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At the start, let us first consider that the spray paint was accidentally sprayed on your car and not an over spray of your own car's paint finish. Spray-over of your own car finish is a lot easier to deal with than other kinds of spray paint because you don't even have to check the type of paint. Accidental spray paintings could happen anywhere. There are also many types of paint.

One that is easy to remove is water-based paints. Rinsing the paint off with some soapy water and rubbing would usually do the job. Oil-based types of spray paint are more difficult to deal with. If you have no way of knowing how that spray paint got on your cars finish, here is a step-by-step way to test the type of paint:

1. Know the type of paint that was used on your car. It could be enamel (rarely used now for cars), lacquer or acrylic paint. If your cars paint finish is enamel, any spray paint of lacquer or acrylic on it will cause your paint to wrinkle. The only remedy for this is to have that section be scraped and repainted.

2. If your cars paint finish is lacquer or acrylic, enamel sprayed on it will not cause any damage or wrinkles. Now, to test if it is enamel, try to rub off a small portion of the spray paint with a clean white cloth lightly dampened with turpentine, ordinary thinner, kerosene or gasoline. With a just a few seconds of rubbing, the paint color should transfer to the cloth. In that case proceed to rub off the rest of the spray paint in small circular motion and gentle pressure.

3. On the preceding test, let's say the paint did show any transfer to the cloth. This would mean that the spray paint is either lacquer or acrylic! It means that the regular solvents mentioned above will not work to remove the paint. For this, you will need the finest grade of Rubbing Compound used on car finishes. You will need a clean white cloth about 1 foot by 1 foot folded to half the size of your palm. Dampen the cloth with kerosene or ordinary turpentine before putting a small amount of Rubbing Compound. A thin film of the compound over the folded cloth will do. The purpose of the kerosene or turpentine is to prevent the rubbing compound from caking while rubbing. It will also dilute the compound to a finer abrasive, making the finished job very smooth when it is done. If the spray paint is quite thick or large, it will really need utmost care and patience in doing the job. Again, small circular rubbing motion with gentle pressure must be observed. Pause at some intervals to closely inspect the work so you will not go to the point of rubbing-off your original car finish. Check on the cloth for signs that it might have reached your original paint. Also, use the different sides of the cloths fold for every two or three applications of the rubbing compound. This would also show if you are only rubbing off the spray paint. (The preceding would also be the way to do it if there is spray- over of your own cars paint finish.)

Almost all car paint finishes have clear coat on top of the color paint finish. This is for added gloss and protection to the paint. So, once the cloth used for rubbing does not show any paint color transfer, you are on the clear coat and had the spray paint or over spray eliminated. Buff the area with a clean dry cloth to remove residues of the rubbing compound and solvent. Your cars paint finish on that portion will be very smooth to the touch, with more gloss and sheen than areas around it. If you still have enough time and strength, apply a good car wax to dissimulate the effect. After that, you can pat yourself on the back, have a cold drink, and appreciate the work you've done

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