Pollen damage to a black "plastic" wing

[waelwell]

Here in the Northwest, spring brings pollen so thick, it turns cars green if they're stationary for a few days. If that coat of pollen gets wet it can eat into clear coat and more. My Prius has a black plastic wing on the back. I think it's plastic. The wing is circled in red in the picture below.



When the pollen cleared this year, the surface of the wing was a mess. It was full of bumps and discolored spots. The image below is about a 2" x 2" section of the wing. The larger spots sure do look like water spots but I can assure you they aren't. You can easily feel each and every one of those marks in the picture. I've tried polishing the wing with the most aggressive stuff I have. Nothing seems to make a dent in them. Yes, there are a few long straight scratches there too. Those were from my last frustrated effort to make a dent in the finish.


Anybody have any ideas or suggestions? I run into these black plastic wings on my customer cars once in a while and I'd like to know how to deal with them when I get a customer with a situation like mine.

Bill

[Crispy]

Have you tried claying too remove above surface contaminates? I would start there and proceed with caution on plastic. It heats up fast (rub a section with a compound oon a micro fiber towel !!).

[ronkh57]

I'm wondering if it truly is pollen, or is it water spots caused by pollen.

[waelwell]

Crispy - I started attacking it with clay. It helped but didn't improve it much. I graduated to machine polishing. Again, it helped but didn't fix it. I moved to the heaviest compound I had... applied by hand. No change. That's where I left it.

Ronkh57 - you may be onto something. The pollen by itself will just blow off the car if nothing else causes it to stick. But if it rains, that's when the problems start. Rain here by itself doesn't spot the cars. Our tap water will spot the cars, glass, and anything else it sits on. But there's no way that tap water made it's way to the car. Yes, we're talking about the combination of pollen and water. But how does that help?

Bill

[Crispy]

Waelwell-By chance do they seem to come and go.

Had clearcoat failure that would mimic water spots after it rained or heavy dew.

Looked like crap, but after a day in the sun, 9not so bad.

Ended badly as had to re-paint (even sanding and then polishing would not restore the shine).

[waelwell]

Crispy - the only thing that changes is the amount of dirt on that wing... otherwise the damage is constant.

I really don't think that wing is metal. I think it's plastic or maybe fiberglass and the color is part of the plastic/glass as opposed to being painted on.

Bill

[Crispy]

Waewell - if the color is in the plastic, then a plastic polish might work (Meguiar's PlastX idea).

Try a small test spot by hand and see how it goes.

If doing by machine, beware of high heat build up on the center of the pad, so don't "burn" the finish.

If it's fiberglass and painted then paint correction steps (sanding, compounding, polishing and sanding).

Painting might be the only way to go.