How to remove these marks?

[jimmy156]

I Fitted some roof bars to our Volvo yesterday, as I was fitting them I thought “strange they made these gloss black, surely they will get marked up and scratched… and I was right.

I am hoping that the bars don’t do this every time they are fitted! I have a feeling it’s something to do with the first fitting, 35c heat and the rubber feet. But they’ve left these marks that are an almost perfect imprint of the rubber feet! You cannot feel they are there. They don’t rub off with a wet microfibre. Does it need a polish? Clay bar? Tar remover? Or try all but in what order? The car had the autoglym “carbon ceramic” treatment by the dealer if that makes any difference.

[DaveF-SkinnysAutos]

So you think its rubber thats been transferred, rather than actually scuffing the gloss black strip?

I would try some IPA alcohol wipe first, or some tar/glue remover. If that doesn't work try a clay bar, and if that doesn't work try a medium cutting compound, but be careful as if you are going to do this every time you will be slowly removing some of the lacquer which over time will wear it down.

You could try to gently heat it and use a plastic scraper as a physical rather than chemical way.

Last point, there is an American product specially for removing racing rubber called Mothers R3, I can see its available on Ebay when you google it, so presumably available in the UK? I have no idea how good it is though?

[jimmy156]

Honestly I don’t know! You can see the lines from the pattern of the feet, and the edges are sharp and defined which suggests to me it’s an imprint rather than a scuff, but it could be either.

Thanks for the suggestions, I will give those a go! Hopefully we have some alcohol wipes sitting around somewhere!

[jimmy156]

Alcohol wipes didn’t touch it… makes me think it’s not rubber transfer. You can’t feel it at all. It’s a bit strange as I did move the bars slightly and reattach them after 24 hours, and they left a mark which was removed with just a wet microfibre.

[DaveF-SkinnysAutos]

The difference is if its left a residue you are looking at a product to remove that, if its scuffed the clear coat on the gloss panel you need to remove the abrasions and polish it out, but in doing that you are removing microns of clear lacquer which if you do it every time you attach it will over time remove all the clear gloss.

I would try some IPA spray rather than a wipe, but from your description Im not sure it will remove them? When you spray IPA and its wet you get an impression of what the surface would look like if you polished it as it fills any scratches in the clear coat before it evaporates, if you can still see the marks when the IPA is wet then it usually means the marks are too deep to be polished out. But again this is only if the transfer marks are damage to the strip, rather than residue transferred onto it by the feet.

[jimmy156]

I don’t think a spray vs wipe would make much difference… but might be worth a try. When the surface is wet (water or the alcohol from the wipe) you cannot see the marks.

I need to use the bars again this afternoon so I will clean them down and wipe the rubber feet and mount them in a slightly different place. I can then check to see if they leave another mark. Like I say, when I moved them for an hour or so yesterday, they did not leave a permanent mark.

I wonder whether the feet had some kind of sealant or something from the manufacturing process which in first use has either transferred or damaged the bars?

Regarding polishing everytime… this is not going to be feasible anyway. It’s likely they will get weekly use so I don’t have the time or inclination to be sorting them everytime. I am hoping this afternoons use will show that I just have those original marks to deal with and the bars aren’t going to do that everytime! If the latter, I think they will need to go back. It can’t be normal for them to be doing this!