Hi,

So this Winter I wanted to wash my car and of course its cold outside so I decided to use automated car wash, (it was also free) and now I'm left with what i believe to be dried up soap residue from the soap suds in the car wash machine.
It's on windows and on parts of my car body. What's the best way to remove this? Any sort of magic potion liquid to clean as the only way I've gotten so far is to use some soap and to manually scrape it off which isn't getting me very far since there's a lot of it!

My intuition tells me i should get a buffing wheel for a drill and try that out, but are there any other solutions to this?

Thanks!

______

 

I think warm water and some good old fashion elbow greese should be able to get it out. But you could try to use the buffing wheel.

Are you sure it's dried up soap residue and not something else that may look like soap residue? The reason I ask is because I had the dealership spray my car with this special coating. They hyped it up so much and said that it was so great, (this stuff was supposed to act as a sort of teflon for your car, so nothing could stick to it... not spray paint or anything). Of course, that was a load of BS and I was stupid enough to take the bait.

I ended up getting myself in a position to where when I wash my car, if I am not careful when drying (and even then, sometimes it happens), I get streaks from hell! Nothing can take the streaks away other than washing it again, and trying to dry it... again. It also makes the car look like it's got dried soap scum in certain places.

Dried wax will also do that.

 

could be a combination of all of those things. i hadnt waxed my car since summer - i did wax it again this week but i still have to deal with these white dried up things on my car again.

 

If you just recently waxed it, I would say that it was that. A nice soft rag will get it out. The buffing wheel too.

 

I would try a clay bar first, then cleaner wax. If you have to, step up to a rubbing compound. You don't wanna get too aggressive right away, especially with thin Scion paint.

-THE DON

 

Rubbing dry wax off wouldn't be that hard. Neither would dried soap - I am in no way saying scrub the car as hard as you possibly can... maybe with some really good sandpaper.

Using a clay bar, though is a very good idea, isn't always in everyone's budget. Unless you know where you can get a clay bar for cheap.

 

Sandpaper, huh? Might work...



But seriously... If it didn't simply "wash" off, I doubt it's just dry soap or wax. That kinda stuff is usually easy to take off. If the soap baked in the sun for a while, maybe it did some paint damage... ?? Hard to say.

Any pics?

-THE DON

 

i bought a claybar, seems to work. theres still a few spots here and there but i had to stop and quickly wash and wax car as it was about to rain here... of course.. in seattle.

thanks!!

i am however still having a tough time removing this stuff from the rubber molds though.