Body shop got overspray all over my undercarriage!

[resq302]

Ok, I just got my car back from the body shop from them fixing my driver side fender for the third time trying to get the paint to come ount nice.  The idiots got red over spray all over my undercarriage again!  The repainted the fender 3 times and got over spray all over the under carriage twice.  My problem is this.... I painted the K frame and other parts of the front end with rattle can paints like the restoration colors that should be on it.  If I use laquer thinner to get the red body color off, it removes or destroys the paint on the K frame and other front end parts.  Is there anything I can try to remove the over spray without damaging the painted parts on my K frame or front end?

My ultimate goal is to have the car back to the way it was prior to the brainiacks getting the red all over the place and have it done in time for the AACA Hershey show in Oct. for Columbus day weekend.

Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated.

Brian

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Brian, you can try the clay bar system by Mothers or another mfg. to get the overspray off......it might be time consuming but I have used it on the body before.

[mopar_madman]

Its body shops fault, they should remove it. They didn't mask properly, its part of what you pay for.

[694spdRT]

I agree they should have masked it properly. I used a 3M spray on masking on my undercarriage to that washes off with water to prevent that too.

Hopefully, you can get it off.

[resq302]

This goes back to an insurance claim from when my charger fell off my lift.  As for the body shop getting it off, they tried and ended up removing the paint I put on from Eastwood on the sway bar and sway bar mounts.  They claimed that since it did not have a hardener anything that they use will take it off to bare metal.  Since I do not feel like repainting the entire front end again, I will try to figure out something myself.  The body shop can't understand how the paint ended up getting past the mask job as they said the guy really masked off the car well.  My thought was not well enough!  The owner also tried saying that he has no clue how the paint would have gotten there as they have a down draft system. Who knows.

Chris, I have used the clay bar myself over the body of my car and it works wonders.  As for doing small intricate parts, I dont know how well it will work.  Maybe I can try some cleaner wax to get it off.  Only thing I am worried about is it leaving a shine to the semi flat black or having it turn a whitish color.

[bull]

Is this body shop one that you chose or one chosen by the insurance company? Either way I'd complain to the insurance company and then take the car someplace else to get it done right. The repair should come out of the body shop's pocket, not yours. The job needs to be done correctly and it sounds as if they are a bunch of hacks.

[Silver R/T]

No body shop will mask your undercarriage for you if they're spraying outside panels fenders, hood etc. Unless you specify them to do so.

[resq302]

This body shop was one that I chose had been a real reputable shop that did top notch work.  The main painter left to be Mr. Mom since his wife had a second child so that left the body shop short handed.  Then to fill in for his absense, he got an imigrant worker that supposedly did a real good job (not that I saw) to fill in the old guys place.  Since my friend left that was the painter, the place went down hill real fast.  As far as going back to them, absolutely not!  The body shop did call me and explain that he was not aware of the overspray at first and appologised but to me, it was too late.  He probably realized that my father and I in the next couple of years will be having my charger and his el camino totally stripped down to bare metal and have it repainted.  I figure that will probably cost about $4000-5000 each car and this body shop just lost our money plus all of the business that we had sent to him with referrals.

[moparjohn]

Sorry to hear about this Brian, it gets harder and harder don't it. John

[bull]

No body shop will mask your undercarriage for you if they're spraying outside panels fenders, hood etc. Unless you specify them to do so.

[resq302]

Sorry to hear about this Brian, it gets harder and harder don't it. John

Especially all the work that you are doing to your  car John.  I need to kick my car up a notch if I want to compete with you!   

[moparjohn]

Brian, I am not in competion with anyone. I love/drive/enjoy my car.  I do some things to be correct and so on but I doubt I will ever catch you with your detailed undercarriage. Your car is beautiful in it's own right, don't worry about the other guys. You do know that just having a Charger is more than some people will ever have!

[resq302]

Brian, I am not in competion with anyone. I love/drive/enjoy my car.  I do some things to be correct and so on but I doubt I will ever catch you with your detailed undercarriage. Your car is beautiful in it's own right, don't worry about the other guys. You do know that just having a Charger is more than some people will ever have!

John,

I know.  I was just joking!  And as far as correctness.... you know how anal retentive I am.   

[gtx6970]

trying the clean overspary off of parts painted with a rattle  can is going to be extremely difficult if not impossibile without destroying the underlying paint

[bill440rt]

Brian,
As a reinspector for an insurance company, & my dealings with both customers and body shops, this sounds like a very frustrating experience.
Hopefully I can clear up a few things. The first scenario is if the shop fixes this:
Usually, the body shop is very willing to remedy a customer's complaint. If they got the overspray on your car, they should remove it. If the overspray is still relatively fresh, they could try some panel prep degreaser (such a Prep-Sol). DuPont's Final Clean is also very good. Most production shops do not always deal with detailed show cars. Obviously, this shop did not take the time to mask properly. It was just another car to them. Even with a downdraft booth, you can & will still get overspray on the undercarriage. That was a poor excuse by the shop. I don't know what type of shop Silver works for, but his comment that shops don't mask unless you ask them to is absurd. Most reputable shops take the time to mask carefully. Your car would be a special case to take extra extra precautions, since your car is not an average collision job.
Who chose this shop, you? Or, did the insurance company suggest this one? If the insurance company did, they should back you up on getting this problem solved. If the shop is unwilling, usually another shop will perform the corrective repairs (in your case overspray removal), and then subro against the shop at fault. You would have to talk to your claim handler. Did you let your insurance company know about this?? I would notify them immediately. If you chose this shop, you then might be on your own.

If you fix this:
I'm not sure how well a clay bar will remove overspray, I guess it depends on how thick it is. Is it a light mist, or is there actually a coating of paint on your suspension from this? Cleaner wax is not aggressive enough. Spray can paints are very fragile, I would NOT touch this with thinner. You could try the paint prep solvents I suggested earlier.
If these methods don't work, you may have some repainting to do.
Good Luck!

[hemi-hampton]

I agree with Silver R/T. I've worked at about every body shop in Detroit area. The Production Body shops will not mask off your wheel wells or undercarriage. They do one of 2 things, Let the overspray blow in there & not worry about it (apparently what happened to you) or after it blows in there they pull out the old black can of Spray bomb or Undercoat to hide the overspray. Taking a nice car to any regular body shop a big mistake. I see this problem about daily through out the years. If you have a nice car only choice is to take to a Restoration shop that Specializes in older car Resto's. Even finding a good resto shop is hard to do nowadays, A chance you could still get the same problem if not Specificly pointed out. LEON.

[resq302]

Brian,
As a reinspector for an insurance company, & my dealings with both customers and body shops, this sounds like a very frustrating experience.
Hopefully I can clear up a few things. The first scenario is if the shop fixes this:
Usually, the body shop is very willing to remedy a customer's complaint. If they got the overspray on your car, they should remove it. If the overspray is still relatively fresh, they could try some panel prep degreaser (such a Prep-Sol). DuPont's Final Clean is also very good. Most production shops do not always deal with detailed show cars. Obviously, this shop did not take the time to mask properly. It was just another car to them. Even with a downdraft booth, you can & will still get overspray on the undercarriage. That was a poor excuse by the shop. I don't know what type of shop Silver works for, but his comment that shops don't mask unless you ask them to is absurd. Most reputable shops take the time to mask carefully. Your car would be a special case to take extra extra precautions, since your car is not an average collision job.
Who chose this shop, you? Or, did the insurance company suggest this one? If the insurance company did, they should back you up on getting this problem solved. If the shop is unwilling, usually another shop will perform the corrective repairs (in your case overspray removal), and then subro against the shop at fault. You would have to talk to your claim handler. Did you let your insurance company know about this?? I would notify them immediately. If you chose this shop, you then might be on your own.

If you fix this:
I'm not sure how well a clay bar will remove overspray, I guess it depends on how thick it is. Is it a light mist, or is there actually a coating of paint on your suspension from this? Cleaner wax is not aggressive enough. Spray can paints are very fragile, I would NOT touch this with thinner. You could try the paint prep solvents I suggested earlier.
If these methods don't work, you may have some repainting to do.
Good Luck!

Bill,

I chose this shop since they had a really good reputation the last couple times we used them.  Only lately they have gone from really good to really bad it seems and that is because their main painter left due to family obligations.  The reason why we ended up switching to this shop was that we knew the painter and the work he did when he had his own shop.  Consiquently, he closed his shop to be a stay at home dad for his new baby while his wife went back to work.  He then returned to work, working for the place I sent the charger to.  Prior to him being able to work on my charger, his wife had another baby and supposedly he was going to come back working part time.  I don't know what happened but that never came about so I got stuck with whatever imigrant the shop hired.  Granted, the new guy did nice work, but nothing of the caliber that I expected to be done on my car.

I guess you live and learn even though it is really upsetting and aggrivating.  The old saying of "It is so hard to find good help and people that still care about the job they do" is very true!  Luckily we still have people in this hobby like GTX6970 and my friend who does upholstery that are honest and caring people about the hobby and will do whatever it takes to have it come out good in the end.

As for bringing back my charger to them to let them do the clean up on it.... they have had 3 chances to get it right.  In my book, 3 strikes and you're out!  I'd rather do the clean up myself and know that it is being done right and with the correct things, not some shop that will try to wipe it off using a harsh chemical taking all of the paint off and then give it back to me saying, sorry, we did our best and this is what you get.  Like I said in a previous reply on here, my father and I will probably be having our cars stripped and repainted in the next 3-5 years and we certainly know where NOT to go now.

Moral of the story..... Good body shops are like winning lottery tickets...... You're lucky if you find one, and when you do, hold on to them for dear life since you might not find another one for quite some time!

I agree with Silver R/T. I've worked at about every body shop in Detroit area. The Production Body shops will not mask off your wheel wells or undercarriage. They do one of 2 things, Let the overspray blow in there & not worry about it (apparently what happened to you) or after it blows in there they pull out the old black can of Spray bomb or Undercoat to hide the overspray. Taking a nice car to any regular body shop a big mistake. I see this problem about daily through out the years. If you have a nice car only choice is to take to a Restoration shop that Specializes in older car Resto's. Even finding a good resto shop is hard to do nowadays, A chance you could still get the same problem if not Specificly pointed out. LEON.

Leon,

This shop that I brought the charger too has done some high quality restos on Chevelle SS 454, corvettes, and other muscle cars so I thought my car would be safe also.  It seems that my friend that was the painter there that left was the only one doing "a professional job".  We all hopefully learn from our mistakes.  Me... this place will not even see a plastic model to paint for me and I will certainly stop referring people to him.  Im sure that his reputation will spread as I have sent many of people there as he did a great job prior to this event with my charger.  After all, they say bad news spreads 5 times as fast as good news!  Im not trying to beat the guy up or put him out of business but lets face it, after 3 times of doing it, you would have though it would have been done right.

[OttawaCharger]

I'm not sure if this will work for you but I've used simple hand cleaner with pumice in it to remove overspray.  A bit on the end of your fingertips with some water and rub gently.  Just another thing to try. 

[hemi-hampton]

In my opinion it's not really the Body shop you take it to that does Quality but the guy or certain individual that is actually working on your Vehicle. I've worked at Resto shops & bodyshops where I was the only guy doing Quality while I watch the guys around me crank out Earl Scheib hack garbage  & laugh I'm to slow because I take the extra time to tape up door jambs & or wheel wells, ect, ect to protect from overspray. Maybe thats why your Buddy left the place, Couldn't take the hack garbage work he seen being produced  & they wanting him to do the same. Been there done that.  :rotz:It's rampant every where in the body shops, Most of them Scams. Hard to recommend anybody as most are  incompetant. LATER.

[myk]

Well that's good to hear.  I've got minor rust starting to appear under my rear window and want to take care of it.  I've gone so far as to ask local service centers for recommendations for body shops, they summarily told me that body shops are sleazy, unreliable, shady places of business and couldn't be trusted.  One service manager even told me "you'd be better off letting the car rust and rot to dust-it'd be better than turning it over to some hack body shop..."

So how does one go about finding a place that will take care of you? 

[hemi-hampton]

Myk, What you here is true usually. 9 out of 10 a wast of time in my opinion. Since I work at these places I got the inside scoop. It can be done though, There are some decent places but they are tough to find, Very tough, Extremely tough. Get what you pay for though. If you were to say I want it mint & done right, I'll pay hourly & time & money irrelevent I dont care the cost or time then you'll definatly will get a better job but you'll definately be paying more. If to do the Job right cost $1,000 & you say forget that I only want to pay $100 then your going to get a garbage hack job. Problem is when you say I'll pay the $1,000 & still get a hack garbage job, thats when you been scammed. LEON.

[resq302]

UPDATE!

Well, I tried polishing compound (the white paste), VISTA cleaner wax (made by Simoniz and discontinued) and even a clay bar on the K-frame to no avail.  I had to end up masking off a ton of stuff and repaint it.  As for the other areas like the plastic splash shields, my exhaust and torsion bars, they were able to be cleaned with either a little laquer thinner or polishing compound.  It seemed the overspray was more of a dust the further back from the front of the car I got which was good in a way.   Now I just have to focus on the light overspray in the engine compartment as it somehow must have swirled around in there since my chrome oil breather has a dull look to it and if I scrape my finger nail over it, I can remove the overspray from it.

:rotz:Good help is so hard to find now a days.   One positive outcome from this whole thing is at least I will be going over every inch of this car to get it ready for the Hershey, PA AACA car show!