Salutations:

It is as I feared, it's smeared and it looks a lot like latex silicone rather than plastic. Worse yet - that finish looks like it hasn't seen wax in a long time. So, regardless of what I suggest, be aware that you may end up with a tell-tale stain until you refinish the paint. If it is not a latex silicone, use paint thinner instead of water in the instruction below.

Where you have deep goop, get yourself a hypodermic and carefully slide sideways it under the skin - then inject as much fluid under the skin as it will take. You need to get below the silicone, but try not to scratch the paint. If you are under the silicone, the pressure should blister the material enough to break the blister and get a peelable edge from the centre. This will work better the sooner you get to it because the material is curing from the outside in. Peel away as much as you can this way.

Once you get off as much as you can by rolling out from the blister, cut yourself some plastic squares an inch or two larger than smears. Cut a couple of white paper sheets (no inks whatsoever) and soak them. Lay the paper over the silicone and tape the plastic sheets to the panels so as to seal the wet material over the silicone. If you can, leave it out in the sun or under a warm lamp for about 12-16 hours. What you are trying to do is get the humidity up in the paint finish and get the paper to bind a bit with the silicone.

Finally, remove the plastic sheet and use a heat gun or a hairdryer and warm up the silicone to as warm as you can and still touch it comfortably. If you are using thinners - let it air a little bit before heating it. Patience is a virtue here. Too much heat too quickly and you it will turn hard - too little, too long and you will dry it out.

Keep testing it at a likely edge because at some point you should be able to roll the silicone off with the flat palm of your hand. Keep working at it as deeper stuff will take longer, thinner stuff will come up more quickly.

Not that this is at all helpful at this point, but it is always *very* wise to completely paste wax an automobile before you start any deep work like pulling the engine or interior or beginning a restoration.

It would have helped you in this instance because the silicone would have bonded to the wax rather than the paint and a little heat would have seen the wax release the material. Wax is even more helpful if you splash oil on the body or leave a hand print somewhere.

Best of luck Brother Craig - for whatever it might be worth, the little one was just trying to be helpful. I'd encourage it myself as soon as they can safely work a sanding block.

.. :) ..

Cheers.

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Why would you recommend the above? I presume you have tried the silicone
remover on car bodywork?

Yeah they're worth all the effort.

That's true, but the paintwork is not that bad apart from the
high-intensity buffing damage that's brought bare metal to the surface. I'm
going to work on the exterior finish later in the year. Currently I'm eyeing
off a nice 1983 C900 turbo that's for sale not too far from here.

Craig.