Hey guys,
A couple questions. I bought my Evo used awhile ago, and I realized that the guy that owned it before me must have tried to spray paint the grill black or something, because my intercooler has some paint on it, and you can even see a little black paint on the front end itself (second picture). At first it wasnt that big of a deal to me, but now its driving me crazy. I just want to either get the black paint off and have the normal stock look (not sure how I could get the paint off) or have it painted black (read a couple threads about how people have done it). Just wondering what yall think, and if anyone has any other advice on what would be my best bet?






Also, for the LIFE of me I cant get these marks off one of the rims. All the other rims are fine, but Ive tried scrubbing with all my might, and using different cleaners and it just wont come off. Not sure what it even is, but previous ownere clearly did something weird. Any advice on what else can be used to clean this off?

 

Rubbing alcohol! use lots of water to rinse after u use it tho. only on rims it might or might not take off the original blue paint on the car but it for sure will take off that black

 

THANKS! I tried the alcohol on the rims, but as much as I scrubbed it just wouldnt come off. Could it be tar or something? But then I tried alcohol on the car where there was a little black paint and i just scrubbed enough to get the black off, and then soaked it with water, and the blue is still there just fine, so Im hoping itll be fine. But Im guessing it wouldnt be smart to try to rub my intercooler with alcohol to try to get the paint off that huh? haha

 

Clay bar owns you.

 

For the intercooler? I already got the black paint removed from the car paint, but I still cant get the black spots off the rim, and I dont know what to use on the intercooler. I thought Clay Bar is just a paint contamination cleaner, but didnt know if it could be used on the IC

 

Chances are if you have tried a variety of cleaners/solvents that the marks are not gonna come off without taking the paint off. Clay bar can be used to take off contaminates, you should also try it.

Have you tried bug and tar remover?

As a last resort you could try a methylene chloride (sometimes called dichoromethane) based paint stripper and a cue tip, but this will remove the clear and paint if you go too hard at it. Only try this as a last resort and be prepared to end up looking at white primer instead of the black stain.

A toluene/methanol mixed paint thinner may also help, whick may work a bit better than rubbing alcohol (isopropanol).

You could also try a very very fine sandpaper followed by lots of buffing if it works.

 

use some high strength cleaner, sumthin that will remove paint for the intercooler and try wd40 for the spots on the wheels

 

And Id jsut paint the intercooler black or buy a stock one on here, there are bound to be loads of people looking to offload a stock on if thats waht you want.

Or try taking some OCD medication, if you drive an evo and are obsessive, you may need it :-)

 

use brake cleaner for the rims, just spray some on a rag and wipe. try not to pray directly on the rim, that stuff is strong and might discollor your wheels. try it on the intercooler also and see if you can get the paint off.