Need Help! Cement on Paint. (the OMG version)

[6FIEND]

Ok people, I have a small scale disaster to try and clean up.

(not to be confused with the other similar thread need help!! cement on paint.....(Pics) (http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24456&highlight=cement) ...this is a bit worse)

This vehicle was in a carpark building with a workman mortaring up above it when the inevitable happened. Of course, it's such a small amount of spillage that he completely missed the fact that it had happened, and neglected to rinse it off before it set.

http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/9986/20080805gaelle0047az7.jpg

http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/1453/20080805gaelle0049os8.jpg

The owner has been in touch with their insurance company, and they're looking to respray the effected panels.

Being a sucker for punishment, I'm wondering if anyone believes it's possible to clean this off without having to resort to a respray?

(I guess, seeing as the respray is an established fallback position, we can get as aggressive as necessary, but I'd rather not melt the stuff off the plastic bumper :chuckle1)

Any takers? The cement has been set on there for 5days now.

[BlueZero]

:wow1

Give the vinegar trick a try. Otherwise there is a product out there by a different company for removing cement. I'm guessing your out of luck but what do you have to lose at this point. I'll so some searching and see if I can't find a link for the remover.

Edit: Found it... Cement Remover (http://www.topoftheline.com/cement-concrete-remover-auto.html)
Mods, wasn't sure about linking to a non Meg's product. If it's not okay just remove the link and let me know.

[TimG]

Hmm.... if we ought to scrape it off would the underlying clear be pulled along also? :scratchhead1

Not quite sure of the type of concrete you got there but a friend of mine got the same issue but it was on his truck's tailgate. We scrape is slowly and carefully, then hand polish it back up using Soft99. That was like 6 years ago..(when we havent even heard about Megs :o )




Tim

[jfelbab]

I had a co-worker with a similar issue. I took a few rags and saturated them with white vinegar and let them sit on the car for about 30 minutes. I kept adding vinegar to the rags to keep the area really saturated during this time. Then I rinsed the cement with a hose and it all washed right off. Sure worth a try.

[yalerd]

Darn that looks awful.
I would also try the vinegar option, heard it does the job some cases.

I hope that everything goes right, best of luck :bigups

[J. A. Michaels]

Here is another vote for the vinegar option. That would be about the best bet that I know of. Just keep it saturated and it should work. Good luck.

[Deaner5]

The vinegar should work as when I worked with concrete and got concrete poisoning on my arm, one of the solutions was to put vinegar on it has it will disipate the bonding agents in concrete.

You could also try a construction supply store as a few weeks after my incident our safety inspector gave our division a talking to and he had a bottle of powder (that you would mix with water). The mixture in the bottle is used to clean concrete off of hand tools and such.

Hope these solutions work and keep us updated.

[6FIEND]

Thanks everyone for the advice!

I used Vinegar... (and a plastic blade) It was slow going... The splatters of cement/resin came off with absolutely zero damage except for the 'large pool' of it.

http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/2311/cementremoved1gx4.jpg

The larger area had eaten into the paint and pitted&etched it :wall: I got it all off, and compounded then finished the area, and was left with a pretty reasonable outcome :)

http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/7546/correction175nj8.jpg

Thanks again everyone for your help!

[yalerd]

I'm so glad that it did work for you, awesome!
Great job :bigups

[benhui86]

so did the owner claim the insurance of the garage for the cost of a repaint? i think he should so that the garage would remember not to do paint/cement work near parked cars.

[BlueZero]

Great! I'm happy it worked out for you!

[Subydude06]

Thought I recognized those tail lights! Good job!

[superbogel]

nice one after cleaning, then vinegar is the answer is it???

[J. A. Michaels]

Glad it worked for you. Car looks so much better now.

[dnoraker]

Hmmm... I will have to try that. My wife was driving through a construction area and hit a puddle of something that must have spilled out of another vehicle. Most of it came off with a wash mitt, but there's a thin layer of the substance still stuck to the paint.