So, this guy knows way more than me about cars and about paint spills:
So if you have an incident like mine, go watch this video.
Well, it took me a long time to even try to address the mess which was my car, partially because my trunk was so full of stuff for summer camp. But when the first few weeks of camp were done, I removed the stuff from my trunk and got to work, imitating Wilson here as best as I could without a car detail steamer.
My tools:
- Microfiber cloths
- Respirator mask
- Rapid Remover (as recommended by the video)
- Work gloves (unfortunately not waterproof)
- A bucket full of water
- My toolbox
I got to work scrubbing and scraping.
After about an hour, my saint of a boyfriend was available and he came to help me — bringing his own bucket full of tools, and waterproof nitrile gloves.
My toolbox came in clutch; because of the sheer volume of paint that had spilled, using the paint scraper and box cutter ended up being super successful on the thick, dry paint.
And, well…
It looks better?
I really did leave it too long for much good to be done on the carpet itself, although a heavy-duty steamer might still melt the acrylic paint.
And in lifting up a couple discreet hatches, I found that my trunk has an extra storage space underneath… that is now half-filled with dried purple paint. This particular section was somewhat peelable, being plastic, but underneath there’s a ton more carpet that got drenched, and that’s definitely not going anywhere.
But the Rapid Remover worked wonders! My bumper doesn’t look like a leaky jelly donut anymore, and I feel hopeful as to making improvements on the rest of it.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway of this whole scenario is making sure you have good sealing and transportation methods for your paint. But now you know, just in case, a couple extra steps of how to fix the problem when it does happen. I’m not here to judge, I’m just a crazy purple lady.
Audrey A McGee 
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