Paint damaged by washing.

solen

Hope someone can offer me some advice.

I recently put my vehicle in for a service at my local garage that I have been using for several years for this, and my previous vehicle. They have been great and I am very happy with all the work done until this.

When they do a service, part of it is a mini valet and wash.

This is the second service this particular vehicle has had, so they have washed it before.

When I collected it, it was still wet, I drove home and by this time it was dry, and I noticed as I got out that it was a completely different colour! It had gone from flame red to pink, and was covered in streaks, drip marks and patches of lighter pink. And it was completely matt. The marks and drips look like something has dripped down the vehicle.

I am fully aware that vauxhall flame red is renowned for fading, and the roof had some slight fading from the sun, but the rest had remained unaffected so far, and when they washed it before it was absolutely fine.

They had also washed the rubber footwell mats, possibly with the same product and these two have been faded to a grey colour and feel dry and dusty on the top where they washed, but are black and still rubbery underneath.

The garage are shocked and I have taken it back for them to have a look and they agree there is damage that has happened between them finishing the mechanical part of the service and me collecting it after they had washed it.

They claim that have not seen this happen on any other vehicles they have washed with the same batch. They use auto glym snow foam and a pressure washer.

They have offered to wash and perhaps polish the vehicle again to see if it can be rectified, and I am due to take it back in tomorrow morning, but I am concerned that it could actually make it worse!

I will try to post some pics of the paintwork, and I did try washing a corner of the bonnet myself, with correctly diluted carwash, and it did not change at all. Something has to be done, faded pink would be hard enough to live with but the streaking is awful!

After all that waffle, my main points I need help on are:-

I appreciate that I should accept their offer to try to rectify the problem, but what can I do after if it has not been fixed or is worse?

Does anyone have experience of this kind of damage, and was it able to be brought back to the original colour and shine, and if so how?

They have mentioned using t-cut. I appreciate this is a fairly gentle cutting compound, but will it help, or make it worse?

InsideInsurance

solen wrote: »

they agree there is damage that has happened between them finishing the mechanical part of the service and me collecting it after they had washed it.

This is the only important part of the post.

If they agree they damaged it then they have to fix it. How they fix it is fairly irrelevant to you as long as you arent unduly inconvenienced whilst they do it

neilmcl

Someone may have snow foamed the car then left it to dry in the sun. I'd get them to have it professionally paint checked and detailed.

forgotmyname

Looks like a waxed based wash thats not been buffed up.

Ive seen a red car washed with truck wash. The colour actually ran down the car. with the suds.

colino

Looks like the apprentice who washed it ran out of wash/wax and filled up the washer with Traffic Film Remover and soaked your car and walked away.
I'll guess they'll mop the whole car and wax it and tell you it's fixed.

GwylimT

Foam/wax residue and the result of washing in the sun by the looks of it,, it can be a pain to wash off, but at least you're not the one doing it.

solen

colino wrote: »

I'll guess they'll mop the whole car and wax it and tell you it's fixed.

Well their plan is to wash and polish it, I take you mean that if they do that it will just mask the problem and it will return or still be there?

Bantex_2

Looks like just wax residue and hard water. I would suspect a good loak and buff up will sort it out.

colino

If it is now pink, unless you laquer it over mopped red, you are now on a regular regime of polishing and waxing to keep it that way. They've just basically accelerated the paint fade. It might even look better than ever when you get it back.

Retrogamer

A good polish and wax should sort that all out. Red Vauxhalls (at least the Corsa / Astra range) don't come with a clear coat of lacquer to protect the paint.

The floor mats are a different story altogether though. You want to make sure they get them back to normal black. Rubber floor mats,if they're Vauxhall ones are expensive to replace and waxing them or using an oil based treatment isn't safe in case your feet slip off the pedals.

Daz2009

colino wrote: »

If it is now pink, unless you laquer it over mopped red, you are now on a regular regime of polishing and waxing to keep it that way. They've just basically accelerated the paint fade. It might even look better than ever when you get it back.

If you spray laquer (clearcoat is the correct term ) over a mopped surface what's to stop the clear flaking off ?

It looks a right mess,that's going to take some buffing