Well, I went through a wash on Monday morning. When I got out to vacumm it out, I notice a lot of haze on the side. When I stopped to look closer, I was horrified to find that my truck now looks like I took 220 grit and walked down both sides. It's so bad, the dang tail lights are even scratched. The wash, of course, is being totally dishonnest about it. Claiming that it is impossible that their wash did it - even while standing there looking at it. They started by saying that it wasn't scratched, I knew I was screwed right off the bat. You can even see where the scratches stopped once the brushes couldn't reach the middle of the tailgate anymore. So, ideas on how to fix it?

 

man im sorry. that sucks. take it somewhere to get it buffed? hope it all works out for ya

brett

 

Get the name and address of their insurance company. You can submit a claim to them yourself... or if you don't want the headache contact your agent and they will file the claim for you. This is why businesses have insurance.

Oh, take pictures and make plenty of copies of your receipt. A witness wouldn't be a bad thing either.

It will not be an immediate thing, but I'm sure that you will get it straightened out if you act diligently.

 

And no matter how mad you might get, always stay calm. I found this helps almost more than anything. If you stay calm, people will be more willing to help correct the problem. Like said above, be diligent.

 

Good luck with that!!! I know that all the prozac in the world couldn't calm me down enough to keep me from sticking my EDIT foot in some car wash mgrs EDIT if they scratched my 05..... Even if being calm is the right thing to do

 

Since my folks owned a full service carwash for several years (sold it after 14 years in the business), I've seen both sides to this story. I've seen when it was our fault & I've seen when the customer just didn't know about it or was flat out lying to make a buck. It is really obvious which one is the case.

The primary thing to look at is to see if the next cars also had the same scratches. If not, they had to already be there. I have found that many times, people don't realize that they were there because it was dirty & the scratches couldn't be seen. At the same time, if it was really dirty & they didn't properly get the dirt off first, some fine scratches may also appear as the vehicle moves along the wraps. If there was a dirty vehicle in front of you, or a truck w/ sand in the bed, the same thing may happen.

As for a solution, I would get quotes from the most expensive body shops & detail shops in your area & get their insurance information. Once it gets to that point, the carwash is out of the picture because that's why they pay for insurance.

If you get no where w/ the insurance, you will need to wetsand the paint. I've only done it once myself, but I think we used 1200 grit wet/dry paper & a bucket of water. Make sure you keep it wet! Once all of the body is smooth, you will need to use a buffer to polish the paint to bring it back to a shine.

Hope that all helped! Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

That is one reason why I allways wash my cars with touchless car washes. Everytime you touch your vehicle when it is dirty you can plan on it scratching it. I don't care what kind of car wash it is. It is scratching it when it is touched with anything when it is dirty. It even scratches it when it is clean, just not as bad. It is best to not touch it as much as possible. The less you touch the paint, the better you will be off in the long run. You can thank good old dust for all them little tiny scratches and swirl marks.

 

agreed touchles carwashes are the way to go if your not doiing it yourself!

 

that sucks. i would be furious. hope you get it straightened out.

Handwash only for me!

 

You're basically doing the same thing w/ a handwash as a "touch" wash will do. The only way to prevent it is to have a good pressure washer that can also spray a soapy solution. You need to make sure all the dirt is off before you handwash.

 

Not true at all. Those car wash brushes pick up and hold the dirt from all the cars before you. So if the car wash didn't run an auto clean cycle for a while then you drag a dark color truck through it you would get some serious scratches. If you have a good wash mit or soft sponge you can rinse the dirt of at every pass. I used the self serve bays and scratch my truck in a few places using their brush. Now I carry a bucket with a sponge in my bed. And some soap/wax wash mix. So I high pressure of all the dirt and debris. Then wash by hand and then pay another $3 to rinse off. Then I brake out my trusty squeegy and drying cloth and she looks better than new.

 

If I had some pictures, I could tell you what the cause was. I'm going to wait to respond until I see some pics though. That last post didn't say anything more that pretty much what I previously said.

 

It probably doesn't need to be wet sanded, that is ti get rid of orange peel. A bodyshop should be able to wheel it out.

Now, that is why I never use any kind of drive thru car washes. I wash mine at home, nearly daily. I will sometimes use the "wand" type when away from home in a pinch.

 

He said it looked like someone went over it w/220, If it feels rough, like it would w/ 220, then you would probably need to. If not, just compound & polish it.

If it makes you guys feel any better, I just go to the self serve myself. We took care of our customers, but almost every carwash around here doesn't have a clue what they're doing. There are exceptions, but not very many.

 

I'll try and get some pics to show up. There were 3 other dark cars that ran after me, and they were all just as hosed as my truck. I went up to them to talk to them about it, thinking that if serveral of us talked to the guy we'd get somewhere. They all saw it, but none of them cared. I was as dumbfounded by that as the managers reaction. One guy, with a brand new Avalanche in dark blue said, "Well I guess that shows you how much I pay attention, I didn't even see it until you pointed it out. Oh well, I guess that's what happens." Another guy in a black minivan said, "It's just a car anyway". Then the lady with the black Lexus said something to the effect of, "it's just a lease". I've not yelled at them, but they refuse to talk to me now. The kicker is this: They have a detail shop, as part of their services. They could buff it for the cost of glaze, wax, and electricity. They stopped talking as soon as I asked who their insurance is with. My wife wants to stand in front of their driveway Saturday, and let all the customers know about it before they get onto the wash's property.