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grey spray paint all over my F30 - not sure if I want to just cry or kill someone...

17K views 102 replies 37 participants last post by  ///M-Furby 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
brand new BMW F30 covered in paint

I live in a loft apartment building in Philadelphia. There was recently a dude hired by the building owner to paint steps leading to some apartment doors in the building. He was using a grey spray paint, spraying it all over the place. At some point it crossed my mind that some of that stuff may go over my F30 sitting in the parking lot so I brought it up but the guy said I was completely safe. Today I come out of my apartment, start looking closely and to my despair I discover that indeed there is spray paint all over the car.... already contacted the building owner and went to a car detailing place - they say it "may be possible" to remove it with clay and compound but.... the car is 2 months old. I don't have to tell you guys how I feel about this.... what would you do?!?! Am I going after the building owner to get this resolved? It seems like a logical next step.... I hope somehow I don't have to repaint the whole car...

BMW F30 with spray paint

F30 ruined by spray paint
 
#3 ·
It'll buff right out. :D

No, seriously, I know it's very frustrating, but it will all thoroughly come off with a good polish. Just let the building owner know what needs to be done and that you expect him to remedy it for you.

Finally, an instance where we could use that phrase legitimately!

C:\>Sent from my 386 using MS-DOS__
 
#6 ·
That sucks...
I hope you get it resolved soon.
 
#8 ·
The building owner replied. Looks the painter is aware of the problem... maybe he was hoping I wouldn't notice?! In any case he is probably going to pay for whatever needs to be done. Thanks for your support guys, I really hope clay and some compound can do the trick!
 
#11 ·
Just spoke to Phil on the phone. He says they are 2h away from me - not worth the drive. He's trying to find someone reliable closer to where I live. Seems like a good guy, thanks so much for the referral!
 
#12 ·
I am from Philly so I know he is two hours away, but unless he can give you a trusted referral I would drive the two hours to Phil. He is that good. This is a brand new 335i so I would rather see you drive to him and know it will be perfect as opposed to maybe come out good with someone else.
 
#17 ·
A proper detail will make it good as new.

I had a guy give me his car to detail when I was a kid. Black car with tons of overspray from white spray paint over every single inch of the car. Claybar did the trick. It always does.
 
#18 ·
It will come off with clay bar and some good wax. But, like others posted, the sooner the better!!!

I know when you first saw the paint on your car, you felt like killing the person that did it and throwing up at the same time! OUCH!!!!!! I would have felt the same.

Relax... it WILL come off!

Please keep us posted with a follow up reply. :thumbup:
 
#20 ·
If you want to agonize that much over it go to a pep boys or similar, pick up a jar of clay and spray detailer, and go to town. Give it a quick wash, or rinseless wash, and start up.

Most likely it's going to come off just with clay and you can use clay on a clean car and just buff the excess fluid with a MF towel.

Large contaminant particles like paint should NOT require a polishing to remove unless they are bonded to the clearcoat in a significant way - polishing removes clearcoat (either a little or a lot). Polishing is not done to remove external contaminants.
 
#23 ·
One thing that hasn't been asked; were you notified that the work was going to be happening?

Myself and my family have a lot of rental property including several apartment buildings were work like this would take place (although I would always avoid spraying paint outdoors). We require tenants to keep us up to date on their email and phone. In an instance like this all I would need to give was 48 hour notice, although I would likely give better just to avoid issues. Most likely I would ask the tenants of one apartment building to park in the lots that belonged to our other buildings. If they failed to comply; too damn bad, but I would be absolutely sure I had done my part to notify everyone of what was going on.

Good luck. I know this must be upsetting, but it will definately come off. If the owner didn't notify the tenants of this type of work I Woukd consider that quite negligent and greatly lacking of any forsight.
 
#26 ·
Tough break (again) David, I am looking forward to your novel about the ups and downs of your Bimmer since you got it awhile back. It sounds like it's been interesting at the very least, and I am envious of how well you've seemed to keep your cool throughout, well done, sir! :thumbup:
 
#30 ·
I would be super pissed with that overspray. What a complete dumbass thing to do, spraying paint near cars.

You need to find a new place to live.
 
#32 · (Edited)
Yeah like Beden said you need to find a new place to live. Sadly, it's much easier said than done, and I think that's one reason landlords get away with bs like this. Either way the place you're living sounds like a law suit waiting to happen with gates that operate like that. What's going to happen when a child gets caught in one?
 
#35 ·
Not sure why you're waiting to get this done. If at all possible you should have started having someone work on this the same day that it happened. If you can afford to buy/lease a 335i then I would imagine that getting a day off of your job should not be insurmountable.

I had something similar happen with a company owned car a few years ago. It was parked on the other side of the street next to a neighbor's fence. He was trying to touch up the fence for a party he was having and sprayed the fence (from the opposite side) with oil based stain. I had overspray all over one side of the vehicle.

As soon as I noticed it I immediately pulled it into my driveway to cool it off and went to work on it with a mild soap and a lot of elbow grease.

It all came off easily but if you let it sit there curing onto the clear coat you are only making this worse.
 
#36 ·
Not sure why you're waiting to get this done. If at all possible you should have started having someone work on this the same day that it happened. If you can afford to buy/lease a 335i then I would imagine that getting a day off of your job should not be insurmountable.
I'm not waiting to get this done - the car is going in today. I can't explain the details of my job to you (because it would take a book) but it's not as easy as you think. Anyway - thanks for your input - again, it's reassuring to hear from people who had a similar problem before and were able to fix it.
 
#45 ·
I hope this worked out for you. Because the FIRST thing I would have done is notify my own insurance company, and take it to the drive in claims adjuster. That would give me a documented objective paper trail, and legal recourse if the landlord or painter didn't live up to their promises. (Or even worse, if the detailer stripped off your clear coat or left you with a million swirls).

Your insurance company would coordinate the repairs, make sure they are done properly, stick you in a rental, and subrogate against the landlord's / painter's carriers.

Instead, you fighting this battle on your own, with very little leverage. If you need to get an attorney involved, its going to come out of your own pocket, not Geico's, Allstate's or Flo's.

Good luck.

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#50 ·
Progress report: I decided to go with a local detailer. After thoroughly discussing the problem they seemed completely confident they were able to take care of it. As far as I can tell they did. I would say they got 95% of the paint off the car and the original paint looks almost like new. There are some swirl marks but honestly I believe one more coat of hand waxing will make them invisible, they are showing only in full sun and I was expecting worse knowing that they would be using a machine tool to polish. They did not use compound anywhere on the body panels, they had to use it on both front and rear bumper as these were the most affected areas. They also had to use razor blades on the windows as there was simply no other way to get the spray paint off.

With all that I am.... 95% happy. There are some grey specks visible at close distance (like 3 inches away from the car) in all crevices like between the rubber and the upper part of the doors, etc. Those are difficult to get into but still I was able to get some of the stuff out myself using bug & tar remover. Some specks are still visible on the chrome frame of the grille and on the grille bars - I'll have another go at those tomorrow or if I can't get it off the car will go back to the detailers with more specific instructions. Some is also left on the plastic parts of the mirrors on both sides. Honestly when I think about it now writing this post I think I am less than 95% happy.... maybe these are details at this point and a lot of people may say I am crazy but the simple truth is these are driving me nuts and the state of my - however you look at it - brand new car car was changed by somebody else's mindless action. Even more so that it was so easy to avoid IF the ****in' painter or the damn landlord had some brains!!! Normally I am not a person that agonizes about stuff like that but I don't feel like letting this one go.

The cost so far was $235. I sent it to the landlord and he said the painter will pay for it. I'll give it a few days, if there is no check I will make it clear to the landlord that I don't care to hear from the painter. This is his responsibility, he gave us no warning and he hired someone who obviously had no idea what the hell they were doing. Maaan is this FRUSTRATING!!!!

BTW my insurance is aware of the situation. I did not make a claim because I wasn't sure if there was a claim to make (because the total cost of taking care of the problem might be lower than my deductible, which is $500) but in case the landlord doesn't cooperate my insurance will have a base to go after his insurance (at least that's what I was told).
 
#52 ·
grey spray paint all over my F30 - not sure if I want to just cry or kill someo

This is his responsibility, he gave us no warning and he hired someone who obviously had no idea what the hell they were doing. Maaan is this FRUSTRATING!!!!
You may not have been notified but you were aware the moment you saw him working. Furthermore you recognized the potential for a problem given you discussed it with him.
 
#63 ·
David, before taking the car anywhere, try using a hand sanitizer on the paint spots to see if it safely takes it off. I have one from CVS that is like a gel that I tried on a hardened sap and it took it right off of one of my cars last year. Since then, I've used it on hardened tar, bird stains, hardened crap on wheels etc. and it has taken everything off. It has alcohol in it and has worked much better than tar remover, Goof Off, etc.

The gel type sanitizer does not dissipate that quick and lets you work it longer.
 
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