What a crap night. Get to the shop for my weekly wife approved car night and there are people everywhere outside (our space is one of several in one big warehouse type building). Not a good sign. I open the door and I am greeted by a white cloud. The neon ring on the clock made it very creepy. It’s not smoke, so I am thinking something blew in the HVAC. I cant quite place the smell – then it hits me – it’s paint. Total panic. Open the overhead doors hit the lights and the entire place is in a cloud of white paint overspray/dust. I call in the troops and start getting cars out. Everything is covered in a white dust. You could see our foot prints when we walked on the floor. It is now dark. All 10 cars are outside and we are washing like crazy. We have fans going to pull the stuff out. While we were able to wash it off of the cars, as you can imagine, it is everywhere (interiors, undercarriages, etc) – not to mention the shop floor, tool boxes, tables, bathroom, kitchen, shelving, etc etc etc.
The owner of the building had sent the building manager down to go into the other units in the building. Here is the skinny: the moron one space over rented a paint booth, set it up himself and screwed up the ventilation. He hired 3 guys who did not speak a word of english to paint two POS cars. He basically turned them loose – he was not even there to supervise (we still have yet to hear from the guy). They started spraying away and pumped everything they sprayed right out of the booth and into the air. The building is one of those stacked concrete deals, so it is definitely not air tight at the ceiling. When these “painters” were confronted by another tenet who noticed the smell, they ran.

While I know we were able to get the outsides of the cars pretty clean, I am sure this dust will continue to drop for at least another few days – even though we hosed off literally everything and mopped (and mopped and mopped and mopped). We did cover everything up, but still. Told the owner of the building we needed $3500 from the other tenet to have all of the cars detailed. So pissed.

I did work on the 914 for a bit while I was waiting for everything to dry. Finished the access hole in the firewall, including the painting and upholstering the new access panel. Existing wiring is all cleaned, even replaced the fabric wire wrap on the ground wire loom and on main harness junction down at the drivers side “hell hole” (for lack of a better term).

*sigh*

I am going to run down there at lunch to check on the carnage.

Scott,

No use saying, "What are people thinking?" The problem with people who are "self-absorbed" is NO CONSIDERATION for possible consequences. Just a lot of time wasted when it was so unnecessary. Sorry you had to go through that.

Dave

WOW!!!

Sorry to hear this. That sucks

I hope you are able to be made whole on this by the other guy or his insurance. (If there is the slightest chance he has any)

why not make a police report. You had 10 cars vandalized with spraypaint right??

dosnt matter if it was an accident. If there is any insurance involved the report holds a lot of water.

Ouch. Sorry. I wish I lived closer so I could come down and help clean up..

Thanks for the offer - but you have never done anything to wrong me - why would I put you through that mess?!! Ha!

I dont know much about the chemicals in paint. In hind sight, I probably should not not have turned on the lights. The cieling is 30-40' and has those old school gym lights (with the big ballasts that have to warm up). There is also a big furnace up in the corner that is just on a normal thermostat. That cloud was thick. If it had clicked on, could I have had a big boom?

Why think

probably the lights are fine
I'm not expert, but all of the research I did when I painted pointed towards the danger of "open flames". So the heater in the ceiling may have a pilot light that would be a big risk......

sorry to hear about this
that really sucks!

definitely wax all of those vehicles to help protect and also as an inspection step

Wow, Scott, let me know what I can do. Really really sucks.

Ferg

the police report makes sense...

say that your heater did ignite the flames. you can be sure that some bodies insurance would be involved. I'm guessing if there had been a fire, that the building owner's insurance would of went after the stupid tenant...

so its not far fetched to think that this is the same senario

if the guy agree's to hand over the $ today.. then maybe thats the end of it. But the reality is that he won't agree to that, and then you have to decide if your going to live with it (maybe there is no long term damage) or are you going to have to deal with his stupidity to make your 10 cars right again....

If you need a pro detailer let me know...

911 - emergency, hazardous chemical release.

Probably would have got the guy(s) arrested on the spot.

Would up here.

Sounds like you reacted quickly and did what you could to minimize damage. Paint overspray does usually wash right off, especially if you have any wax on the surface at all. Getting it off rubber is a little harder, but not too bad. I have seen body shops make a mess of nearby cars, and get them spotless without a lot of fuss.
no good using hindsight, but a 911 call for hazmat may have been some help. Of course, you would have seriously encumbered the landlord as well as the other tenant.

A police report at this point will do no good. No crime was committed or suspected other than the use of hazardous material without proper permits or inspection of air handling, a code violation at best.

If you have insurance on the space as a shop, or insurance in the cars in storage, (are they your's or customers?) IMMEDIATELY alert your insurance agent and let them battle for you. thats what they are there for.

A call to the local EPA office might generate money from the stupid that did this. Sorry for the troubles.

Hope someone took a lot of pictures.

Daaaaaammmmmnnnn Scotty! Morons... Let me know if I can hep with anything.

I handled a claim like this once at a boat storage building. The company I worked for insured a rich guy that had his yacht stored in a large heated storage building for the winter. He sent his son up to the storage building to sand and repaint the bottom of his yacht. His yacht was parked right next to an intake for one of the overhead heaters. The blue paint dust was sucked up and blown all over the building and 40 other yachts and power boats! We paid to clean every boat and the building. Oh ya... we paid..

I had the pleasant experience of dealing with 40 irrate boat owners, their agents, other adjusters, a lying boat surveyor claiming the Sumbrella fabric on one of the boats could not be cleaned and needed to be replaced, A lying boat owner that wanted his non-running engines torn down and cleaned inside, a person claiming they were allergic and now not able to ever work again, had to hire an envinromental expert to take samples of the paint and do a chemical analysis to be sure there was no lead in it. Had one owner show up at my house and personally threaten me. On and on and on.....

Anywho.... Sux Dude! but I think they owe to have your entire shop cleaned and all your cars inside and out.

Sorry to hear about this stupid incident. What a mess! We could have a 914 work party at your place if you could use any help.

.....sorry scott....it happen's...
Practice for an hour(or longer).....you'll feel much better!

think insurance

Gay!

".....sorry scott....it happen's...
Practice for an hour(or longer).....you'll feel much better!

think insurance"

Ha!
Wife had the girls out this morning. Played on my own for quite a while, then plugged my Ipod into the PA, hit random play and shook the walls for a bit with a very crazy mix of songs. As I recall it included Bon Jovi, The Dead Milkmen, Ramones, Kevin Gilbert and Donnie Iris - ha!!

As far as the shop goes, I think we made a crucial error - in the panic, we did not take any pics.

On the plus side, even though it was not his fault, the owner of the building has given us free rent for the next 3 months, and offered his detail guy. While I still want to carve my name in the hood of the other tenets car, I thought this move by the building owner was all class.