The day after a trip, looking over the vehicle, I find spots and spalshes of white paint on the chrome running board and down the side of the screw. Plastic caps and lower valence plus paint up in the wheel wells.
Needless to say, the stuff is dry. Don't know where I ran over wet paint but now I have a red and white truck.

Any ideas or suggestions as to how to remove said paint without damaging the candy red metallic paint job?

 

It sounds like it could be road paint. If it is it's best to remove it asap. At my work (autobody shop), we use thinner on a rag to remove it. It will not hurt the factory paint, as it is backed on catalyzed urethane. Follow up with a wax to restore the protection, and wear solvent resistant gloves, or a few pair of disposable gloves.

 

what he said^

paint thinner, mineral spirits, lighter fluid, or goo gone should do the trick

 

Road paint is a PITA. Go with what these guys said.

 

some times depending on what kind of paint it is a good wax and grease remover will also work and is not as harsh.

 

I used mineral spirits on the paint and removed all the spots that I could see. Paint is on the rubber portion of the running board and the plastic end cap of the chrome step. White paint is also on the lower valence. Not having much luck getting the white stuff off those pieces.

 

A clay bar will remove 'foreign' paint, concrete, road tar, bird poop and a lotta other stuff.

Read the label before buying wax/polish to make sure it does not have silicone in it.

Only pure carnuba wax should be used with clear coat paint. Silicone will strip off the clear coat.

 

Yup clay bar works for overspray so that would be what I would try next. Clay bars are available in different aggressiveness versions.

 

It sounds like your remaining paint blotches are on plastic and/or rubber parts. If mineral spirits did not cut it, the next step might be "Goo Gone" or "Goof Off",which are products designed to remove stains. They are a bit stronger than mineral spirits, I believe, so hopefully they won't dry out and fade the plastic pieces. Also, naphtha (lighter fluid) is a fairly gentle cleaner--it will remove waxy stains off of vintage guitar finishes without hurting the finish.

I have also used hand cleaner (like Goop) to clean paint off of various things, but I believe that it is basically mineral spirit type strength stuff, mixed with lanolin for your hands. If you have any, it might be able to soak into the paint stains a bit more than mineral spirits, which will evaporate more quickly.

Good luck,
George

 

Tried the Goof-off tonite. It took off the paint from the rubber step and end plates of the chrome running board. Not going to worry too much about the paint in the wheel wells. That should get blasted off during drive time.

 

WD-40 works good too, just for future reference.

 

Try using some lacquer thinner on a small area first, you might need to reapply a few times depending how hard the spots are. After it removes the spot, or at least fades it, you can then polish, if you have a wheel great. Then give it a good coat of wax. I had this problem with fresh yellow painted street line on my black truck, just took my time working at it and got it back perfect. Good luck.

 

Lacquer thinner is probably OK to use on modern car paint, but I'm guessing it would really melt/soften the rubber and plastic parts that the OP was having trouble with. It would basically remove the real lacquer finish on a 50's car or a nice old guitar--lacquer can always be softened. (One way that guitar repair guys deal with finish checking on a guitar is to spray it with lacquer thinner and it melts and re-creates a solid finish.)

WD-40 would work great (it is basically a mineral spirit-like solvent and oil) if you don't mind a little oil residue, and hand cleaner is mineral spirit type stuff in lanolin based cream, and plain mineral spirits is used as Ziebart cleaner and is a great way to get grease out of upholstery and clothing.

Any of these would get wax and grease off paint quite well without damage to the paint. Hell, if I'm out in the garage and notice some tar spatters on one of my vehicles, I grab the charcoal lighter fluid (because it's right there) and a rag-works fine and saves me a trip downstairs for the mineral spirits

I believe Goof Off and Goo Gone are slightly stronger solvents than the above, but nowhere near lacquer thinner. My son had a lot of college chem, and knows the relative levels of solvents--but he loses me when he starts explaining things these days.

George