Long-time member, first time posting. I know a few folks on the board.

Long story short, I was in a rush last week, wanting to take the wife out to dinner for her birthday. I didn't have all that much time to put a great shine on my Centennial Edition Grand Sport convertible manual. Probably the 3rd, maybe 4th time its ever been in a car wash. I brought polishing towels for after the wash. I've washed my truck in this exact car wash probably a 100 times over the years and never a problem...until I ran the Vette through last week. The water was turned off on the car wash machine.

My always garaged, always covered, rarely driven, 99.9% of the time handwashed car, now looks like it was washed with 1200 grit sandpaper over the whole top of the car, front to back.

What's done is done.

Still kind of dealing with insurance from the car wash owner and my insurance company. My insurance wants to hang a 'No-Fault Collision' on the car and says they have every intention of recouping the claim from the gas station owner. This is should be a Comprehensive Claim. The car was not in any type of Collision. No matter what, the car needs to be repainted.

I've visited a few shops locally in Vacaville. I've talked with Rich out at Able Chevrolet, and I have talked with the local Corvette repair place. I have yet to find anyone local that gives me warm fuzzy feelings that they are capable of repainting this color. I am not sure if it can be re-cleared or if it will need new paint. I have taken it to local detailer. The fella got about 80% improvement, but honestly, it didn't come out very good.

If anyone has any recommendations, I'd really appreciate it!

Thanks,
jim

 

You took a black car through a car wash?

Tom

 

Thanks for the input Tom. Makes my day to know there are people like yourself out there that have never done something they wished they had not.

I am 'sure' the black paint had a lot to do with the water not running in the car wash. I have no doubt if my car were blue, or red, or yellow, the machine would have used water for those colors, but if it hadn't, I am just as 'sure' that a blue, or red, or yellow car would not have been damaged at all. SMH....

Folks that actually walk on water are really amazing. I always chalked that story up to mythology and fairytales. Gives me hope to strive for that perfection you seem to have accomplished.

I am hoping someone knows of a decent place that I can take my car to.

Peace.
Jim

 

I'm no expert but I do help at a body shop a couple of days a week. Mostly on the resto projects doing the block sanding and the color sanding. I do the large flat panels staying away from the edges. I'm not qualified for the polish and buffing. LOL.
The thing you have to be careful about on a base coat clear coat paint is it's tough to determine how thick the clear coat is from the factory. Per the body shop owner if you can catch your finger nail in the paint it's pretty much too much to buff out.
Repainting your car properly is going to be expensive because it has so much stuff that has to be removed so you don't have paint edges. Windshield out. Bumpers off. Marker lights out. Vert deck lid off.
Again .02 but if the the clear is totally hosed it means new base coat and clear coat. I assume the paint has some flake in it so the car should be painted in one piece. If not a solid color it can be panel painted.
So being the debby downer that I am will your insurance turn the repair into Carfax so if you sell will that affect value?

 

Thanks for the information and your .02! LOL Very helpful.

I am not actually totally lost when it comes to cars. I have restored and painted a couple of award winning classic cars. This paint, 'Carbon Flash Metallic.' might be above my pay grade as a painter. I was hoping there is someone out there, another enthusiast, who will take pity on my soul for running my car through a car wash, that has had success repainting or repairing this particular color.

I am not going to hang a "Collision Repair" on this car. It has never been in a collision. It was essentially vandalized by a negligent car wash owner who forgot to turn the water on on his machine. An unfortunate issue for the car wash owner and me. He wants me to go through my insurance, and my insurance has told they will go through his and recoup their money, but my insurance wants to hang a "No-Fault" Collision Repair on my car even though they are getting their money back. I am not being made whole, as a Collison Repair automatically diminishes value on this car. Not that I have any intention of ever selling it, I don't.

The "Collision Repair' is not OK. That will put us in court. But for now, I just want to get my car repainted, and the sooner the better.

Peace,
Jim

 

First of all, it's not YOUR problem, so to speak, it's the car wash owner's problem, so don't get YOUR insurance involved. However, this will possibly get to be a tangled mess if the car wash owner does get his insurance involved, since, as you're already aware, they could tag your car with a diminished value, due to the damage.

Having said that, since your car appears to be a C-6, you may want to move this discussion to the "C-6" section, where there might be more information there. You might also want to retain a lawyer, just to cover your buns, in regard to the "diminished value" aspects.

Either way, GOOD LUCK!!

 

I was an auto-painter for most of my working career and taught it at the local trade school. You said you've "restored and painted a couple of award-winning classic cars". But you don't know what to do here... and are afraid that this color (whatever it is) poses a special technical/talent problem. (It doesn't. Period.)

I'm trying to figure out what your question is (aside from avoiding your insurance branding the title with a Collision status) because you've already seen "80%" improvement from "unskilled" laborers and still have "questions". Is it that you don't have the knowledge or talent to assess the paint situation or you don't want to try to fix it on your own? You said you took it to a shop and it looks only about 80% better. (When were the pictures taken--before or after the "80%" improvement? I suppose it doesn't matter.)

I'll make my recommendation assuming the pictures are "after" the detail shop. There's only one way to determine if the damage requires an application of clear--or an actual repaint (color and clear). That's if someone burns through the clearcoat in their attempt to buff out the scratches. I would have assumed you would know that after having painted a couple award-winners yourself. Unless you were EXTREMELY lucky and learned how to paint cars with your only two contest submissions that won, I would have thought many previous experiences polishing earlier painting attempts would have taught you not to burn a body line or through a coat of clear/paint.

Be that as it may, maybe this is the first time you'll have to face the notion of polishing a panel to the point of no return. If you've ever used a buffer for say, at least 4 hours, you should have enough experience to try this yourself--if not, take it to a professional painter (not a detail monkey) and give the painter free reign. The task is to polish the panel until the scratches are eliminated or the clearcoat is burned through.

NO painter/body-paint shop would take on the task of fixing this (by polishing alone) without your agreeing that they have no liability if the clearcoat is burned through. You must agree that you'll pay for the labor no matter the result--but if the painter burns through ANYWHERE, s/he is to stop and at that point, the labor costs end for this attempt at repairs. If they fail at rejuvenating the panel and burn through, then you know you'll need a paint job.

If you're unsure and want to attempt to remedy this yourself, (because the pictures are so hard to evaluate I'd recommend that you) start off with a polishing compound and a machine buffer with a lamb's wool pad to see if some light application will do. A lot of your bottom photo looks like water stains, not scratches and if that's the case, the detail people didn't hit the panel very hard. If a light application won't work, mix some rubbing compound with some polishing compound (50/50) and try again lightly. If that doesn't work, go full strength with rubbing compound only.

Polishing compound is usually used only to polish. It can, in rare cases, remove enough of the surface imperfections to eliminate VERY light scratches (and I can't tell if that's what I see in your pictures or not). In any case, polishing "compound" should/could be applied by hand after such an adventure (using undiluted rubbing compound) to minimize abrading the surface more than necessary.

And DAYUUUM, boy, I cain't bleeve you ran that black car through a car wash.

 

Not sure why the car would need repainted. A good detail guy could shine that up.