Ideas on removing silicone from paint

Hey guys, I must have driven through someones huge glob of silicone out on the road somewhere. I have a bit of it on my paint. Luckily the wheel wells took the brunt of it, which shouldn't be too hard to get off since they're usually dirty and dusty anyway. But a lot of very fine stringy lines of it got up on my paint. Starting at the front flare and ending on the front of the rear flare. Lots of little wispy lines along the front and rear doors. Luckily only on the passenger side.

I assume it's silicone, of some kind. I can pull off a chunk in the wheel well and it looks just like it. I can tell it's not tar. The fine lines are now good and hard, and are being pretty stubborn about coming off. I had a little time today, so I made an attempt at getting them off. I tried some bug & tar remover, .. it seemed like it wanted to work, but not very well. I even tried a dab of mineral spirits on a rag just to see if that would do anything but again, it wasn't much luck. I'm out of wd-40, or I would give that try. I would have thought I could rub my finger across them and get them off, but I try to keep my truck pretty clean, and I'm guessing it landed on a clean surface and stuck pretty good.

Anyone know of anything that might work in a spray on? I assume I can hopefully clay it off, if nothing else. But, if there is a spray I can try, that would save me a lot of time, that would be nice. I gotta say, it sure is fun having to deal with this crap because some douche's sloppy habits. But, being pissed about won't get it off, so there is nothing left to do but roll up the sleeves and get it off.

 

Did it dry really hard or is it somewhat soft?

If it's soft I would try using a hair dryer to soften it up and then carefully peel it off by hand.

Just quickly googling it seems people have had good luck with WD-40.

 

It seems like it's sort of soft, like you would expect silicone to be, but it's so thin (hair like) that in actuality it's pretty firm. I guess the best way to say it is, there isn't enough volume to be too soft. If it were bigger clumps I might be able to peel it off, but with them being super fine lines, it may as well be paint. I'm going to swing by the store today and grab a clay bar and a can of wd-40. I'll try the wd first, and if it doesn't work, I'll see if I can get the clay to pick it up. Good idea about the heat, I may try some heat with a hair dryer and then use the wd. Either way, it should be a real fun time.. ha ha.

 

The clear coat shouldn't be affected by wiping with alcohol and it should remove the silicone. I'd do a test in an area that is not noticeable to be sure first. If a ok, alcohol should remove the silicone. I had this same problem on my former truck. However it was a repaint with PPG clear - no issues with the clear on that truck. Of course, I didn't leave a wet rag sit on the surface for any extended time as that may soften the clear.

 

I picked up 3 things at the store, wd-40, goo gone, and a clay pack. I tried the wd-40 and goo gone on two different sections and both seem to work ok, and about the same results. They are not spray and wipe by any means, but a bit of agitation with my fingernail covered with the rag and it seems to be breaking it up. Pretty tedious work, but I plan to get the main bulk of it off and then go over it with the clay to remove anything I missed. Luckily some areas don't have much and what is there is pretty easy to find since they're lines. I also noticed the goo gone is nice and thick like veggy oil, so you can spread it out nice and even on the body and it helps your eye pick up the lines where the silicone is.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. It's a little work, but at least it's coming off. I actually think it would have worn off over time, but I can't help but jump on getting it off when I see it. I'll probably see if I can get the wheel well stuff to come off with the pressure sprayer at the car wash, that and time. I'll probably take a putty knife and help the big stuff off. It's pretty thick on the inside of the mud flaps.

 

Well, I'm all done for now. I got 99% of it off the body. The goo gone did the best, and I went over it all with the clay but I'm glad I got most of it off before hand. The clay worked good for the left overs, but I don't think it would have worked good if I had only used it, and nothing else.

Goo gone took the derp off my taco badge on that side, so I had the joy of rederping that.