Skunk, goop, paint, removing

The Mystery Behind the Skunk That Ruined a New Car

Once in a blue moon we get an inquiry that completely throws us for a loop! In collaboration with many International Detailing Association (IDA) members, a detailing issue appeared to have been solved over a lengthy e-mail chain that included some of the best minds in the industry. The situation was fixed, then it came back, and ultimately never got resolved. Allow me to explain.

The Backstory:

On a Sunday afternoon, a gentleman with a 2013 white Toyota Tacoma was off-roading and enjoying a good time. When he noticed a skunk in his path, he slowed and turned and the skunk ran off. However, in a moment of fright, the little fella didn’t leave without spraying the driver’s side door with this thick yellow goop. Obviously repulsed by the smell and the physical remains on the side of his truck, the owner drove to the closest self-service car wash. There he power washed the car and removed much, but not all of the goop. By the end of that Sunday, the yellow skunk goop had hardened and seemed to embed itself in the paint. This left a noticeable raised texture on the paint that was palpable and offensive. The owner, though not a detailer, tried his best over the following days to remove the remaining contaminants on his car.

The Actions Taken: On Monday: The owner used acid to remove the remains.  It didn’t work. On Tuesday: The owner used a degreaser and a solvent. Both to no prevail. On Wednesday: The owner tried a combination of tomato juice and a clay bar. Interesting, but still didn’t work. On Thursday: The owner decided he could not do it. He then dropped his car off with the dealership’s head detailer, Erica Hughes. Erica is a member of the IDA who reached out to other members of the IDA for guidance and help in this strange ordeal. By the time that she had gotten the car and reached out to IDA members she had already tried a peroxide/baking soda mix, solvent, paint thinner with a scrubbing pad, and even polishing the surface with 3M 308 compound and a wool pad.  None of which were effective in removing the skunk goop from the driver’s side door.

The Discussion: It was at this point that members of the IDA like Mike DicksonScott Perkin, and Keith Duplessie began discussions to help resolve this issue. Paint thinners and degreasers aren’t going to work well. It’s an organic mess and those products are meant to remove inorganic or petroleum based contaminants. Tomato juice is used to rid the smell, which wasn’t really an issue, and claying followed with a simple compound wasn’t aggressive enough. It was eventually decided that Erica should wet sand the surface to remove the skunk goop. Erica then came back to us with absolute joy that the car now looks fantastic! She used a hand held wet sander with 3M 3000 grit paper. She then came back with a wool pad and compound to correct the imperfections of the sand paper. Then to fine tune it a bit, she switched to a foam pad and then topped it off with a good wax. It looked great, she said! For every layer of paint she removed with the sander she could get a whiff of the skunk odor. That’s how she finally decided that it was working.

The Mystery: It wasn’t for another week that I then reached out to Erica to get some comments in order to write this article. And among all the details, she proclaimed the weirdest thing I’ve heard in my time in the industry. It came back. A full week and one rain storm later was when the owner walked out to his truck and noticed the same pattern and raised texture in the same spot as it was the week prior. A little while after this, the owner decided he was going to repaint the truck. It was at this time that Erica had the opportunity to try something else. She took 1200 grit sandpaper and started removing more layers of the paint. Eventually she got all the way down to the metal, and guess what? She saw a slight yellowing on the metal!

What’s in Skunk Spray? It was during this process that I decided that it was important to know what’s in skunk spray. What’s making this skunk goop so resistant to all of our tactics? Skunks have two glands on either side of their anus. These glands carry up to 15 cc of spray that skunks tend to use sparingly because the reload time is fairly long at about 10 days. The spray consists of a mixture of sulfur-containing chemicals like Thiol. Thiol is a sulfhydryl (R-S-H) group where basically a Sulfur molecule takes the place of the Oxygen molecule in a hydroxy (R-O-H) group which is an alcohol. So we have a sulfur based alcohol where this sulfhydryl group can bond to many different sorts of atoms to make different chemicals. It is this Sulfur that bonds to Hydrogen that creates the Thiol group that causes that nasty smell. So that explains the smell. What causes the skunk goop to penetrate the paint all the way down to the metal? The mystery continues.

Your Thoughts… Now that we’re at the point of going back and wet sanding the panel again and repeating the process. We figured this would be a great opportunity to open this up for discussion with others who may have other ideas or approaches to this. If you have a comment or thought, please feel free to leave those in the comments down below us well!  

6 thoughts on “The Mystery Behind the Skunk That Ruined a New Car

  1. herman stermun says:

    Hi: I know this is an old thread but perhaps what I’ve learned might help another. I have a white Mazda CX-5 that was sprayed on the driver’s door. In all there were 41 spots of yellow goo. I tried bug and tar remover, Dawn dish soap, Goo Gone Citrus based and WD-40 all to no avail. What did work was a mixture of 3 parts Hydrogen peroxide, 1 part Dawn blue dish soap and 1 part baking soda. This is used to raise and soften the stain. Apply the mixture to the spots and cover with plastic wrap to keep the mixture from drying out.Allow this to sit for 15 to 20 minutes. Now remove the plastic and wash well. Baking soda is abrasive and will scratch the clear coat if rubbed (I know this from experience). Now the fun part, using clean 100% cotton and polishing compound, start rubbing. Each spot took between 5 to 10 minutes of moderate rubbing by hand. This was done at the end of June 2017 and as of yet the spots have not returned.

    • Juan Raygoza says:

      Thanks Herman I will try it on mt car. I was driving on the freeway like a month ago and there was a skunk running. I couldn’t avoid it and I hit it, the skunk sprayed some of my hood, so yesterday I start detailing my car. I wash it first, then I use a clay bar to take all the contaminents and after that I used a polisher with a compound AND STILL I COULDN’T REMOVED IT!! I been trying all types of things and everything fails!! I will try your mixture hopefully it gets removed.

    • Nickole says:

      This just happened to my new white Tesla. I will certainly try your solution and hope it turns out well!

  2. Georgann Haskins says:

    Thank you for this information. I had no idea that skunk spray was so powerful! The picture above looks just like my car but never thought that these spots were from the skunk that sprayed my car last week. At least now I have some ideas for what to do about it.

  3. Terri says:

    We had a skunk in our garage last night, and this afternoon I found all this yellow goo running down the side of my new white Cadillac ST6! I didn’t know at first it was the skunk spray, I thought some kind of bug was in the sealing of the garage dripping some kind of juice. But my husband said the skunk may have sprayed it… so upon searching, sure enough this is it! I also had it on my previous car and thought the car wash had a hydraulic leak and was spraying on it. Thanks for posting the tip. That skunk really has hurt my feelings. But he want no more!

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