The salesman who sold me my Ford F-150 King Ranch said: “Just don’t get into an accident. This paint cost three times as much as Ford’s normal white paint.” This statement echoed in my mind when I first discovered orange spots…
What does it cost to remove orange spots from white paint? It could cost as much as tens of thousands of dollars to have an entire vehicle painted using the sparkely paint that comes on a nicely painted truck. The cost to have a professional detailer clean and remove the spots could cost hundreds. Using a fallout remover like Iron X could cost less than $30. After learning about the cause of orange spots from this website, we think you’ll choose the cheaper option!
The solutions offered in this article are both cheap and expensive. Spoiler alert! My favorite method. And, the method that I believe is the most effective is actually the cheapest! How often does that happen??!!
My family found a great gift idea for me! They gave me a gift certificate to have my truck detailed! What a great gift idea! When I took my truck to be detailed for the first time, I kind of felt like the person at the detail store would look at me and ask: “your a healthy youngish guy, can’t you wash your own car?” But, there was no response like that at all. Instead, I found a professional person at an automotive store who was willing to put in the work to make my car look like new again.
In recent years, I learned that investing a couple of hundred bucks to have my car detailed before selling it on Craigs list was a pretty good idea! The truck sold easier. Also, the person receiving the truck was very excited that they had a new-ish car.
So, I took my truck to the local car detailer. I gave him the truck keys and the gift certificate. Before I left, I mentioned the orange spots on the tailgate. He said that he’d work on them, but said that he probably wouldn’t be able to do anything about them. I was surprised. I thought he’d have a few tricks with the orbital buffer, or some top secret potion, even a lesser known cleaning product; but, no luck.
So this brings me to the point of this article. How much does it cost to remove orange spots from my paint?
In my situation with my friends at the detailing place, money was not the object. They just didn’t know how to remove the spots. So, no dollar value could be assigned. If I walked in with a roll of hundred dollar bills in my pocket, they would still have the same answer….no solution.
While surfing the net, I found a post from a person who was paying $85 for a three wash system. This type of wash was being offered by a local detailing shop. Sounds pretty technical. Doesn’t sound cheap! But, it does sound cheaper than what my family paid for the detailing job on my truck! (over $200!) These three
I kinda feel like that credit card commercial:
Spongy wash mits: …….$10
Borrowed my wife’s mop bucket, ………free
Car wash soap ………$11
Iron X ……….$32
2500 psi Pressure washer: ……….$170
Completely removing orange spots from my favorite truck………………priceless!
I paid about $32 for a large bottle of Iron X. I only used half the bottle to wash my full size, four door, Ford F-150 King Ranch pick up with a Leer Cap. (I had to squeeze in that King Ranch!) I also washed the back half of a Ford Explorer. So, the cost for the Iron X was less than $20 worth of material used to remove the orange spots from my truck.
My local Ford garage doesn’t seem to offer any solutions to my orange spots. However, Considering the Technical Service Bulletin mentioned in other articles, I expect that they could wash the truck and remove the orange spots. The TSB mentioned three Ford/Motorcraft parts to purchase. Considering this, that’s gotta add up to…..maybe…. Fifty dollars in washing products?????? Plus labor to wash the truck? I’m sure there would be a four door King Ranch up charge due to the extra square inches! (There always seems to be an upcharge when people seem me pull into a store lot driving a King Ranch.)
So, in summary, the local detailers do not seem to be able to remove orange spots. So, it’s hard to put a price on what they would charge. However, a bottle of Iron X will cost you less than $35 for at least two washes. In order to answer the question of this article, I’d say you could eliminate orange spots for under $20.
What’s the total value of my car wash bucket, contents, and other tools?
Ok… I’m intrigued by the question. Although I think that I answered the question above, I feel like I may have come up short. I feel like I may not have fully answered this question. I feel like I should share all of the tools in my car wash bucket. So, here it is, complete with links so that you can verify my cost with current Amazon prices:
Iron X explains that after the 3-5 minutes of “soak time”, the purple should be wiped off with a wet sponge. The sponges are posted here for $3333