I recently went on a 500 mile trip. I cleaned the car right before the trip, but didn't have time to clean off the bugs afterwards until a week later (8 days later to be exact).

Now I have six small bug stains that refuse to come off.... when I initially went over them with regular cleaner (and my fingernails), the bug guts came off but a dark-yellow stain remained. I bought some bug-and-tar remover and rubbed very hard with a cotton cloth for 2 minutes... still no dice. It looks like the paint itself has been stained. Is that even possible with bugs that have been on for only 8 days? Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

Bug **** will eat clearcoat off very quickly. All the acid in them. You may be SOL. Try taking the car to a detail shop and have them buff area with some harsher compounds than you can buy and since they know what they are doing might be able to help. Otherwise not sure what else to do short of repaint.

 

That sucks! Did that happen during the M'ster's Spring Run?

Seeing that you've already tried the bug and tar remover I doubt if I clay bar would help. So like rjacobs said, you'll probably have to carefully buff it out with rubbing compound.

 

I hate bugs! I feel your pain bro. I recently got back from a road trip (3200 miles) and had bugs on the front for about 10 days. (Of course I was driving through mostly desert, so the 115 sun baked it right into the paint.)

I scraped some off with my fingernails, and tried claybaring the rest, but there are TONS of stains. ArGHHHH.

 

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Speed Racer: Yeah, I cleaned it Friday afternoon prior to the drive and didn't clean it again until the next Saturday. I figured it was a lost cause, but I tried again today with bug-and-tar remover.

bagman: We had several really hot days here last week and it must've baked it into my paint as well.

Oh well... it could've been worse: it's not noticeable enough to buff out so I'll just put on another coat of wax and clean the bugs off every couple days from now on.

 

That is the exact reason I had a clear bra installed last year.

Now I can take my time getting the bug guts off.

 

heres what i do, i read it somewhere awhile ago and it works great....

soak paper towels in warm water and lay it all over the splats.

let it sit thier for 10-20 minutes or so and then wipe off, the bug guts come right off and the stuff that is still stuck will come up with a regular towel usually unles the clearcoat is damaged.

 

The above works great for getting the baked on bits off, but the big bugs have enough acid in them to eat the clearcoat. I've got one or two spots on my front bumper. A coat of NXT wax after a thorough cleaning covered them up pretty well.