Got smoke and soot all over my paint

[ntwillie1]

Hi guys. Long story short, there was a fire near my wife’s office. Smoke blew towards her parking lot as did soot and water from the fire hoses. Her paint is in rough shape now. I washed the car the next day and that did very little. I then clayed it and 3 bars came out completely black and improved the condition but still not up to my standards. The car had optimum gloss coat on it that’s about 1.5years old and gets sealed by optiseal every few washes so there was some protection on it. I have a 63 degree day heading my way next week so I’m going to try and do a full detail. Anyone here ever run into a similar situation and have to remove smoke and soot stains from car paint? Thanks in advance.

[SWETM]

Man 3 clay bars! That is crazy. Do you know if the building was made of wood or what was in it? Why I ask is cause the soot and fallout from the burning building can be different kinds of particals. And different chemicals desolves different kind of dirt. I would start with a citrus based degreaser. This desolves more kind of dirt than the useally degreasers. P21s has the Total Auto Wash that is citrus based and seems to offer lubrication since they recommend to wipe it off or aggitate with mf towels or wash mitts. I would test first to a small area and rinse it off after a dwell time. And see if it's desolves the dirt on your wifes car. If it do you can test to aggitate it for more effectiveness from it. I have also seen many uses the Optimum Power Clean to there exhaust tips. Don't know if it's also a citrus based degreaser or something else. But it's also desolves different kind of dirt than the useally degreasers. APC and tar remover can you do some testing with and see if they work. And 3D Orange 88 Degreaser is a citrus based degreaser that also could work. They have a line named Nano Pail that has the Super Degreaser and Super Citrus APC. Don't say it will work but it's what I would try and see if it's has an impact on the dirt on the car. I have problem with getting soot from the air. Since a lot of people uses wood to warm their house with. And the soot from this is a PITA to get of. But the citrus degreaser I have has been the most effective to desolve it.

P21S Total Auto Wash is German nobility in a spray bottle!

Optimum Power Clean All Purpose Cleaner 17 oz.

3D Orange 88 Citrus Degreaser


Hope you get it sorted out.

/Tony

[Mike Phillips]

Most of you know about

Acid Rain


I was told when you have fire ashes on your car and it mixes with rain you will get,

Alkaline Rain



Learned this from the fires in California back when I was still at Meguiar's.


I'm not a chemist. but we have chemist on our forum, or at least quasi-chemists that may be able to validate. Regardless, might be a good idea to wash your car with some form of neutralizing wash.

I'm not a chemist but I would think it wouldn't harm anything to add some simple cooking vinegar to your wash water. Again, maybe someone with a chemistry background can chime in.

[ntwillie1]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I have chemical guys citrus wash and will try that. Depending on results I will try vinegar too. I am planning on claying after the wash and then polishing. Hopefully that can clean up the paint. Thanks.

[rlmccarty2000]

You can also just add some APC to your soap bucket to give it some extra cleaning ability.

[ducksfan]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I have chemical guys citrus wash and will try that. Depending on results I will try vinegar too. I am planning on claying after the wash and then polishing. Hopefully that can clean up the paint. Thanks.

I don’t own CG’s Citrus Wash, but I think it smells more like citrus rather than is citrus.

Limonene is a great cleaner, imposters are kind of meh.

[vincec]

Hi guys. Long story short, there was a fire near my wife’s office. Smoke blew towards her parking lot as did soot and water from the fire hoses. Her paint is in rough shape now. I washed the car the next day and that did very little. I then clayed it and 3 bars came out completely black and improved the condition but still not up to my standards. The car had optimum gloss coat on it that’s about 1.5years old and gets sealed by optiseal every few washes so there was some protection on it. I have a 63 degree day heading my way next week so I’m going to try and do a full detail. Anyone here ever run into a similar situation and have to remove smoke and soot stains from car paint? Thanks in advance.

I use to work for a municipal career fire department before retiring after 25 years of service. The trucks were red and white and frequently got soot covered during working fires. The paint on these vehicles was typically Imron, a very durable paint for heavy duty commercial trucks. We would normally wash these with "car wash" procured from the local janitorial supply company, think 5 gallon buckets of wash concentrate. In a wash bucket instead of adding 2-3oz of concentrate we were pouring directly out of the 5 gallon bucket and using more like 6-8oz. or more of concentrate and scrubbing with a wash brush out of a wheeled bucket that we could move around the fire apparatus. If that didn't cut the soot then then we would add some ammonia based stripper the was normally used for stripping wax off the tile floors. This was pretty nasty stuff. I still remember having to strip and wax the floors in the fire station and having to use exhaust fans for ventilation because the fumes were so bad.

I relate this to make the point that what others have posted about using a high pH or low pH cleaner may be what you need to use to remove the soot layer. Strong APC, vinegar, or wheel cleaner type products may be necessary to chemically remove the soot. After getting this soot all over myself and my fire gear for years, I can tell you that it can be somewhat oily requiring something that can cut through this type of dirt. Again, this is dependent on exactly what was burning. Soot from grass, leaf, marsh type fires was not as hard to remove as soot from building fires with all the plastics and man-made substances normally found in a modern building. Let us know how you make out.

[ntwillie1]

1st, thanks to everyone that shared suggestions. i finally got the car all cleaned up. here's what I did.

Washed w CG Citrus Soap - didn't do much
sprayed the car with engine degreaser - didn't to much
Washed the car again to get all the degreaser off
Clayed the car for the 4th time. Another full bar of clay came out pretty dirty but not as dirty as the first 3
I then busted out my Rupes 21. A Lake Country light cut MF pad. And my Boss Correcting Cream and went to town.
Success.
The boss cream was a bit challenging to remove but it did get the car paint and glass clean.
I then washed the car again
G Techniq panel wipe
Polish Angel Viking Coat
Polish Angel Viking Spritz
Sealed the glass w Optiseal
Sealed the rims w Optiseal
Sealed head lights and tail lights w Optiseal
Sealed all trim w Optiseal

Wife thinks its new again. I was planning a full detail for the spring but this made me do it much sooner than I'd had hoped. I'll probably do something in the spring again anyway. I have to say, of all the coatings I have ever worked with Polish Angel is my favorite. Easy on, easy off, amazing looks. I've had it on my other car for a few months now, garage kept, and it looks good. The AMG is out on in the driveway most days/nights so I'll see how long it lasts on a DD. Thanks for reading.