thank you everyone for the suggestions!

The car is in Raleigh, North Carolina, but it stays outside next to a tree at the family's lake house and that's the side that was completely covered in the black specs.

It looks like it stained the clearcoat because I can not feel them with my finger nail after I take the top off.

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**DETAILROOKIE** · 10-22-2018, 10:13 PM

Originally Posted by Calendyr

Looks like Artillery fungus to me.

Thank you! This is it!!!!

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**Calendyr** · 10-23-2018, 10:49 AM

When you see black spots and tar remover does nothing to it, in my experience it's pretty much always Artillery fungus. Not hard to remove, just need to clay it off.

**Mantilgh** · 10-25-2018, 07:45 AM

I’ve run into them a lot lately.

I pick, flick, and clay and that usually works decent.

Although now I am doing a large white RV and it has a lot them.

The customer has told me not to worry about them but can’t help but try to get most of them off.

Man these things really stick to fiberglass. My clay mitt did basically nothing, so then I tried a NanoSkin disk on my DA. Even that was very slow going. I figured it would take me almost as long to clay by machine as it would to polish it.

Polishing seems to take them off slightly faster on this type of material.

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**Aussie Rowan** · 07-18-2019, 07:30 PM

My white car (medium sized SUV - Toyota Rav4) was progressively getting covered in black spots. I've read through lots of blogs and there doesn't seem to be a consensus. However, I decided to try the easiest... I used white vinegar and warm water with a ratio of approx. 1:10. It worked a treat. It took a good couple of hours to wipe down the whole car. I think I will need to go over it again, especially in the corners and joins, but it looks 100% better already.

Here is the difference around the top of the door frame...