Man I screwed up... Oil seeped into my paint

You may want to try and buff it out using a buffer and very, very fine compound. If you don't want to try this yourself, have a professional do it. When using a buffing compound, there can be no wax on the area being buffed or it will heat up immediately and cause a burn mark. I did this on an old Pontiac that was in "junkyard" shape and it came out looking better than new.

 

assume you have the original lacquer on that 308? Man, I never worked on ferraris, but I know lacquer , while v beautiful, is v finicky. Once stained, may be impossible to get like new. Good Luck.

OR was the car repainted, like many? Then, oil should not be able to penetrate a good acrylic paint, I believe. Someone correct me if I am wrong.

 

It is his 348 that got the oil on it. Not sure if the paint was different...

Gene

 

Don't use anything that will seal it in such as wax. Try the solvent they sell at the auto parts store to remove road tar. This shouldn't harm any type of finish. You might even try some finely ground cat litter on the spot overnight.

 

I'd suggest putting a lady's clay face mask (women wear them at night to remove oil) on the area overnight.

 

On my lift, a 328 sits above a 330 GT. Neither of them are perfectly dry, but the lift has drip trays which span the whole space under the car. Cant you get them for your lift?

Dan

 

This is going to sound scary at first --- but, hear me out...

An old timer high-end detail guy turned me on to this some time ago --- WD-40. Yes, WD-40 can be used safely on paint and is such a great solvent for oils / stains / dyes / etc. He used to use it on the paint, chrome, rubber, and plastic trim of Rolls Royces and Bentleys to clean and enhance blemishes.

Using a new can of WD-40 (to be sure it hasn't broken down chemically), put a small amount on a very clean, fine weave, 100% cotton cloth and wipe lightly into the oil stain --- blot with a clean portion of the cloth to absorb the fluid and (hopefully) the extracted oil residue. Repeat a few times if needed.

Immediately wash the area with mild soap and warm water then rinse with cool water --- let air dry.

Just to be sure you should first try this on a small spot of your paint somewhere safe (like under a valence, etc.). But, I've done this many times, and I've never seen it harm paint.

Great thing about this method is you aren't using any abrasives or removing any desired material (such as a layer of your paint!).

Unfortunate thing about reds and yellows is they soak up pigments and dyes from almost anything they come into contact with --- if you look closely at almost any older red or yellow car, the paint will have all kinds of discolorations and stains on it. Even soap will permanently discolor yellow paint after years of washing.

Good luck

I kid you not, this crap is one of the most amazing solvents on the planet --- 1,000,001 uses and counting!

 

Also, be sure to spank your 308 and punish it by putting it on the bottom and letting the 348 drip on it for a while...

 

Incidentally, and I don't mean to sound judgmental here, but I've noticed this with many people who use lifts to stack their cars ---- why are you both (mr308gtb & DBR328&330) putting the less expensive car on top of the more expensive car? Obviously, if you are frequently driving one more than the other, that one would be on the bottom. Otherwise, in the event of an accident (lift failure), don't you want the lesser car getting damaged more?

In my case, my 355 sits on top of my 308, and my 456 sits on top of my Lotus Esprit --- just curious....

 

308 were painted with lacquer at the factory?

 

Nope, you are screwed.....

Modern paints are water based, to pass the new VOC emissions standards, and do NOT hold up to petrochemical contamination well at ALL.....

The HCs have gone thru the clear coat right into the base color layer......you'll need to respray that area to correct it.

I had a fuel system malfunction on a new white 1994 Pontiac Trans Am, while it did not explode into flames (thankfully) the entire contaminated section had to be stripped and resprayed at two weeks old and the gas tank replaced under warranty.....

Long story short I had a long conversation with Tech Support that brought all the above info to light....blame the Save the Planet folks and our government........

 

The original crazed OEM paint is laquer Dr. Tommy, until our regulations outlawed it, see my post above.

 

were any of the injected cars painted with lacquer or were the earlier carb cars the lucky ones?

 

I know they went from Glidden to Glasurit...not sure when the laquer to two stage occured...

And the non metallic colors were not necessarily two stage during the acrylic laquer period, so it's hard to make sweeping generalizations.....

I have always liked DuPont Imron, very tough and resistant to sun fade, but that's '80s technology!

 

Hi Finnerty,

I put the 328 on top of the 330 GT because:

The 328 leaks ALOT less
I drive the 330 more (that V-12 sound!)
I like to look at the 330 more (although the 328 in GTB form is SWEET!)

Dan

 

But does this mean that one can not request a shop to re lacquer his car to the orig spec/finish material if it was lacquer, you know, like the 308 fromm 76-77? I mean, they are still selling lacquer, so what are they selling it for, I wonder? The do it yourselfer? Does it go state by state?

 

Interesting post.

Lacquer was originally a different animal than the acrylic lacquer that you can still find today.

I'm not sure what was discontinued when, but the original was a nitrocelluose based paint that was very quick to dry and flat as a pancake, but required a rubbing out between coats.
Because it was so thin, one sprayed a lot of coats and did a lot of hand rubbing between every coat.
20 - 40 coats were not uncommon, but that paint was fragile compared to the paint of today.

It had less chip resistance and deteriorated under UV exposure.
However, the large number of thin coats needed sparked some creative ideas about paint coloring and that is how Candy colors, namely Candy Apple Red, were developed, by incorporating a contrast base coat, typically silver or gold, and then the many coats of clear tinted to the color desired were sprayed.

The more coats of tinted clear, the deeper the color, and the results could be fantastic.
Look at this image of a side cover from a 1966 Suzuki X6 Hustler - this Suzuki was stored in a barn since 1976 and light fell on the side cover for a small time each day. A fantastic find.

All of the original paint is still there, but the clear coats that were not covered by the removed metal Suzuki emblem are completely transparent while the candy under the emblem is still as it was 41 years ago when it rolled out of the factory.
All of that paint is still there, it is just colorless, and you can see flecks of corrosion on the metal.
If you could pass your hand over that cover it would feel flat.

Can you still get that type of lacquer in the US? Nope. Thank a tree hugger for that, and don't get me started.

It can still be found overseas in England in spray cans, and it is used to finish guitars and other such instruments.
Heck, you can find that on Ebay from time to time.
I don't know if it can be found in any other container, but some member in England might be able to find out.

Anywho, that lacquer is more fragile and less durable than modern paints, but they did have a different appearence that modern plastic paints don't quite match. Just my opinion.
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Last time I checked, you could still buy Dupont Lucite Acrylic Lacquer in some states, but haven't seen nitrocellulose lacquer in years. IMHO, the polyurethanes such as Dupont's Chromasystem paints beat it hands down for finish & durability.

BEEN THERE:
I made the same mistake, stacked a friend's 308 over mine for a few weeks last winter while waiting parts. Somehow forgot to cover my car with a quilt & cardboard. Oil dripped onto the boot lid & literally ate thru several coats of paint down to a primer coat! I never expected oil to eat into the paint!

The boot lid had to be completely stripped & refinished with Dupont ChromaOne single stage custom color matched to the rest of the car. Wasn't a total loss as I needed to strip & repaint the boot lid anyway, as it was already badly checking. I Was figuring on refinishing it this coming salt season when I had the boot lid off for the SC install. So just did the refinish a year sooner than planned. Didn't have time to do the job myself as had to finish my friend's car & had a big Unobtainium backlog. Had a friend do it in his custom/show car shop, came out absolutely gorgeous of course. Cost was about $1500, which wasn't bad for a strip down to the OEM filler & refinish.