The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop silicon on car finish

A few weeks back I believe it was justhorsenround or tcleaderman (spelling), was telling us to not get silicon spray on auto paint. A few days before I sprayed a silicon based oil on my 29 Chevrolet. It was painted 40 years ago with Dupont Centarie. Is there a way to neutralize the effect? The hinges on the inside have cracked paint and needs to be touched up. Doc.

PPG used to make a product called Acryli-Clean Wax remover. I think it was part of their Deltron line. If you applied that 2 or 3 times, you could remove silicone enough to paint over it, but I don't know if it is still made. It was very good stuff.

Thanks Jon, I will check online. Ed

Try duplicolor wax and grease remover. I use it as a wipe down before painting. No issues just make sure it is dry before painting.

If ANYONE uses silicone in my shop I shoot them dead and make their family pay for the bullet!
Now on a serious note; use the wax and grease removers as suggested and LOTS of towels. After wiping just a couple square feet the towel will be contaminated enough to cause fish eyes in new paint so save the nearly new towel for projects that require no paint. We get jobs where people have kept the dashes shiny and supple with Armorall and the door hinge pins treated with WD40. Huge No No's that have to be cleaned outside before allowed into shop. Silicone has many good uses but NOT around paint.

Any good wax and grease remover will work. Mineral Spirits from the hardware store will work just fine. Getting it on paint will not hurt the existing paint but will cause LOTS of headaches if you every shoot new paint over the contamination. Google "fisheyes". If you're planning to refinish any panel use wax and grease remover BEFORE you do any sanding. If there's wax or silicone on the paint, sanding can drive it into the sanding scratches and make it impossible to remove short of stripping the contaminated paint.

A friend of mine many years back that had a Challenger Convertible. As mentioned, years of armor all to keep the top nice had made it's way to the paint. We were trying to lay out tape to add some stripes and the tape would fall off. We used wax and oil remover, lacquer thinner, and about everything we could think of and it would not remove the silicon layer. Mel asked his wife if she had any suggestions and you could see him cringe from embarrassment when she suggested "formula 409" in front of me. Short story long is that Formula 409 did what no other "commercial chemicals" could not do. Tape stuck...Paint stuck... Life was good again.

I went to Votech school for auto body repair in 1990-91. One of the first things they preached was that silicone woipr cause “fisheyes” in a paint job... even the lowest amounts of silicone would cause issues... not sure how it affects mor modern paints, but back then it was effecting eurthane base/clear. Silicone would ruin a paint job. Auto body men hated silicone.