Clear Coat break through with Cyclo on Honda

[SweatTheDetails]

During detail for a friend today i was atempting to remove a large scratch about on inch above were the rear fender flares out. I was taking paint readings and working slowly with 105, yellow pads on my Cyclo. Thought i was being safe but like a dummy it never occured to me that the scratch was in a valley and the top and bottom of the pad was being push with more pressure into the paint. On the 3rd pass i hit pigment. When my buddy came i explained what happened, obviously the detail became a freebie and i told him i would pay for half of the respray.



My questions are these, how much does it typacly cost. The area is 2 small quarter size patches. Secondly should i pay for the whole thing, he is a friend and seemed ok with the offer of half. I did put 6 hour of labor into the rest of the vehical for free. What would you do?

[MichaelM]

I would recommend that you still charge the customer for your time but pay for all of the damage, unless you were only working on that scratch. Then I could see not charging.



As far as how much it`ll cost will depend on the body shop you use. The good ones won`t spot repair clear, they`ll respray the whole panel to avoid lines.

[SweatTheDetails]

My wifes jeep had damage from a deer hitting her door. Cost $500 to repair dent, replace trim, and repaint. I was hoping that spot would run around $200.

[togwt]

Strikethrough is more common than most people want to believe, and its not just something that happens with a rotary polisher.



The better body-shops will blend the clear coat, so its almost impossible to see the repair

[Accumulator]

The topic of spot-repairs comes up here every now and then.



AFAIK, *none* of the major paint manufacturers condone blended spot-repairs and any such repairs that are done need to be treated very carefully to avoid failure. The general rule is to reshoot the whole panel.



BUT...



I`ve had many spot-repairs done over the years and the only one that *ever* failed was a pre-delivery spot-in that was done on the Jag back in the mid-80s (looked bad in the showroom and only got worse). The repairs of this nature that I`ve had done which really stick in my memory (the MPV and both the D2 Audis) never gave me any trouble at all. But then again, I`m not exactly the typical vehicle owner either.

[SpoolinNoMore]

Without seeing the damage, I`d say try to get some touch up paint from the dealership (usually only $8-15) and fill in the scratch. Wait for it to cure and then carefully wet sand it to level out with 1500 or 2000 grit then follow up with 105/205 or whatever polishes you use. Worst case scenario you pay for a respray anyway and get some touch up paint practice, sometimes you`ll be surprised at what you can do.

[RaskyR1]

Sorry to hear about the mishap...I think pretty much all of us have messed up at some point in our careers.



IMO you should cover the entire cost of the repair, if the owner is willing to pay you for your work on the car then that`s great, but I wouldn`t demand it.



I also think you really have to look at it as if it were your own car. Would you really want a half a$$ spot repair done to your car? IMO the whole panel should be repainted and if necessary it should even be blended into the adjacent panels to ensure good color match. I know I wouldn`t want my car back looking worse than it did when I brought it in.





Rasky

[lostdaytomorrow]

I`d respray the whole panel for sure. Reputation trumps all.

[SweatTheDetails]

He has not got a quote yet. Depending on the cost im hoping to pay for half and do his wifes car for free. He mentioned that despite this incedent he still wanted me to do his other vehicle. I`m going to try and chalk this one up to an expensive learning event that i will hopefully never repeat.