Tree Sap Nightmare!!

[Jem]

It's been a very long day today, this Range Rovers owner wants to trade the car in for a newer Range Rover, but the dealer were giving her a poor trade in value because of the tree sap on the bonnet and roof. The dealer said it needed a respray But this was not your normal tree sap, this was Chuck Norris tree sap, it was rock hard and very firmly bonded to the paint, and had etched pits into the surface too





Chemicals didn't touch it, so out came the claybar and lots of elbow grease! This shifted most of the tree sap, some just didn't want to shift and there was lots of pitting where the sap had etched the paint, in a similar way to bird droppings. Paint readings were good, so to restore the finish out came the wet and dry sandpaper.

The top half has been polished after sanding:


And this was the result:

[pdh 14a]

Nice job! i'd take it back to the dealers and show them,then buy elswhere

[sprout]

Wow, nice work. I should get you to tart mine up sometime.

[Jem]

Cheers guys

[Easy007]

I'd trade it in and leave one of your business cards on the dash

[Jem]

I'd trade it in and leave one of your business cards on the dash

I like your thinking

[Easy007]

If they genuinely thought it would need a respray and weren't just trying it on to get the trade in price down then you might get some business out of them.

[Jem]

I suspect they knew full well it didn't need a respray and were just trying to give a low trade in price.

[bren]

Out of interest its ok gauging total paint depth but my understanding is that it doesnt tell you laquer depth and if you go through that youre screwed. How do you work out how far you can go?

[Jem]

Out of interest its ok gauging total paint depth but my understanding is that it doesnt tell you laquer depth and if you go through that youre screwed. How do you work out how far you can go?

Bren you're right, it doesn't tell you how much laquer you have to play with so there is still a large element of guess work, knowing the paint thickness makes it an educated guess though and it does give you a good idea of what's going on with the paint. For example if the readings were inconsistent, with some areas on the bonnet thinner than others it would suggest some form of previous polishing has been done, like spot polishing to remove a scratch etc. If the readings are much higher than the rest of the car this would suggest the panel has been resprayed. If you have consistent readings across the panel, a consistent amount of orange peel and nothing to suggest a resprayed panel you're normally ok. You also look for things like buffer trails, normally left from cars being mopped by dealers with G3, aka rocks in a bottle! As always you remove as little as you can to achieve the desired result. Wet sanding removes a surprisingly small amount of paint, often the polishing to restore the gloss removes twice as much paint as the sanding itself.

[Chriscooke]

Might be wise to advise the owner to stop parking under trees also

[Jem]

Might be wise to advise the owner to stop parking under trees also

Not really an option for her really, so it will have to be kept well protected in future.

[Jem]

Nice job! i'd take it back to the dealers and show them,then buy elswhere

The customer is going to give me a ring to let me know what the dealership have said

[Clint]

Nice work Jem. Looks brilliant as always.