Acid type damage to paintwork - in underground carpark

mik_da_man

Hi Folks,

I was parked in an underground car park the other day and when I returned to the car there was marks on the bonnet, bumper, front wings and windscreen.

It looked like something had been dripping from a pipe onto the car.
I had a quick go at rubbing it off, but it wouldn't budge.

When I got home I tried a bit of shampoo and that didn't work.
Then I tried a bit of Meguiars APC (All Purpose Cleaner), it worked on the windscreen, but not so well on the paintwork.
As it was pretty dark at this stage I couldn't really see much anyway.

When I got up today I noticed more bits I had missed yesterday, I brought the car to a local valet place and asked them to wash it.
The guy couldn't get rid of the marks either, he said it might be possible with an abrasive compound but wouldn't be confident of it going completely.
He said whatever it was had eaten through the clear coat and had damaged the colour coat.

So I'm wondering if I should go back to the Carpark and make a claim?
It's where I park for work, but run by a separate company.

Any ideas?

I forgot to take pics earlier, and It's lashing out now....
I'll try later.

Neilw

No idea about making a claim but don't most car parks say you park at your own risk and they take no responsibility to damage.

As for the paint, you could try a clay bar, if there is no clear coat damage clay might remove it. Tardis is another option.

keithsfleet

Brake fluid would do that to a cars paint...

Have a closer inspection to the spot where you were parked, look for any stains on the ground, check the over head pipes and have a scout at other cars to see if anyone else suffered.

mik_da_man

From the pattern of the drips I'm pretty sure that it was from an overhead pipe.
I'll check with some of the other lads who park there to see if their cars were damaged.

Hadn't thought of a clay bar, I'll give that a shot if the rain eases off!

Surely the car park management have some responsibility to keep the place in a "fit for purpose" condition?
I can understand the reason for the disclaimer in relation to other cars hitting yours or maybe theft from a vehicle.
But the upkeep of the pipes should fall under their remit?

the_syco

Ask the carpark if they have cameras pointing at where your car was.

bonnet, bumper, front wings and windscreen.

I say cameras, as the spread sounds more like vandalism than a drip.

vectra

I would say Limescale drops.

Try a claybar and polish,

mik_da_man

I'll give that a shot so.
Cheers, hopefully that's all it is....

MetzgerMeister

+1 on vectra's idea of limescale drops. We have hard water in our area and if I left the car without drying it after washing, it gets covered in white spots. If these are left long enough, they can and do damage the lacquer and paint.

If you have a D/A mik, this *should* get rid of it completely. How long was the car sitting in that spot?

Get a few pics up if you can.

mik_da_man

The car was there from 8.30am till 5.30pm

I did try cleaning them that night, but it was around 6.30 and I have no garage.
Will whip out the clay bar tomorrow, hopefully that will do it.
If not I may have to dust off the DA....

I'll get some pics tomorrow

I can't see how hard water would damage a clear coat in that time scale (no pun intended), there may well be hard water marks on the car but if the valeter is correct it's not hard water.

You could take water from a cooling tower that hadn't been bled in 12 months and the water wouldn't damage a clear coat to the extent that the paint was also damaged.

More likely to be a pipe from a chiller that has glycol in it.

Supergurrier

Poor Mik

mickdw

RoverJames wrote: »

I can't see how hard water would damage a clear coat in that time scale (no pun intended), there may well be hard water marks on the car but if the valeter is correct it's not hard water.

You could take water from a cooling tower that hadn't been bled in 12 months and the water wouldn't damage a clear coat to the extent that the paint was also damaged.

More likely to be a pipe from a chiller that has glycol in it.

I parked in a dublin hotel recently and a few spaces away, a porsche 911 and a mondeo were getting heavily dripped on from the air conditioning duct. I would think the car park owners are directly responsible for any damage caused in this way

mik_da_man

mickdw wrote: »

I parked in a dublin hotel recently and a few spaces away, a porsche 911 and a mondeo were getting heavily dripped on from the air conditioning duct. I would think the car park owners are directly responsible for any damage caused in this way

That's what I would have thought.
Anyway weather is ok today so I'll get some pics and get the clay bar out.

MugMugs

Mik, we had this problem in work. Water was getting through onto the basement ceiling and lime was dripping onto paint work.

It was destroying cars but was removed with a bit of elbow grease.

It's a generally easy fix to stop it happening but also expensive and can require anything up to the surface coarse being replaced.

michael999999

Would it be urine from an overhead sewer pipe, I would imagine that would do some damage.

mickdw

mickdw wrote: »

I parked in a dublin hotel recently and a few spaces away, a porsche 911 and a mondeo were getting heavily dripped on from the air conditioning duct. I would think the car park owners are directly responsible for any damage caused in this way

..... Indeed.

mik_da_man

MetzgerMeister

Sea of blue and meg's quik detailer....:pac:

No chance that's hard water staining. It's not glycol either.

mik_da_man

It seems to have mostly come off with the clay bar, took a lot more turns than I expected as when the paint dried up properly it kept coming back.
Hopefully it's gone now.

Gonna go for a spin to get my mind off it

Sligo1

Same thing happened to me in the multi story q park at work. The staining looks the same. Came out after a shift and an overhead pipe was leaking drips onto my car. It had left a long line of white staining all down the front bonnet and windscreen. I couldn't seem to scrub it off but my partner got it off with a bit of scrubbing.

He put boiling water into a bucket with a bit of window lean and let it cool for 10minutes. This took the staining off the windscreen and bonnet. However, if your man at the car valet says its eaten away your paintwork then maybe it was a different substance that's dripped onto your car. It looks the same as mine was tho. Hope you can get it off!

MetzgerMeister

If you got most of it off with the clay bar I have every faith that the D/A will get rid of it completely no matter what it is.