[jezewjme]

Hey i just wanted to warn you guys about a terrible detail I received from Classic Appreciation in Rochester MI and the fact they don't stand by their work.

I took it there to get a complete detail, and after picking it up, noticed a new dull spot above the rear passenger door. I took it back to them a few days later to have them touch it up. One of the employees applied a clear liquid (Paint thinner?) to the spot with a rag and the clear coat began to bubble as I watched in horror. The employee stopped and quickly began trying to polish the damaged spot with no luck improving the damage.

The owner/manager came out to inspect it and basically said the paint had been blended in that spot before and its not their fault the clear coat peeled. He refused to fix the damage or even give me a discount on the detail or offer me any sort of solution to resolve the problem.

I attached a picture of the spot after they tried polishing it smooth again.

[Ricer X]

Sounds like whatever they used should have been diluted?

[Game]

Wow. Sadly anyone can claim to be an expert and open up a shop.

[VSmotorsports]

wow someone did a number on your car

[Back in a Subie]

Time to file a report with the Better Business Bureau.

[///M3NACE]

small claims court.

[jezewjme]

Yeah I'm working with my insurance company now. Hopefully everything gets straightened out by the end of this week

[MuttGrunt]

Wow, I'm very sorry to see/hear of this incident. Had the car been recently refinished/painted? Paint thinner AKA Lacquer thinner shouldn't cause a problem. While it will eat through/remove lacquer based paint (the solvents allow the pigment to re-flow), modern paint systems to include your clear-coated car, are "2-K" AKA two-component systems that chemically harden. You can't undo the chemical reaction. Even if aftermarket paint, it is still catalyzed and shouldn't be affected. If anything was done recently to your vehicle; bring it back to that same body shop and they should stand by their work.

The problem is I have no idea what was used or what could cause this; it definitely looks like clear-coat failure, but doesn't look the same way clear-coat failure usually looks/forms.

Do you have any pics of the "dull spot" you noticed when you originally got the car back? I'm wondering if they potentially burned the paint / did something to cause de-lamination of the clear-coat from the base-coat, and whatever was used only helped the clear to separate even more.

I've worked on a lot of vehicles, and have seen a lot of paint up close and personal, but have never seen this before. I hope you can get things sorted out for the better of you, your pretty BMW, and the shop so everyone may move forward.

[jezewjme]

Sorry for the slow reply
I bought the car used, and wasn't aware that paint work had been done on that spot before. I was aware that paint work had been done on on the passenger door, and pointed it out to them when I dropped it off.
So sadly taking it back to the paint shop that the body work was done isn't an option.
I wasn't thinking and didn't take any pictures with the dull spot.
The closest example i could find online was similar to this:
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_RsduO4BD4FA/TK...g/P1130409.JPG
Obviously it was just in that small area and not the entire roof like the example.