Car has a brown "film" after several years

[mhackney]

Not sure where to post this so here goes.

I had my 1983 Porsche 911 professionally detailed inside and out in the fall of 2019 - right before covid hit. It came out beautiful and the dark green metallic paint was silky when I rubbed my hand over it.

Flash forward to last year and I noticed a light brownish "film" on the paint. I thought it might simply be dust as I do drive the car a lot. But it remained after washing. I just pulled the car out of storage this weekend and the paint still had the brown film and it feels rough to the touch. My detailer is booked until July and I want to clean this up a bit and remove that film. I have a Porter Cable DA and have done a good amount of detailing myself. I use Mequiar`s Ultimate Compound on a clean foam pad on the DA. This "sort of" works but the brownish film turns somewhat gummy and I have to work on really small areas and use microfiber towels to clean up the gumminess on each section. I`ve never seen anything quite like this and I`m curious about what might have caused this. I have the car buffed out now and the paint looks nice again and is smooth to the touch. I`ll prepare for wax and wax it this weekend. Any ideas on what this could be? Perhaps a particular brand of polish he used in the past?

cheers,
Michael

[mhackney]

I should add... the car is garaged but I do drive it to work on nice days and it sits in the sun. It seemed like the top surfaces like the hood, top of fenders and top area of doors was most affected although the rear trunk lid was not.

[mhackney]

I did some research and learned about artillery fungus - which can come from landscape mulch. All the photos I`ve seen of it on a car are like spots or freckles on the paint. My situation is different - large areas of consistent tan roughness on the paint.

[Ron Ketcham]

Aged carnuba wax, do the Valugard ABC wash process and then you may polish.

[mhackney]

Aged carnuba wax, do the Valugard ABC wash process and then you may polish.

Thanks Ron - carnauba makes sense!
I already removed it with polish and a lot of elbow grease (the DA was relatively ineffective).

cheers,
Michael

[Marbles_Garage]

Aged carnuba wax, do the Valugard ABC wash process and then you may polish.

Hi Ron...in the old ABC kits, there was a white pad for agitation of "B" that I still use after 20 years as nothing comes close for safe bug removal. Are these still in production?

Thank you.

[Lonnie]

Can you ( or anyone with this old wax buildup) remove by using a pre-paint wax and degreaser remover like PPG DX-440. I do not think it is being made anymore, as this body shop product was discontinued due to VOC non-compliance, but it worked well for removing wax or grease for me long ago.
That was then; this is now.

[Ron Ketcham]

Call them, been retired from AI since 2008, so not totally up to date.