What are these spots all over this truck?

MDPotter

Promoted Users
Was looking at a 2010 GMC Sierra the other day that looked good in the pictures but had these little rust-colored specks all over it. I've seen this before on a couple white trucks, but what is it? And how do you fix it?

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IMG_8189[1].JPG
 
All the above are or could be correct. One of the more common ways is if the vehicle was in a Body Shop at some point and someone was working on something next to it and grinding welds. Let the sparks go all over the vehicle then perhaps the vehicle was rolled outside where it got wet. Metal rusted on the surface. I've worked with plenty of nimrods who paid no attention to where their sparks were going when grinding welds or using a cutoff wheel. It's really bad when they direct the spark stream right into the glass on a vehicle. Early on in my career a guy ruined a Lamborghini Countach windshield that way at the Shop I worked at.. Boss told him only way he could keep his job was to pay for the glass. He quit.:)
 
I get small brownish black dots about the same size on my white truck, at one time I thought it was from sealer sprayed on a parking lot, but now I havent been close to any new sealer, could be fallout from trees and such. Mine wipes off with a little effort and soap or W & G remover.
 
Back in the day, brand new cars and trucks would be delivered with those spots all over them. They called it rail dust from the vehicles being transported by rail. The steel wheels on a steel track would throw small specks of metal all over the vehicles they were carrying. It was only noticeable on the white ones. The make ready department used an acid based product to get it off supplied by GM. I would use a clay bar as Sprint suggested.
 
To add to this back in the day when this was most common, im guessing 50 to 70 percent of them could not be saved and had to be painted. Just a guess on my part.
 
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