Auto Detailing Guide

Highway Paint Removal

One of the absolute joys we get to experience living in Western Pennsylvania is the ever growing number of construction projects that get started as soon as the weather warms-up. So after a hard days work and an even harder trip through one of the many detours established for our convenience, isn't it wonderful to discover "fast drying" heavy duty highway line paint all over your wheel wells and rocker panels? You get your choice of either white or yellow. Either way, the paint is designed to dry fast, only problem is it doesn't seem to dry fast until it gets picked-up by your tires and splattered all over your car.

We've been removing this highway paint for years. So when you've got a new multi-color or two tone section of your one color car it helps to have somewhere you can go to find out how to remove it. I always start with a two step process. You have to loosen the paint with an acetone or paint remover. Take a sponge or towel and soak the paint with acetone to loosen it. Then power wash the area with your pressure washer. The biggest area that this helps with is in the wheel wells where the surface is rough. If the area of coverage of the paint is large then you will need to apply several coats of acetone with a pump-up sprayer with viton seals (chemical resistant) letting each coat soak for approx. 5 minutes. After 2 to 3 applications it should be soft enough to power wash the wheel well and the paint should remove fairly easily.

Important note, be careful using this process on the exterior painted surfaces. Depending on the psi of the pressure washer, it can sometimes blow the paint right off the car. A good nozzle for this would be the 25% pressure washer nozzle at 2,000 psi for the wheel wells (see our page on Mobile Detailing Equipment for more on this). On the vehicles painted surfaces first use a plastic razor to try and loosen the highway paint after soaking. This will help to reduce the chance of damaging the paint with the pressure washer.

Once all the paint is removed, the exterior surfaces will need buffed because they will be lightly scuffed due to the plastic razors and acetone removal process.

The costs of this process vary depending on the coverage of paint over the vehicle. As a customer you can expect your professional detailer to charge you anywhere from $130 to $250 or more for this process. Again, this pricing greatly depends on the area that needs cleaned and the length of time the detailer believes the removal process will take.