Ok so before I go ahead and describe my situation, I'm asking kindly for any of you to refrain from hammering me on how stupid I am - I ALREADY KNOW!

I took my LC for a weekend trip this past Labor Day weekend and decided to clean her up at a self serve car wash (since I don't do tunnel car washes). My stupid *** decided to get a citrus degreaser to help lift off some of the bugs that got stuck onto the front bumper and hood of the car (since I didn't have any wash mitts - could only spray with the high pressure hose). I couldn't find the degreaser I'm used to (Zep) so I went with one I wasn't familiar with - Goo Gone

Sprayed it on some parts with the bugs, let it sit for 30 secs, and sprayed with the hose. Now, I have a stupid film on top of my PPF that I cannot get rid of....

I was wondering if any of you have experience with something similar or are car detailing gurus, before I go ahead and try to see a detailer. Worst case, I'll need to replace the PPF on the bumper, hood, and front fenders, since that garbage got spread out when I sprayed it.

Please help my dumbass.....

 

Had similar happen on our track Lotus. Had this great stuff to quickly remove the streaks of melted tires from the race tires ahead of us. But, like your experience, it took the shine right out wherever I put it, a dull haze. I felt terrible. Surely there can be no way to fix this?

Smart *** answer happened a few months later.

Running Virginia International Raceway on a cold month, snow on ground, my 18 year old son in the car. Rousch Racing and others there there doing some sort of testing? They had just repaved the track and changed some of it a bit and had not yet painted the lines that define edges of track.

That’s my excuse but truth is my testosterone won the day and after crusing up the Climbing Esses throttle pegged at 125, it seems a good idea at the time to just take the next turn, South Bend at pretty much the same speed. I lost awareness of track position, turned too late and “pinched it” producing a text book “tank slapper”, three swings of the rear end and we go major agricultural to the right down a snowy bank at over 100, backwards.

In seconds I’m laughing with delight because we only spun ‘round once and THE WHEELS STAYED ON THE GROUND! We rolled off into our position of shame until the VIR guys recovered us.

And that’s how we got the PPF fixed. As we went around the very low splitter in front hit the somewhat uneven ground which transferred forces all up into the fiberglass. So after a new front clam and all that, better than ever!

Seriously, hate to say it but you are probably looking to replace this section of your PPF. Hope someone has some miracle spray to even it up again.

 

Try clay baring it. It might help.

 

I might try that on one of the sections.

The people from Goo Gone replied back to me with the following:

Good morning,

The Goo Gone needs to be washed off by hand with a mild dish detergent and warm water or it will dry. I would recommend re-applying the Goo Gone small sections at a time, wipe off then immediately wash by hand with a mild dish detergent and warm water. This will remove all the dried on residue.

To be honest, I'm kinda fearful of re-applying that stuff again. I might give it a try in a small inconspicuous area.

 

Just a thought... assuming you had your car ceramic coated on top of the ppf, the issue may be you've messed up the ceramic coating by getting it mixed with goo gone. If that's the case, then the issue is basically getting the ceramic coating OFF and hopefully the ppf underneath is fine.

 

That's actually very possible, which I didn't even think about - thanks. Few things though:
1) Ceramic coating I put on top of the PPF wasn't a very long lasting product: Turtle Wax Hybrid Ceramic Coating Spray (attached)
2) How would I then remove that mixture? Do you think I could just buff it out? Can you even buff on PPF?




I sure hope the PPF isn't ruined, cuz then I'd have to re-wrap 90% of the front again (I did a full frontal wrap).

I'm still waiting for a response from Xpel to see if they can suggest something.

 

Maybe trying alcohol. See if it rubs off.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I decided to research a little bit more on the alcohol, and found the following on Xpel's website:

• Remove insect or other stains as soon as possible with XPEL Film Cleaner.
• Stubborn stains can be removed with 99% isopropyl alcohol. Take care to keep these chemicals off the vehicle’s paint.

I actually had 99% isopropyl alcohol at home (blame Covid for that!), and decided to try it out.....

It actually worked! With a little elbow grease I started section by section and slowly but surely (after 3 hours), I removed everything from the hood, front bumper, front fenders and sideview mirrors! Thanks again for all your suggestions, and especially to @LXSDO for recommending alcohol which caused me to research and find Xpel's guidelines.

Hopefully this won't happen again to anyone else, but this should definitely be a good tip for any other person who made the same mistake as I did.

99% Isopropyl Alcohol will help remove Goo Gone residue that's stuck on your Xpel PPF!

 

Go team

 

That’s an early Christmas for you! 🎅🏻

 

Glad it worked out! Avoiding the cost to replace is the best part!
Get rid of that Goo Gone!!