3X Foam Staining Vehicles- What to do?

[ScottV]

My Simoniz rep set up my new PDQ Tandem machine with the wrong tips in the 3X foam injectors. I started getting calls from customers that they had these blue and pink stains on their white vehicles. As usual I thought it was an older paint surface and told them to park it in the sun and it would fade away in a day.

6 complaints later, I realized we had a legitimate problem and started digging into it. The tips were wrong, the foam was too wet and we did leave stains on the sides and backs of cars. I'm meeting one of the customers tonight after work and I'm not sure what options I have to correct the issue.

Have any of you had this problem, and what can you do to remove the stains, sans having the car repainted?

Appreciate any help that you can provide.

Scott

 

[rph9168]

Normally a simple polish job should remove it. You might need to first try to remove the staining with a light duty all purpose cleaner followed by a polish. It might require some light compounding in some cases. There should not be any permanent staining.

 

[robert roman]

I had this happen to my car.

What to do will depend on what kind of paint is on the vehicle.

However, I would image most of the vehicles involved will have two-stage paint where the dye in the foam has basically leached into the clear-coat creating a stain.

UV from sun and ozone (smog) in ambient air will degrade (oxidize) the stain over time and it will slowly disappear.

If customers nag, you want to do the least amount of work possible to remove stain. For example, I would not wet sand and buff.

Instead, I would start out by trying to remove the stain with a cleaner/wax. If this doesn’t work, step up to a glaze. If that doesn’t work, try a “light” clear-coat compound.

If that doesn’t work, send them out for a couple of paint estimates from a reputable body shop.

 

[Washmee]

What ever happens, the Simonize guy should foot some of the bill.

 

[DiamondWash]

Just curious what color tips did he have in the injectors?

 

[MEP001]

What Simoniz product are you using? I'm running the Simoniz UVP, and it won't stain a car at all even straight out of the pail.

We had some bad staining issues with Warsaw's CCP - after a while we would just take a couple days to get back to the customer, and by then the sun had faded the stain away.

 

[DavidM]

I think all the advice is right on so far; I just want to add, if you can't get the stain off, go to a good detailer before a bodyshop.

Didn't the Simoniz rep do any testing before he left? Even washing a test car or turning on triple foam manually should have indicated a problem.

David

 

[washnvac]

Had it happen with some product I used a long time ago. I just put 1/2 bleach-1/2 water in a spray bottle, sprayed it on the car , let it sit 5 minutes or so. Then ran them through the auto, minus 3x foam, and stain would be gone. Got rid of that product right away; as I was just experimenting.

 

[ScottV]

I was able to meet with the customer, inspect the car and remove the stains. They were definitely still there even after sitting in the sun for 3 days. My first attempt was to run him through the M5 with the top package including the 3X foam. His car came out with more stains than before. Thinking it was something with his paint surface, I ran my white Tahoe through the same wash and it came out with no stains. So we ran him through the Tandem without the 3X foam and it removed all of the colors from the side of his white Mustang.

Simoniz Distributor sent a wash tech to work on the machine. It was even staining their white service van. It started with baby blue tips in it, then they went to pink, then tan and then orange tips until it was working correctly. Two days later the Simoniz chemical guy showed up and changed out the chem's to something else. I checked it this morning and it's not foaming very well at all. I've asked for a return visit, but on their dime not mine. I didnt cause this problem and I certianly shouldnt have to pay to have it remedied!

 

[Greg Pack]

Well, I see you have it handled it already but thought I would share this. I used to keep a can of stoner's speed bead on hand, it's a quick wax product that you spray on and wipe off with a terry towel. You could do an entire car in ten minutes with it. It would remove the stains and give most cars a freshly waxed smooth feel. However, stoner changed their formula and the newer version is less effective at cleaning. I now use a product made my malco. Your simonize rep should have something like that in his detail line that he could give you, just make sure it has some cleaning/solvency with it.

 

[Rfl6543]

Ok this happens in our sunshine state a lot. The cause of it is the clear coat on the vehicle has lost its ability to protect the vehicle. It normally occurs with a white vehicle. The sun does eventually take care of this, but you can expedite the oxidation of the color with a High pH presoak in most cases. But I have also used OXI clean mixed lightly . Use a micorfiber towel and wipe the solution on to the affected area. Make sure you rinse of the vehicle once you are done. Then most importantly have a spray wax to protect the vehicle finish. I use Aqua Glow and offer at this point to the owner if ok places they can take the car to get a good express detail on the car.

I was able to meet with the customer, inspect the car and remove the stains. They were definitely still there even after sitting in the sun for 3 days. My first attempt was to run him through the M5 with the top package including the 3X foam. His car came out with more stains than before. Thinking it was something with his paint surface, I ran my white Tahoe through the same wash and it came out with no stains. So we ran him through the Tandem without the 3X foam and it removed all of the colors from the side of his white Mustang.

Simoniz Distributor sent a wash tech to work on the machine. It was even staining their white service van. It started with baby blue tips in it, then they went to pink, then tan and then orange tips until it was working correctly. Two days later the Simoniz chemical guy showed up and changed out the chem's to something else. I checked it this morning and it's not foaming very well at all. I've asked for a return visit, but on their dime not mine. I didnt cause this problem and I certianly shouldnt have to pay to have it remedied!