One of those crushing cars.....

Orinda Auto Detail

Orinda Auto Detail

Opti Coat Pro Certified
So a local mobile friend of mine sent me a customer who had ran over a a can of house paint. I really don't know exactly how this happen but the damage was there for sure. To make matters worse that before contacting my friend who sent her to me.... She went to a local car wash for them to take a stab at getting the paint off. Well all I could see they managed to do was put some extra swirls in the paint, and cover the tire in brown stuff that would NOT wash off.
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Money shot~!
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Hard to see on the paint but there is a ton of white paint on it right here
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Black trim cover in paint... CHECK!
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Wheel well covered in paint... CHECK!
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tail lights covered in paint... CHECK!
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Test spot on the wheel. I tried a bunch of different things to get it right. Only thing that worked was Lacquer thinner(at least in a timely manner). I was very nervous about this because of the amount of scrubbing that was required on a painted wheel. So to fight this I would scrub a little off then wax the wheel. In theory I was putting protection back on the paint allowing me a little scrub time with out risking the paint on the wheel......
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It worked! I got as much of it as I could with out pulling the wheel... On to the next problem the tire that looked like poo... When washing the car I had already hit this tire with APC with out putting a dent in it. Fast forward 6 hours I tried with Megs wheel bright 4:1 still no luck... Then I proceeded to use Megs wheel bright undiluted... Nope... Tuf shine tire cleaner.... Nope... At this point I was about to take the wheel off run it over to a tire shop and have them flip tire(hoping it wasn't directional) because the inside was still black. Well Lacquer worked on wheel its self sooooo why not.
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95% better I'm good with that!
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Clearing up the paint was a little tricky as well. When the customer brought it by for me to look at 6 days ago it was coming right up with an actual clay bar. Scrubber and towel didn't touch it. Today only thing getting it off was 3k sand paper or you guessed it lacquer thinner... I'm not brave enough to hard core scrub a factory paint job with LT. I use the stuff all the time for little scuffs and heave build up, But not to scrub a panel...
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3k, followed by BF SRC Finishing and white pad. Handled!
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Nothing went as planned on this one. House paint is no joke! I've had less trouble with road paint. The worst part about this... I didn't get any where near done by the original time(I called customer and told her it wasn't gonna happen by 3 at noon). She forgot and showed up stood over my shoulder from 3pm-6:30. Ever seen the look on someone's face who had no clue about wet sanding and they see the whole back end of their car dulled out? She caused a scene would best describe it. After calming her down and explaining I asked her to go away a bunch of times and she would for a cpl minutes then come back with her phone showing what "Google" thinks I should be doing... You'd be amazed at the internet solution to getting house paint off a car "safely".

Note to self never offer to do this again for less than a truck load of money!
 
This is a fine example of real world experience. Laquer thinner in the right hands is a God send. Put it in the wrong hands though, and you've got serious problems. That could have gone bad quick, but it didnt because you knew what you were doing and took the nessesary precautions. Great job on it. On a side note, one thing I cant stand is a customer standing over my shoulder and telling me how to do my job. I would have gone off on her after the first hour of that.
 
Great read... I have been very lucky to NEVER have a client tell me how to do my job (although I have had the ones who are more than willing to tell me how much time something should take). You did a great job!
 
mrclean81 said:
This is a fine example of real world experience. Laquer thinner in the right hands is a God send. Put it in the wrong hands though, and you've got serious problems. That could have gone bad quick, but it didnt because you knew what you were doing and took the nessesary precautions. Great job on it. On a side note, one thing I cant stand is a customer standing over my shoulder and telling me how to do my job. I would have gone off on her after the first hour of that.
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Bingo...I've done several paint removal jobs with it (lacquer thinner), that said it's not for someone that doesn't understand it's power.

I wonder since this was house paint would acetone or mineral spirits have worked??

I say that because I removed months old white road stripping paint from a jet back truck with acetone, it has the removal effects as LT but not the effect on the clear coat:)
 
Thanks guys! This one smacked my ego around. Very trying....

mrclean81 said:
This is a fine example of real world experience. Laquer thinner in the right hands is a God send. Put it in the wrong hands though, and you've got serious problems. That could have gone bad quick, but it didnt because you knew what you were doing and took the nessesary precautions. Great job on it. On a side note, one thing I cant stand is a customer standing over my shoulder and telling me how to do my job. I would have gone off on her after the first hour of that.
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You know my friend thats why I did the it my self. Would of loved to pawn it off on an employee but didn't seem like the smartest idea.
 
Great Save!!!!!

With the information age upon us, anyone who has a smart phone could easily think of himself as an expert on any topic with-in minutes. What most fail to realize is there are just as much bad information floating out there as there are good ones.

Joe. I applauded your patience. I definitely could relate to your story. I ran a Men's tailor clothing store years ago. We often would have fashion books and magazines displayed in the store. While my salesman caters to the man, the wife or GF would sit on the couch and browse through them all. Within 30 minutes, she would come back but now she is the "EXPERT". She would dictate how something should look and how it is to be tailored. It drove my tailor crazy. On one occasion my tailor got so fed up that he offer to escort her to the tailorshop so that she could demonstrate to him how it should be done. Needless to say, we didn't make that sale and I had to conduct one of those "Management" conversations with him later. I , however, went pretty easy on him. :lmfao
 
WOW!! Those kinds of jobs are nightmares.Job well done!

I have no problem using laquer thinner when the job calls for it. As long as its factory paint and not soft paint it really can take a beating .

As far as your customer you must be a very patient man . I would have lost patience and told her to take her F-ing car somewhere else.

Ok, maybe I would have left the F word out until she was gone.:lol2:

*Think about putting a sign up..."Anyone stepping foot beyond the waiting room area is required to wear one of these."
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