Cerbera Paint Issue - PLEASE READ
Discussion
Hi,
My father is an avid Cerbera 4.2 owner after saving for years to buy one.
He bought the car approx. 2 years back, and had it resprayed with newer lights etc. at a substantial cost. The company who did the work claimed to be an authorised TVR centre - we later found out they weren't.
After 10 months (during a cold snap) he noticed minor blemishes on the paintwork which expanded very quickly - when i saw the car i realised they were micro-blisters. We got in touch with the company involved and they said they would respray at their cost, but couldn't do it for 3 or so months (so 13 months after the spray work). He said the paint was at fault and was only guaranteed for 12 months so he would do it as a 'favour', despite us telling him during the 12 month period.
We picked the car up a month/6 weeks later and had fixed as a favour some of the small electrical faults (fit new door solenoid etc). However, when we got the car home we realised there were a number of new electrical faults including not being able to turn the headlights off!
Another 8-9 months later, after another cold snap, guess what?! Yes, the micro-blisters were back, and worse than ever. We phoned the company who said to phone back after Christams. We phoned back after Christmas, and the response was 'we're not a charity, we don't know how you've used/stored the car; you'll have to pay to get it sorted'.
Now I'm not a full-time sprayer, but have sprayed the odd car, and have had plenty of resprays over the years, including GRP bodywork on my racecar, and I have never had problems like these.
One of my best friends is a solicitor so that side is not a problem, but I'm loathe to get them to do the job again a) because i don't want my dad to have this hassle again, and b) it's another trek to the other side of the country. So the only reasonable course of action to me would be to attempt to get money back.
So my question, if anyone can comment, is 'has anybody else had this problem with TVRs?' I know they use ink-based paint, but i would expect any respray to last longer than 9 or 10 months and a single cold spell. I wouldn't even blame the paint, sounds like a prep problem to me (moisture in the paint?). I intend to consult a couple of paint shops in writing, but if anybody has any comments/experiences to share, I'd be grateful.
Cheers,
Robert
My father is an avid Cerbera 4.2 owner after saving for years to buy one.
He bought the car approx. 2 years back, and had it resprayed with newer lights etc. at a substantial cost. The company who did the work claimed to be an authorised TVR centre - we later found out they weren't.
After 10 months (during a cold snap) he noticed minor blemishes on the paintwork which expanded very quickly - when i saw the car i realised they were micro-blisters. We got in touch with the company involved and they said they would respray at their cost, but couldn't do it for 3 or so months (so 13 months after the spray work). He said the paint was at fault and was only guaranteed for 12 months so he would do it as a 'favour', despite us telling him during the 12 month period.
We picked the car up a month/6 weeks later and had fixed as a favour some of the small electrical faults (fit new door solenoid etc). However, when we got the car home we realised there were a number of new electrical faults including not being able to turn the headlights off!
Another 8-9 months later, after another cold snap, guess what?! Yes, the micro-blisters were back, and worse than ever. We phoned the company who said to phone back after Christams. We phoned back after Christmas, and the response was 'we're not a charity, we don't know how you've used/stored the car; you'll have to pay to get it sorted'.
Now I'm not a full-time sprayer, but have sprayed the odd car, and have had plenty of resprays over the years, including GRP bodywork on my racecar, and I have never had problems like these.
One of my best friends is a solicitor so that side is not a problem, but I'm loathe to get them to do the job again a) because i don't want my dad to have this hassle again, and b) it's another trek to the other side of the country. So the only reasonable course of action to me would be to attempt to get money back.
So my question, if anyone can comment, is 'has anybody else had this problem with TVRs?' I know they use ink-based paint, but i would expect any respray to last longer than 9 or 10 months and a single cold spell. I wouldn't even blame the paint, sounds like a prep problem to me (moisture in the paint?). I intend to consult a couple of paint shops in writing, but if anybody has any comments/experiences to share, I'd be grateful.
Cheers,
Robert
As evidence for a court case: The Haynes 'Car bodywork Repair Manual' has a section on paint faults and problem # 4 is 'Blistering'. This apparently is caused by inadequate prep, wrong thinning, insufficient times between spray coats, insufficient undercoat/topcoat, exposure to wet weather. I note that every fault would be a bodyshop fault, not an owner fault. All the best in sorting out the problem!
I would ask the question to others on here:
Who has had paint work in the last two years and ask if they are experiencing problems. If they aren't experiencing problems then find out who did their work and if any of the places are near you, ask them to inspect the finish on your dad's car, and if necessary, pay for a written opinion from them.
I hate companies that don't stand by their work. Best of luck and i hope it gets sorted to your satisfaction.
Scott
Who has had paint work in the last two years and ask if they are experiencing problems. If they aren't experiencing problems then find out who did their work and if any of the places are near you, ask them to inspect the finish on your dad's car, and if necessary, pay for a written opinion from them.
I hate companies that don't stand by their work. Best of luck and i hope it gets sorted to your satisfaction.
Scott
I had a full respray at Ewelme (very good) in October 04, but at the tail end of last year I noticed that a chip in the roof, that I thought a mechanic had dropped something on, had started to spread. There were little black dots & blisters moving accross the roof.
I took it to my local Land Rover dealer, who had painted a door when I first got the car & they told me the dots were caused by "airbourne contamination". He said the chip on the roof was most likely where brake fluid had hit the car.
They've rubbed it down & fixed it now, as for the rest of the car, the paint's perfect.
Mechanics that park your car under another at night
I'd take it to an established GRP paint shop & get their opinion on it.
I took it to my local Land Rover dealer, who had painted a door when I first got the car & they told me the dots were caused by "airbourne contamination". He said the chip on the roof was most likely where brake fluid had hit the car.
They've rubbed it down & fixed it now, as for the rest of the car, the paint's perfect.
Mechanics that park your car under another at night
I'd take it to an established GRP paint shop & get their opinion on it.
This cold, wet weather seems to have brought out a rash (no pun intended) of these problems:
tvrgit on his TVR
medusa on his Noble
little RZD on his Ginetta
It is worth reading these threads as background to your problem.
The common factor: all GRP bodies.
tvrgit on his TVR
medusa on his Noble
little RZD on his Ginetta
It is worth reading these threads as background to your problem.
The common factor: all GRP bodies.
Sam_68 said:
It looks like a problem called osmosis, and it's quite common on glassfibre cars that have been resprayed.
Usually, it is water trapped when the car was wet-and-dry sanded prior to painting, that finds its way up to under the surface of the paint through the porous, wick like structure of the fibreglass. Sometimes, the glassfibre is porous enough to suffer just when the car has been stored in damp conditions, regardless of the quality of the paint job. If you carefully prick one of the blisters with a pin, you will find that it is full of water. Occasionally you will find a similar problem caused by incompatible chemicals used in the respray process - most often where a chemical paintstripper was used to remove the previous paint.
It is therefore most likely down to a poor spray job (specifically, not allowing the shell to thoroughly dry out after wet-and-dry flatting between coats, which can be very difficult in a poorly heated or damp garage) and I'm afraid that as a result there is not much you can do about it beyond stripping the shell back to bare glassfibre and starting again, preferably drying the car out in a low-bake oven once you have stripped it.
It's really difficult to sort. When they sand the fibreglass tiny pores are exposed. These pores need to be filled and the whole process needs to be done in dry conditions. If water is allowed to get in it cannot be removed because the fibres are very small straws and the water surafce tension can withstand baking. All that can be done to fully cure the problem is to remove the affected area and re-fibreglass. Good luck, J
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