Originally Posted by
Mickey2
Did you get any where with it bkay? A resin type car polish with the gritty stuff can lift up dirt and grime like this from the finish. If you go to a place with a good selection of car polishes, there's some stuff called "rubber", "rubbing" or something like that, it's a product they use when they polish up cars thoroughly. It's usually in paste form on a tube, it depends upon brand and product. Some proucts are called lacquer cleaners, and they have the fine gritty polishing component that gentely polishes off stubbern grime and staining. There's lots of this stuff available when you find the right store. I'm mostly thinking of the stuff meant for cars, made to restore dull and discolored finishes.
I think you mean 'rubbing compound'? That might work well. I hadn't thought of that. If you want something a bit gentler to try first, there's clay bar. Clay bar will take off a lot of surface problems without harming the paint. We use it on the cars all the time to remove surface contaminants without harm to the paint job. You'll also need a detail spray to use with it. It might be worth a try.
As far as it being rust goes, that's possible. But rust coming up from underneath so it shows on top often bubbles. That's hard to mistake for anything but rust.