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MG MGF Technical - White flecks

Afternoon all,

A few weekends ago, shortly after all that bad weather we had, I noticed loads of really tiny white flecks or dots on the drivers side and bonnet of my F. They're barely noticeable (a bit like the scratches mentioned by James the other day) but I know they're there!

Any thoughts on:
1) what they are? Something to do with road gritting perhaps?

2) how to get rid of the little b*ggers?

Ta

Ian
I A Charlton

Gritting damage? Crikey, has the grit gone through the paint layer into the primer? It really should not have!

Worth checking though, because if in warranty, get the door resprayed, otherwise you'll need to get the chips touched up.

But somehow I doubt that grit could cause such damage on a side panel ... do these white flecks polish out?
Rob Bell


I've got them on both wing mirrors...( but just mirror casing not on the car body )
I don't know what causes them but I'd like the little b*ggers gone too ( white flecks look like primer showing through )
Grahame

Ian

What colour is your car, is it BRG? If so this is a "soft" colour and tends to show chips and scratches more than most other colours.

Try using Turtle wax Coloured polish. I have just polished my BRG car with this and am always surprised how the surface scratches seem to disappear. It is worth a try, give it a couple of coats and stand back and see if there is any improvement.

Pete
Pete Fincher

Rob,

Last winter I passed a gritter going like stink in the opposite direction and got covered. My car is solar red and it left tiny white marks on the front bumper. Like Pete I've used coloured polish and it's not too bad in hiding the marks. As they say, a blind man running for a bus wouldn't notice them. However, I know that they are there.

David
David Clelland

David, I know what you mean - my car has more than its fair share of gritting chips over the front of the car - and especially the wing mirrors. Used to do a 3am run from Brighton to London on a regular basis a few years back - and used to get 'peppered' by gritting trucks with alarming regularity >:o(

But I'm surprised that this chip damage is seen on "the drivers side" - I assume that you mean the side of the wing/ door Ian?
Rob Bell

Me too, I took my car out in the snow just one time this year, passed a gritter coming towards me and have a whole rash of new white spots on my BRG nose and bonnet.

The early water based paint is really rubbish.
Brian

Morning all,

Thanks for all your comments! Just to be clear, the flecks aren't chips in the paintwork itself but tiny white spots on top of the paintwork. If I'm really careful I can flick some of the little b*ggers off with a thumbnail but they don't seem to polish off. It almost seems as though the car has been splashed with a fine mist of something which explains why the flecks are on the drivers side door and not just the v. front of the bonnet.

Any other ideas or does anyone fancy lending me their thumbnail so I can get rid of all the other spots?!

Ian
I A Charlton

Do they desolve in water? (are they salt?) if so then a good soak or a pressure wash will get them off.
Will Munns

I had a similar problem when my neighbour was painting the outside of his house on a windy day and my car was on our drive - fortunately I noticed it whilst the paint blobs were still soft and a little bit of white spirit removed them.

Ted
Ted Newman

My white flecks are in fact chips in the paint, they happened overnight whilst parked, the only thing that I can say is that we need have rather a heavy hail storm........surely it can't be that?
P Barks

This thread was discussed between 18/02/2003 and 20/02/2003

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