Best way to remove paint transfer from a fender bender?

So, as you may recall, a young kid backed into my 95 a couple months ago, breaking the rear lights (have replacement), slightly denting the edge of the trunk lid (may go to paintless place to see if they can work it out), and scuffing up the rear bumper cover and leaving quite a bit of thick red paint transfer on the trunk lid edge and bumper cover itself.

If I can somehow get that paint scuffing off, the damage won't really look that bad, and I think I can touch up the bumper cover until if/when I ever repaint the entire car.

So here's the question: What is the best/easiest way to remove that paint transfer. The old addage is to "buff it out"   ...but that of course "buffs out" the rest of the surrounding paint too.

Any mild solvents, or maybe just some elbow grease and fine sandpaper?

What have you done that works well?

Thanks
Al

When I used to detail cars (long ago), we used Reducer with water to remove stuff like that. Then we'd polish the area. It works awesome. They even did it this way at the body shop I used to work for. It's the same method they use to remove overspray from a fresh painted car....

2000 grit wet paper works good too followed by polishing compound. I put a little dish soap in the water,makes the cutting action alot easier.

Thanks, any special forumation of "reducer" I should ask for from the paint shop?

I'll probably just parrot what you've written and let them point out the right stuff It's a real pro auto paint store, so I bet (hope) they'll know.

Thanks!

Al

I've gotten great results with a cotton rag, Meguire's Scratch-Ex, and lots of elbow grease.

al_roethlisberger wrote:

Thanks, any special forumation of "reducer" I should ask for from the paint shop?

I'll probably just parrot what you've written and let them point out the right stuff  It's a real pro auto paint store, so I bet (hope) they'll know.

Thanks!

Al

It's just paint reducer I believe is all they call it. Don't use it full strength though. Completely submerge a rag in water, them pour some reducer on the rag. Press the rag over the spot and hold it there for about 10 seconds. The color should melt right off after a few swipes.

Any of the methods posted will work. I just think that the reducer would be the easiest. You'll definitely have to polish the area after you do this, as it will remove any and all wax from the car.

EDIT: If they don't sell small amounts of reducer, you can buy a can of Acrysol that will work as well. We use it here at the dealer to remove old double sided tape and sticky stuff from cars. The stuff we specifically use is Acry Solvent from Transtar Industries. P/N 9784. They may not have it, but I'm sure there is something equivalent to it.

robotennis61 wrote:

2000 grit wet paper works good too followed by polishing compound. I put a little dish soap in the water,makes the cutting action alot easier.

This.

I used the same technique when I was in Chicago and backed into a dumpster because I had to pee really hard. Left a black scuff mark and Robos tech is what I did and it worked like a charm.

Hi, you should have a clear coat over the color. If you do, very easy going with rubbing a decent quality rubbing compound to remove material. Follow up with a finer rubbing compound or a polish to remove scratches. Just don't rub through the clear to get down to the color coat. If you have a nice buffer, can control the speed, even better. Again, just don't burn through or take too much off. Experience really helps with buffing. Wool pads are great, but cotton/foam are much more forgiving.
If you have a single stage paint on that part, or enamel paint w/o a clear, go slow. Have to be more careful than working on a clear coat.
High quality reducer is much, much more stronger than the hardware store thinners. The cheap stuff is like water compared to the body shop goods, be careful.
Very,very fine sandpaper, (ask for sandpaper for automotive paint wet-sanding) with a soft block (to keep off different finger pressures to stay level) along with water does a great job, also going very slow and easy. Follow up with fine compound/polish too for higher shine. Then the entire area should also be polished/waxed in an effort to blend-in area worked on. Its all about to trick the eye not to notice.
Don't be afraid to work a larger area than a tiny spot if needed. Like newbies working with bondo, or plastic filler, they attempt filling lots of small areas in damage, and ends up level or smooth as a sack of potatoes.

I have used Abbadon's method many times. works fast and easy. I have used reducer without water without a problem too. Just move fast and follow up with a clean dry rag immediately. Then a coat of wax like he said. Good luck

Went by a commercial/pro paint shop and they too recommended reducer, but already had an open can of lacquer thinner.  I was skeptical, but the paint guy said for this application it is just as good.

So instead of selling me a quart of reducer, he went out and wiped the transfer right off with the lacquer thinner, like wet mud.   It didn't harm the factory paint at all, and he said it would not if just wiped quickly on/off given how the factory paint is hardened.  He did caution using it and leaving it on the paint for very long, but a quick wipe was just fine.  

Other than the slight dent on the trunk edge, and one area on the bumper cover where the paint was rubbed down to the black plastic, it looks amazing like nothing happened.  It really was remarkable how easily and cleanly it came off.



I had quite a bit of transfer on the bumper and trunk lid edge,