broke thru clearcoat

[SweatTheDetails]

During detail for a friend today i was atempting to remove a large scratch about on inch above were the rear fender flares out. I was taking paint readings and working slowly with 105, yellow pads on my Cyclo. Thought i was being safe but like a dummy it never occured to me that the scratch was in a valley and the top and bottom of the pad was being push with more pressure into the paint. On the 3rd pass i hit pigment. When my buddy came i explained what happened, obviously the detail became a freebie and i told him i would pay for half of the respray.

My questions are these, how much does it typacly cost. The area is 2 small quarter size patches. Secondly should i pay for the whole thing, he is a friend and seemed ok with the offer of half. I did put 6 hour of labor into the rest of the vehical for free. What would you do?

[wifpd4]

Re: broke thru clearcoat

Depending on the mood I'm in...

I entrust you with my $30,000 car and you burn the paint off it and you expect me to pay half of the cost. Not likely. You'd be paying the cost to repaint the entire fender at a body shop of my choosing. I'd be worrying you've done other damage that is not quite so obvious, which ends up affecting the trade-in price of the car. Thoughtful of you not to charge me for the detail. I'll however expect you to reimburse me for the hassle of taking my car to a body shop and reimburse me for the rental car I need to conduct my daily business while the car is at the shop.

Or, sure you're a good friend, you've done due diligence by using a paint thickness gauge and you've made a minor mistake. Sure I'll help you out with the cost of fixing a couple of burn spots and I'll pay you for the time you spent detailing the rest of the car. Or friendship is stronger than this minor inconvenience and what's a couple of hundred dollars between friends and I'll even be happy to get a couple of quotes for the repaint and use the cheaper quote.

Either way it goes for you, good luck and hope all works out just fine.

[juliom2]

Re: broke thru clearcoat

..........

A friend willing to pay half the cost of the repair to be made .....Is a friend......

[SweatTheDetails]

Re: broke thru clearcoat

Now i feel worse, the guy is a good friend and to make it worse I'm his boss at our regular job (Military). I'm sure he would be ok with what ever i said, but i dont want to abuse my friendship or my position. How can i make this right. Pay the whole bill, take his car to the shop for him, give his wife a free detail (not that they would want me touching their cars again. I feel terible and the fact that he is so nice about it just makes it worse.

[tguil]

Re: broke thru clearcoat

The one right answer: A sincere apology, no charge for detail, pay for the complete repair at a quality shop regardless of the cost.

Tom

[SweatTheDetails]

Re: broke thru clearcoat

That is what im leaning towards. I only do about 2 cars a week since this is a side gig, looks like the next couple of weeks will be going to him.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: broke thru clearcoat

Between a couple of good buddies there's no reason why this shouldn't have a happy ending. Talk to him about it in detail; go to a couple of body shops together if you can and get a couple of estimates, then negotiate the final cost splitting. Whether that means you pay 100%, or you two split it 50/50 and then you detail his wife's car for free, etc. You've obviously been very forthcoming about how the mistake came about and odds are you won't make that same mistake again.

If you talk to any long time professional detailer they will all tell you that, at one time or another, they've gone through the clear. Mistakes happen, nobody is perfect all the time. How you handle a mistake says a lot about you, and we get the feeling you're a very stand up guy.

[tguil]

Re: broke thru clearcoat

Perhaps I was a bit to "short" with my original comment. But in all honesty, if I mess up something that belongs to one of my friends I strongly feel that I owe it to my friend and to myself to make it 100% right.

Tom

[Michael Stoops]

Re: broke thru clearcoat

Perhaps I was a bit to "short" with my original comment. But in all honesty, if I mess up something that belongs to one of my friends I strongly feel that I owe it to my friend and to myself to make it 100% right.

Tom

In all honesty, Tom, that truly is the only way to approach it. But depending on the total circumstances the buddy who's car was damaged may be willing to work with the one who caused the damage. I know if someone had done that to my "toy" I would be mighty upset and expect the above to happen. But if it was an honest mistake on a car that I was planning on selling in a year or so, I might be willing to help out a bit, under the right circumstances. Like, if this detail would have cost me, say, $250 and a subsequent detail on my wife's car another $250 I might go for splitting the cost of the repaint (maybe $750 total invoice from the shop to respray) and then have my buddy detail the wife's car for free. I would have spent $500 for the two cars anyway so offering $375 to fix a car that isn't all that important to me and getting both cars detailed isn't so bad. I actually save money in the long run, my buddy (who feels really, really bad at this point) isn't out a ton and has learned a (slightly less) painful lesson along the way.

But the stars have to aligned pretty darn well for all that to come together!!!