Help, sandblasting sand ON/IN my car!!!

[faster4_tec]

I'm on riverside sunderland, they've been doing up the old bridges, which involves sandblasting the bridges overnihgt, they only do it at night and when the wind is blowing away from the city centre, i.e toward me


every morning I wake up and the car is more and more covered in the stuff. its about as abrasive as anything could possibly be, and there is bits of old bridge paint in there too


I'm avoiding washing it, as that would probably make it worse (by grinding it in),, but its looking really sorry for itself. I'll maybe take a pic of the offending black grit

 

[custard]

i think hosing it with copious amounts of water is best. not want to buy a cheap car cover?

 

[faster4_tec]

but unless I wash it every time before I put cover on (got one from lidl back in jan) it would just rub more grit into it



just thinking what I can do with the council for car damage, and everyone elses car in the uni carpark, theres a guy I know in one of the family houses, he got a spanky new mazda 3 back in august. and he's not happy either about the escaping sand blasting stuff (they wrap the bridge up quite a bit, but not enough, not airtight)

 

[beau]

welcome newbie

 

[antsuno2]

They sanblasted a bridge near my old works in the town centre and my boss has sent in 3 claims for bodywork ie marks on the paintwork and it is going through.

 

[custard]

welcome newbie

huh?

 

[beau]

huh?

i presumed he was a newbie posting about sand and cleaning in lets talk fiat

 

[custard]

right so you just click on a thread,obviously disregard those pesky words and letters and insert generic response?

 

[faster4_tec]

bomont,

1) I haven't mentioned which car, could be anything, but it is a fiat.
2) its not a LL thread.
3) its not car care, its damage control


I'm going to phone the council later (their at 'lunch' now).

 

[antsuno2]

You need to go to the site foreman and tell him its scratched your car and get a estimate from a bodyshop, could prove useful if you have bad paintwork already, get the grit and rub it all over and get a paint the job out of them, a few months previous they built a 14 storey block of flats and they make floors by pouring in cement, and its not your normal stuff theres an acid in there, and they ended up concreting at least 5 cars all of which they paid for, so the boss knows he'l get paid from the bridge!!, they expect a certain amount of fallout and claims get on it!!! Ant!

 

[jug]

all you need to do is rinse it thoroughly before you wash, and wash with a soft sponge and plenty of shampoo. it wont scratch.
millions of people live in desert conditions where every night your car is turned into a sandcastle (even if you keep it in a garage), and yet the cars arent scratched.

you think you have it hard, i was on st. peter's campus back in the days when the bridge was closed. try getting through sunderland in the middle of rush hour with the bridge closed, its bloody painful!

 

[Renegade_8]

If you use reasonable care washing it and it gets scratched, it is their liabilty. Get some pics of the crud including bits of bridge and a witness statement from someone independant if poss make a note of the dates and keep it all in a folder. They will pay up if it is their fault and you can prove it.
ps in our old house the council paved an area behind it and the digger knocked some of my fence down, the workmen hid the bits but I rang the council and the works engineer had a look next time on site and I got a new fence when they had finished, at their expense and an apology.

 

[faster4_tec]

I don't want to make an unfair claim as such, so a whole new paintjob on a car worth £800 is not nessacery.

however I will claim to get it proffesionally (sort of) polished up by someone who knows how to use one of them there machines

never did get back to me the council lot. phoned them twice,and the person I *needed* to speak to, never did come back after lunch.

me and the guy with the mazda are going to collect as much stuff as we can and submit it all in one big go.

he's a lot worse off then me, as his paint was relativly mint before (no hazing atall), now its like what mine was a few months back.



and jug, yes I've been to many sandy deserts, and parked my car on a beach when the wind was blowing about 60mph (sand was blown up to around 4' couldn't see anything, was like the sand was liquid). and didn't seem to stickto the paint, just blew over.
this sand blasting material is VERY sharp, rub it on your fingers and they weep that clear stuff.
do it with normal sand of a beach, the sand will fall on the ground


also think I should maybe be wearing a mask when outside, as the stuff is that abrasive that it can't be doing my lungs anygood. and it must be airborn if its got as far as this (panns carpark, furthest from bridge) like 350m, then I'llbe breathing it in, so will 500 other people who live in teh vicintiy

 

[antsuno2]

How is it unfare if its damaged your paintwork!!

 

[faster4_tec]

I mean I can't claim my paint was totally mint before (well it was good, very good for a 9yr old 90k mile car), so can't say that to get it to the previous state would require a whole body respray (which unless its a very good job, will probably be worse, overspray, bad finish, bad match, parts damaged in the strip down etc).


still haven't got thru on teh phones, just get passed from one desk to another.

so going in the morning face to face, to actually get something done about it.

I've collected some of the offfending paint, and will paddle up the river in me boat to get pictures of the holes in the supposed 'paint tight' plastic covering the bridge.

I've also had a good 3/4 hardcore nose bleeds in the last few days, and been coughing really badly, struggling to breath.
if the material is light enough to make it 300m this direction, then its light enough to be breathed in, and judging by how abrasive it is from the rub test (fingers WEEP when you rub them together with the stuff for 15seconds), then it WILL not be doing my lungs any good, nevermind the car.

 

[Dunc Uno Turbo]

faster, stop being so honest and claim!

free respray, cant be bad, or put the moeny towards something else

Dunc

 

[faster4_tec]

yes dunc, you are correct.

I'm sure i could wangle a bodyshop to write me up a receipt for said respray, then send to council, and there you have it.

well, if I ever get that far, it'll be a miracle.

from what I found out today, the works are being done by a company, that is being contracted by the tyne & wear devolpment fund or some such tosh.

gonna be monday before I can speak to anybody worth half a shilling :bang: