Heavy Paint Overspray Removal - Toyota 4Runner

**David Fermani** · 10-04-2009, 08:17 PM

This truck was screwed up! It was trapped at the ownerâ€™s brand new house while 3 houses (including theirs) were getting painted. Because they were out of town, the painters werenâ€™t smart enough to cover their truck. By the time the owner noticed the overspray and painterâ€™s insurance company acknowledged liability, this Latex paint ended being embedded on this truck for almost 9 months!! During this delay the ownerâ€™s were so disgusted that they barely even bothered washing it.

Befores:

There were even scattered areas where big blobs of paint were splattered:

I tried everything and although Auto Magic Blue Clay Magic was taking it off, it was taking forever. Way too long! Hereâ€™s the 50/50â€™s after using Blue CM with Lake Countryâ€™s Clay Holder via DA buffer:

I tried solvents, razor blades, degreasers, and the notorious Hi Tech Magna Sponge and the best and quickest method by far was Micro Surface Micro Mesh sandpaper. I used various grits with AM Body Shine lube and it instantly removed the overspray with only minimal marring.

Quick Process:

I 1st power/hand-washed all the loose topical dirt off the vehicle. Then, with the recommendation of Ron Ketchum @ Auto Int. I soaked the entire vehicle down with heavy wet towels saturated with paint safe APC for several hours. This loosened up the overspray and made my job removing it even less difficult.

Hereâ€™s the marring created from the 4000 grit sandpaper (overspray removed):

I sanded the bumper with Micro Mesh 3200 because of the heavy splatter mixed in with scratches:

I used razor blades on the glass:

**David Fermani** · 10-04-2009, 08:18 PM

Afters:

**Strokin04** · 10-04-2009, 08:25 PM

Amazing work and great write up!!!

**Mr_Good_Kat** · 10-04-2009, 08:35 PM

Wow! That is quite the turn around, great job!!!!

**Barry Theal** · 10-04-2009, 08:36 PM

Wow That could have not been a fun detail at all. Thats a lot of litte ******** work involved on that. Once you got all that overspay off you had to deal with holograms and swirls. Great job David! That car looks awesome! How is that clay bar holder for a pc? I seen that somewhere before was curious on it! Great job Bigboy!

**dmw2692004** · 10-04-2009, 08:40 PM

wow, what a mess! great turnaround!

**David Fermani** · 10-04-2009, 08:54 PM

Originally Posted by Strokin04

Amazing work and great write up!!!

Thanks Strokin04 - I hate UA too. Ford should use this paint system because it was a complete dream to work on.

Originally Posted by Mr_Good_Kat

Wow! That is quite the turn around, great job!!!!

Thanks Good_Kat

Originally Posted by dmw2692004

wow, what a mess! great turnaround!

Thanks a bunch dmw!

Originally Posted by bufferbarry

Wow That could have not been a fun detail at all. Thats a lot of litte ******** work involved on that. Once you got all that overspay off you had to deal with holograms and swirls. Great job David! That car looks awesome! How is that clay bar holder for a pc? I seen that somewhere before was curious on it! Great job Bigboy!

Thanks. :2thumbs: The clay bar holder is basically a standard foam pad w/a cutout for your clay to sit in. You velcro it to your PC and start grinding away. No more tired arms from moving back n forth for hours.

**imported_WhyteWizard** · 10-04-2009, 09:03 PM

So, what did you charge?

Robert

**porta** · 10-05-2009, 12:43 AM

Awsome work david! I have to get me that kind of paper, thats for sure.

**imported_artikxscout** · 10-05-2009, 01:28 AM

can you say beautiful david? great job. I`ll keep that in mind next time I get a car like that, what do you think using 3000 would`ve done? You think that would be ok?

**zaidgreat** · 10-05-2009, 02:05 AM

did you manage to remove overspray from the rubber seals? especially around the front/rear windscreen and door side.

thanks for your inputs

:thx

**bwalker25** · 10-05-2009, 05:33 AM

Wow David thats great work.

**TSC17** · 10-05-2009, 06:54 AM

You laid the hammer down on that one David...wonderful save. That is the work of a Pro!

**Rickrack** · 10-05-2009, 07:12 AM

Great job David!!

I have seen this so many times in the past... Is it really that hard to cover the car or move it out of the way when painting? Idiots!!

Nice technique!! Overspray can be a real PITA sometimes.