Let me just say that since I haven't been driving my X much (I have a daily driver) I have neglected it a bit. So after washing it this morning I noticed that the hood was covered with surface rust specs! More so then what most have noted. The paint was rough to the touch and you could clealy see the layer of rust that had formed.

I tried my best to take a pic of it, but it's still kinda hard to see. In the pic the left side has been clay bar-ed and to the right of the penny you can see the specs.


So after about 5 hours of clay-ing the hood and then the rest of the truck, i did a quick wax and was able to bring the paint back to a smooth shine.

when i first got my x it had those spots all over the rear hatch and the sides in the back. it seems to be from metallic dust from the brakes that settles on the the paint and then sticks to the surface. I also clayed my truck and they all came off. as long as you wax the truck like you did you don't get the spots again. the spots are more noticeable on the lighter colors like silver. there are probably people with darker colors that don't even know they have spots. even on my silver truck the spots that I had were very hard to see. People also get spots like these that live close to railroad tracks from rail dust.

Saltus, that "dust" is typically from the brakes on the train transport from the factory. Very well-documented issue here, and Nissan is aware of it as well.

I believe my problem goes beyond the rail dust that was collected upon delivery as I removed that years ago. It seems to be more of an ongoing issue, I've seen it come back a few times and the lack of wax doesn't help. Also as seen, if you let the problem go unoticed it can become quite severe.

I'm not sure if this is a Silver issue, but have a feeling that Silver not only shows it more, but the metalic paint might also attract it. I would say if you own a silver X, it would be best to wash and wax more often.