Identifying the grime on your car

Unless you’re storing a pristine trailer queen. That's garaged and covered at all times your ride is bound to come in contact with all sorts of tiny road grime and while you may be waiting for it to build up enough before you break out the wash bucket. Some of those tiny stains pack a mean punch on your paint job if left untouched. 

Here's everything you need to know on how to identify what goop and crust that is stuck on your car and the reasons to get it off.

Orange/Yellowish Spots 

If you’ve ever seen tiny orange/yellowish spots on your car. You may be surprised to find out this is bee feces. Bee droppings are particularly an issue in the spring and summer months. Bee poop is digested pollen that happens to be acidic and the most frustrating part about these spots is that they also contain beeswax. Which is resistant too many solutions. Taking quick action here is your best bet. 

The longer they have a chance to bake on your paint, the more difficult it will be to remove. You may need to peel them off with your fingernail. Which will be a painstaking process if you happen to get sprayed by an entire bee hive. 

Act quickly and you can get this cleaned off with a wash mitt and a pressure washer. If this is a particular issue where you live, be proactive and wax your surface. Paint in poor condition tends to be a bit harder to remove and if you find a car getting ambushed by bee feces more than once in a short period. The best solution may be on finding a new parking spot. Bees follow regular flight paths, and you may just be under one. 

Tiny Black Dots

Everyone who's ever driven or washed a car should be familiar with the tiny black dots that get caked onto the front end of your car and if you didn’t know they’re insects. Whether you drive in town, on the highway, or through the backroads. This seems unavoidable and for good reason. Specifically when it comes to polarotactic insects eg. mosquitos, dragonflies, and other aquatic insects.

Aquatic insects are attracted to you guessed it, water and when the sun makes contact with your car and reflects shiny shades of light. Insects perceive this to be areas of water causing them to inadvertently smash right on your car. This is particularly true for black cars including matte black and it's why you’ll commonly see these bugs end up on highly reflective surfaces like your chrome bumpers and shiny windshields. 

Insect splatter can include blood marks which are not fun to clean off especially if you leave it to dry and insect splatter can dry quickly and can leave behind etching.

A simple bucket wash and a microfiber cloth should be enough to get it off. A microfiber cloth is soft enough to keep your paint safe and still get rid of the bugs. Remember these insects are smashing into your car anywhere from 25 to 80 mph so it does take some elbow grease to get them off. If you find they've been so caked due to exposure to sunlight look for a liquid solution dedicated to bugs.

Black and White 

Here’s another classic. Black and white smudges. Now I'll give you a slight break if you didn't know the black dots but black and white smudge well it's good old-fashioned bird poop. Good or bad It’s all luck and it's bound to get every car at some point there’s nothing more annoying than seeing bird poop hit your freshly cleaned car.

While it may be common to spot bird droppings on a car. Left unresolved, Bird poop can create etchings. Bird poop is liquid at first contact and can ooze into the pores of your car’s paint molding itself around the poop. Left with the heat of the sun you could get left with etching even after it's been washed off. No need for that here when this can be cleaned off with a simple hand wash.

Yellowish Drip

Now the yellowish drip is tree sap and sap can drip from a variety of trees. This can happen year-round and hits its peak in spring and early summer. The obvious answer here is to avoid parking under a tree when you can but sometimes it's unavoidable and you’ll find the ooze of tree sap and your paint job. 

Depending on the tree species removing the sap can get stubborn. Like everything else listed here, leaving it to bake in the sun will only make things worse, and with enough time will damage your clear coat. So get ahead of this.

We recommend a hand wash. Machine washing is not a recommended option here. We recommend using a wash mitt or sponge soaked in car wash soap and warm water and letting it sit and soak over the spot in question for a few minutes to loosen it up. Then you can begin to scrub and wash the area pushing against the drip direction and repeat until off. Remember this can be stubborn so you may need to use your fingernail to peel off some of the remaining pieces. If the issue persists it may require a professional detailer.

Black splats 

Black sticky splats are what's commonly referred to as road tar. You may find this on your car after driving past a construction site, freshly paved roads, or a passing car kicking it up in your direction. Road tar is a bad look and ends up in all sorts of places including fenders, and wheel arches kicked up from your tires. 

This happens because road tar is a road asphalt adhesive meant to bind. When freshly put down it can end up adhering to your car leaving you in a sticky situation. Removing it can be annoying and being done incorrectly can damage your paint job. Tar consists of asphalt stones and that can be problematic with paint 

The best bet here is to treat it with a dedicated Tar remover. We recommend spraying the tar spray directly on your microfiber towel and working one area at a time. Replace your towel with a clean one when needed.