How to clean paint scrapings off my red S?

[loonsailor]

I scraped my red 2021 S against a wooden garage door, leaving an ugly stripe of whitish paint. It sort of comes off with my fingernail and lots of work, but there must be a better way. Any suggestions for something to use that won’t ruin the car’s paint? Nail polish remover, tar remover, gasoline? Acetone seems dangerous to the car paint. Some sort of buffing wheel?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[RSpanner]

Have you tried rubbing compound? Many different grades on the market.

 

[beatle]

I used one of these to remove some vinyl graphics from my truck years ago:

https://www.amazon.com/Remover-Stickers-Minutes-Wheel-toolkit/dp/B00VFACQRE

Most people use them on decals/vinyl but it may also work on removing transferred paint. I had no damage to my truck's underlying paint even though the graphics had been there for many, many years.

 

[tldickerson]

Try using regular paint thinner. It should dissolve the water base paint.

 

[krsgio]

Try a detail claybar then possibly a polishing compound.

 

[zoomer0056]

I am not an experience automotive body guy. I would be very hesitant to use paint thinner or acetone. Go gentle first with soap and water to get the easy stuff. Then a little more aggressive. Then, like RSpanner said, go to O'Reilly and ask the guy for a recommendation for rubbing compound. It's a mild abrasive. If you use a buffing wheel it might even look shiny brand new. Even better, go to a detailer, $100 and you're done. It will take them only five minutes. Less time than reading my post.

 

[loonsailor]

After reading replies here, and doing a bunch of research, I thought I'd pass on my what I learned, and what I did.

The marks on the car are called "paint transfer". If you google that, you'll find lots of advice, youTubes, etc. Not a lot of consistency. So, I decided to go by a local detailer and ask them for advice and/or an estimate. He took a look and said, "Sure, I can do that". I asked him how he would do it, because I didn't want him to do anything crazy. He said, "I'll show you". He grabbed a gallon jug of a thick orange liquid labelled "cutting compound" and applied a bit of it to the paint. He rubbed very gently with something like a microfiber cloth and the paint started to come off. A bit more compound, and a bit more rubbing, and the transferred paint was gone! He finished with a polish. The area is now beautiful, like new.

The detailer told me that Tesla paint is particularly fragile, and he remarked (complained?) about such an expensive car having such a cheap (his word) paint job. He said if I ever wanted to try it myself, "Don't practice on a Tesla!".

Anyway, 10 minutes, two liquids (cutting compound and polish), and somebody who knows what he's doing, and the car looks like new.

I'll stress again, he was very gentle. No electric buffer, no hard rubbing.

I hope somebody else finds this helpful.

 

[zoomer0056]

After reading replies here, and doing a bunch of research, I thought I'd pass on my what I learned, and what I did.

The marks on the car are called "paint transfer". If you google that, you'll find lots of advice, youTubes, etc. Not a lot of consistency. So, I decided to go by a local detailer and ask them for advice and/or an estimate. He took a look and said, "Sure, I can do that". I asked him how he would do it, because I didn't want him to do anything crazy. He said, "I'll show you". He grabbed a gallon jug of a thick orange liquid labelled "cutting compound" and applied a bit of it to the paint. He rubbed very gently with something like a microfiber cloth and the paint started to come off. A bit more compound, and a bit more rubbing, and the transferred paint was gone! He finished with a polish. The area is now beautiful, like new.

The detailer told me that Tesla paint is particularly fragile, and he remarked (complained?) about such an expensive car having such a cheap (his word) paint job. He said if I ever wanted to try it myself, "Don't practice on a Tesla!".

Anyway, 10 minutes, two liquids (cutting compound and polish), and somebody who knows what he's doing, and the car looks like new.

I'll stress again, he was very gentle. No electric buffer, no hard rubbing.

I hope somebody else finds this helpful.

How much did it cost?

 

[loonsailor]

How much did it cost?

Amazingly, nothing. He finished, I asked how much (expected $20-75) and he said "no charge, it only took a few minutes. Just write me a great review". Of course, I didn't mention "free" in the review! And, I'll definitely take the car to him when I want a full detail.

Of course, I wouldn't expect this to be free. If it had been up to $100 I'd have considered it money well spent, rather than take a chance on screwing up my paint by trying it myself and doing it wrong, and for the lesson in how to do it. If there's a next time, I may give it a try myself after watching him.