Car Wash Damage

[Steveo]

Took my dark grey GTI through a car wash today because I was feeling lazy and did not want to hand wash.

Have paid the price!

I noticed some dark spots in the water on the windscreen during the wash... and sure enough I have little white scratches over several panels. I think there was grit in the water... not filtered properly.

Have complained to the service station and the "manager will get back to me"

Will take a respray to fix and this is just weeks after I got a parking scrape on my back bumper fixed courtesy of the guy who hit me.

Not a great start to the weekend.

[SilvrFoxX]

[dsuhiti]

Good luck with the manager! No way you can prove that those scratches weren't there before the car wash.

[dom337]

Automatic car wash?

[Steveo]

Automatic car wash?

Yes. The rotating brushes that beat the @#$% out of the paint.

[Silver dub]

If you run your finger nailover the top of the white scratches, does you nail grab in the scratch at all?

[richmurphy]

If you run your finger nailover the top of the white scratches, does you nail grab in the scratch at all?

That's the acid test. If it catches then it's more than likely gone right through the clear coat and you're looking at a respray to fix 100%. Polishing may round the edges enough to disguise the scratch and combined with a filler like Zaino Z5 the results can be quite good.

The white has me puzzled. Can you post some pics? Try a clay bar to make sure it isn't just something sitting on your paint surface then try a paint cleaner to see if the white comes out of the scratch. If this doesn't work and you can feel the scratch with your nail as Silver Dub suggested then you may have gone through the base colour paint too.

[Tornado_ALIVE]

Never take a dark car to an automatic wash. (I wouldn't take any) Guaranteed to scratch your car sooner or later.

[Lemonskin]

First mistake was taking it to an automatic car wash...

[Steveo]

If you run your finger nailover the top of the white scratches, does you nail grab in the scratch at all?

Yes, you can feel it catching and if you look at an angle you can see the spots. There are some scratches from where the brushes dragged along (like I had driven into a bush) and other are just tiny spots like a small stone chip.... But about 5 to 10 in a small area.

It does look like base coat. I don't think a clay bar would help.

I tried polishing a couple with the dark colouring polish and they mostly disappeared (for now), but when you look at the angle you can still see the indentation. If the car had been white or grey, I suspect you would not notice them.