Limescale damage to paintwork - Learn from my mistakes!!

[themonkey]

I noticed a line of white streaks on the bonnet yesterday, each one started with a splash mark then ran down to the front of the bonnet, thinking it was bird shit I gave the car good solid wash, I rubbed the marks pretty hard with the cleaning mitt but they did not come off, worse I was crazing the paint next to them. After washing the car looked like this







I couldn't figure out for the life of me what it was, the stuff was sitting on top of the paintwork but wouldn't shift, even with polish

A bit of assistance from some friends identified it as limescale, I parked the car in an underground carpark for two days last week and it had dripped on from the ceiling!!

Knowing citric acid would shift it I spent the best part of this morning rubbing the car with lemons cut in half, they soon shifted the scaling, neighbour thought I had lost it when he saw me rubbing lemons on the car but they were perfect, firm enough to remove the scaling but soft enough to protect the paint.

The crazing in the paint I caused when washing it was another matter and took many, many applications of polish to shift, followed by a couple of wax layers the car now looks like this.





It's about 95%, Autoglym super resin polish simply isn't a great cutting agent, I will give the bonnet a proper cut and polish in the spring but it'll do for now

If you find limescale on your car do not, I repeat not try to wash it off with a car shampoo, treat with care and use a weak acid to remove it, lemons as I have said are perfect for protecting the car while dissolving the scale. If you scrub it the limescale flakes up then scratches the paint, as I found.

[Candy Monster]

I bet that was a shock!

Looks like you did a good job of correcting the damage. Lemons - ingenious!

[trix]

really great correction job there monkey!!! almost looks professional

S

[chr15]

One thing - Autoglym SRP probaby hasn't taken as much of the scratches out as you think. It has fillers in it which hide the scratches for a while.

[themonkey]

I spent six freakin hours working to correct that, was absolutely gutted when I first washed it, I thought it had been vandalised til I realised it was sitting on top of the paint, then mortified when I realised I'd made it worse by washing it, I wash the car once a week when I can and wax about twice a month, I think it paid off, the scale was sitting on the wax and the only damage to the paint was caused by my initial efforts to wash it off.

Still, it could be worse, I found this whilst researching the cause, check it out, that's how stalagmites start!

http://www.cavweb-forums.co.uk/showthre ... -paintwork" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It needs a proper finish I know, I can still see the marks I made, but that can wait til the weather is better.

[Richard A]

Heh, heh... I read about it on SELOC. As a Scirocco owning Elise owner, I spotted it was a Roc and I was glad to read that there was a happy ending!

[themonkey]

Heh, heh... I read about it on SELOC. As a Scirocco owning Elise owner, I spotted it was a Roc and I was glad to read that there was a happy ending!

Small world!

[pat15312]

lemon and lime, sounds like what i'll be drinking tonight lol... perhaps a splash of russian water in there too

[Georgeous]

How does the old saying go?

"If life hands you lemons, you make lemonade...no strike that...you polish the bonnet of your Roc"

Happy New Year Everyone

[x5pea]

lol good job