Car damaged by hot metal grindings :(

[CarbonXKR]

Evening gents,
My wifes car was in a Public car park last week and one of the local marine university engineers was cutting some chain with an angle grinder up-wind of the car. They were cutting away quite happily with sparks and dust flying around the car park. Fast forward to 3 days later and the xar is covered in rust spots and on closer inspection and a chat with my local bodyshop and they advise a full respray as the metal grindings have burnt in to the paint and glass.
I have contacted the person concerned and he was shocked as did not realise the damage he was causing. My neighbour was parked in the same car park next to the wifes car and hers is as bad. He has admitted blame and said he has spoken to their(HW Uni) insurers who will be in touch.
Question is, do I need to advise mine (wifes)insurers? Will this affect her premium on renewal? Gutted at the state of the car, I bought it for her before Xmas.

Look forward to your responses.

[CarbonXKR]

Thanks for all the replies so far, need to speak to wifes insurers just to be on the safe side I think.

[CarbonXKR]

RYH64E said:

Grinding particles can be hot enough to melt into glass, I ruined a pair of glasses grinding without proper safety specs once (better than getting particles in the eye though).

The bodyshop reckons the glass is burnt too.........

Even so, I wouldn't expect the particles to retain enough heat to melt paint after blowing down wind onto a parked car, I would suspect that the particles are only laying on the surface and causing a rust stain that should be easily removed.

Bedded in to the paint quite well, wish they were laying on the surface .........

[CarbonXKR]

Deva Link said:

jazzyjeff said:

KevinA3DSG32 said:

Why would you tell your insurer, you are not making a claim on a motor insurance policy are you?

This, surely - no claim, and arguably not an accident - therefore there should be no need to report.

You have a 'duty of disclosure' to your insurance company and you should tell them about anything that affects the insured vehicle or any of the covered drivers.

Apart from anything else, using the case in the OP as an example, say a full respray is organised, and then half-way through the other party goes wobbly and disputes liability. Do you want to pick up the battle, and cost, yourself?

I came to that conclusion after sleeping on it after night-shift and am glad I did to be honest. I contacted our insurers and explained the situation and they got the ball rolling right away.
Although the person that admitted the damage assured me he had contacted the uni insurers, I had no contact from them. Our claim adviser said that their insurer would not contact you direct as they always wait for contact from the persons insurers that are claiming (standard practice).
For those that are "car valeting" savvy, I washed the car to better assess the extent of the damge and tried "clay" on one small affected panel. Although it felt smooth after a few passes, when dried the metal shards were still in the paint - bit like a stone chip mark - on a previously spotless car purchased from Jag main dealer in December.
Just hope it gets sorted without too much grief...........

[CarbonXKR]

daz3210 said:

Marlin45 said:

I have suffered the same issue and hot metal particles from a grinding/chop wheel will penetrate laminated glass and paintwork without a doubt.

...and yes he wasn't an 'engineer'. Probably had Phd!

But from how close?

Yes, he has a Phd!

From how close?; we had a Westerly wind about 30-40kts at the time they were cutting the chain from a distance of 15 feet up wind.

[CarbonXKR]

Deva Link said:

Was it really *that* windy - that's about a force 8 gale, isn't it?

Fair enough if it was, but bre careful of quoting specific numbers in any insurance report if they're not supported by local met office reports.


re going to your insurance company - a lot of people on here say not to do that but to my mind that's why I pay fully comp insurance. Someone ran into the back of wifey's car. I called her insurer and they took care of the whole thing. They also waived the excess and told us there would be no effect on the future premium (and there doesn't seem to have been).

Edited by Deva Link on Wednesday 29th February 21:08

Yes it was really that windy (Outer Isles, Scotland) and I'm sure I don't need to support that, but if I do I work for the local harbour authoriy and we have met instruments all around so can easy back it up but thanks for your concern.
That's exactly the case with our insurer as stated above in your post. The only come back will be if they find that the uni doesn't have Public Liability insurance then we have to claim off our own and they try to reclaim from them.