Toyota Highlander Overspray Removal

[Shawn F.]

Well I have a friend/customer who has a brand new Toyota Highlander with 2000 miles on it. He hit a small pole in a parking deck after only having the vehicle for a few days and took it to what is supposed to be a reputable body shop (if I told you, you guys would be VERY surprised). Just think NASCAR...

Anyways, their first attempt at fixing the problem did not go so well so they redid it. Again, the body work this time was not right so a 3rd time. This time it looked like a kid supposedly painted the vehicle so a 4th time.

Now the quarter panel they painted looks straight but the body shop (his insurance recommended) did not do a good job at taping off the vehicle when blending and got overspray over every single panel, piece of trim, glass, etc even on the opposite side of the repair spot. The roof got most of the hit unfortunately. The vehicle is black of course and you can see every bit of overspray over the ENTIRE vehicle. Instead of having them fix it AGAIN he said forget it and told the insurance company that he wants to deal with his own guy to finish and fix their monster they created and called me. I gave him a quote of around $400-$450 which IMO is VERY fair and the body shop said they would cover $300 but told him that my price is astronomical and couldn`t believe it. What is funny is they attempted to fix their problem with wool pads and left scratches, buffer trailers and swirls all over the place including circle scratches from dirt being in the pad that went deep. There is even millions of little pockets in the clear (solvent pop) that is a major issue....

I figured I`d post this here because you guys would appreciate and see how much time and effort goes into fixing someone else`s mistakes. I am having a hard time with removing it but it`s coming along slowly but surely (3 days). The glass part came off with typical clay bar (course). The rest of the paint and trim will need a more aggressive approach since the clay bar didn`t even touch the clear overspray... I started out with foam and polish but ending up having to go with foam/wool blend pad and Optimum Compound (spray and non spray). Even this is taking about an hour per panel to remove the overspray. The majority of it comes off (hazy type) but then there is still very slight pinhole looking dots all over (overspray or solvent pop I can`t tell). It takes a tremendous amount of time to cut it down without cutting too much clear but some areas have overspray from what looks like the first two times it was painted and then cleared over.



I will post pictures sometime tomorrow or this coming weekend but if anyone here has another other options I can try please feel free to post them! My plan is to finish this up by Friday the latest and I may try 3M 3000 grit trizac (SP?) wet paper on a DA for the roof since it`s the worst part and go from there in the morning...

[CGdetailing]

keep us updated!

[DaGonz]

Hmmm. think NASCAR.... North Carolina... One of Hendrick`s repair facilities?

[JohnKleven]

You should try the auto scrub...

[Richard Grasa]

It`s such a shame that as time goes on, the quality of work gets worse and worse at alot of these places. There was a time when most bodyshops would not let a vehicle leave with any paint defects or overspray. Now it almost seems they find it acceptable to let a vehicle leave with runs, fisheyes, overspray, you name it. I just can`t believe some of the bad paint work that comes into my shop, I did better work when I was 16 painting cars in my parent`s garage with no training.