Metal Dust (Bronze + Brass) bonded to client`s paint. Any ideas besides slowly clay bar every square inch?

[bdaswat]

Hey guys, long time reader, first time poster. I have a detail shop and a client brought in their car from the factory they work at where they had all this Brass and Bronze (1% lead) metal dust blow out into the employee parking lot and this dust adhered to their car surface. I spent 8 hours throwing everything I knew at it, and I ended up just pain stakingly clay bar every square inch, twice. It was brutal!

So my question is, does anyone have any tricks for metal dust removal that would be safe on the paint? This stuff looks like rust and even after you clay the surface from the visible dust, it leaves a rough surface and requires a 2nd or even 3rd pass to get the paint completely smooth and flawless.

The hardest part of the whole process and trying to clay under little ledges, tiny door handle spaces (it`s red so it shows up in any crack or crevis), and under windows. Any ideas for this as well?

Thanks soooo much and if anyone has any other input, I`d be forever grateful.

[rlmccarty2000]

Wow, welcome and that`s one tough question. My only suggestion would be to use one of the many clay towels to help remove the embedded material. I don`t know of any liquid such as Iron-X that would remove non-ferrous metal though. Maybe some of the other members with experience with the Value Guard ABC Decon System might chime in on its effectiveness on this type of contamination.

[Lonnie]

I doubt that an acid-based decontamination wash will remove brass or bronze particles, due to their corrosion-resistance chemical make-up. Long before there was stainless steel, nautical ship builders used brass on ocean-going vessels to resists the corrosion from salt-water environments. Yes, it will tarnish and pit if exposed to an acid environment long enough. Bronze, on the other hand, is (was) used as a solid bearing material (think bushing or thrust washer) because of its lower co-efficient of friction due to the lead in it, as you have indicated. It is also highly malleable, meaning its easier to machine or beat/form/press/pound into a shape.

Since you have found a "process" that works, albeit a VERY tedious manual one, to remove the bronze and brass dust contamination, I`d suggest sticking with it. If you DO find a "different" chemical process, let us all know.

This particular contamination scenario is extremely troubling environmentally and the factory may have violated some federal EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) or state environmental laws allowing this "dust" to get into the atmosphere as it did. Opening doors in shop bay to allow lead-based dust, even in low-percentage amounts, to blow out into the open air is definitely not acceptable nor is not having the proper enclosed work area air ventilation and filtration to prevent this from happening, especially today with public concerns over the presence of lead.