I have a neighbour with a 13 year old banger E class - donated by his f-i-l (& landlord).
Last week he started to spray the bonnet & front wings with a spray can of Gold paint.
I went out and asked him to move his car as my car (57 Reg, £20K of my money) was only 20 feet away - the drives are close although houses are not.
Lastnight he again appeared with the can and I asked him to cease as with the sunny weather and gusty winds the spray can go anywhere. He just continued the patchwork spray on the rusty front half of the car.
I threatened that any damage would be repaired at his cost - he jsut continued waving the can about.
7/8 years ago I spent hours cleaning silver paint the from of my then pristine car.
He had sprayed the tow bar of a delapidated caravan.
I cannot put the new car in the garage as 1) The other car is in it 2) the new car is too tall and too wide - 21st Century cars do not fit mid 20th century garages.
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On the basis that the best form of attack is defence, what about buying a car cover?
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Get a quote for a full back to bare metal respray and present it to him.
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Clearly your car is 'at risk' but have you actually had any gold paint drift onto it from the inconsiderate action? Your post mentions risk but doesn't say if damage has occurred
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What would I do?
I'd move my car. I know that really he should move his, but if he won't, and the alternative is getting gold paint all over your car, I'd just move mine.
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Agreed, life's too short, in the interests of a stress free life, just move your car until he's finished messing about!
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move your car , say nothing more
then hoof his when its all blown over
if there is any overspray...invest in a clay bar kit
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If only we didn't have to have neighbours. Neighbours are nearly always a nuisance in one way or another.
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Legally, you would have to move or cover your car to mitigate your losses anyway. But check for overspray and if there is some, take it up with him if you dare.
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I asked one of the local children not to play football in the carpark where I live. He does have a garden and there's a park not 300 metres away, so it wasn't an unreasonable request, given that the ball had bounced on my car while I was sat in it.
I received a mouthful of abuse in return. Next morning my car's aerial was gone. Coincidence? I'm inclined to think not.
So I decided to change tack and be super nice to them from then on. And it seems to have worked to some extent - you can hear the parents and older sisters out there sometimes, telling the kids to keep the balls away from the cars. I'd still rather they didn't play there at all, but it's an improvement.
Might be an idea?
Edited by PoloGirl on 25/05/2008 at 19:01
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>>Might be an idea? <<
Tis a very good idea! - when i had my "pride "n" joy" the local "brats" used to virtually try and dismantle it where it stood, - I got sick and fed up of forever being on watch and chasing the bounders away, so i got them on my side and let them do the job for me!
One day, i "collard" the lead bounder, and instead of covertly giving him a thick ear, i arranged a deal with him to guard my car! - i would pay him £5 a week as long as nothing was damaged or touched. - worked like a treat, cheap at half the price. and one saturday i found that he had even washed it for me! talk about job sastisfaction!!
Billy
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I've done some spraying, I did it in my back garden, away from cars, and it has fences all around. Even a little bit of wind can blow the paint a long distance. In the end I did it in my garage because the paint just went with the wind.
If it does get on your car then you shouldn't need a respray because the gold paint would only sit on top of your paint. A bit of claying should fix it, and maybe a polish. It may be more difficult to get off plastics though.
My suggestion would be to ask him to tell you when he does it in future so that you can move your car. I think that is a good compromise, although it's not ideal, it should prevent any problems.
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Not that I would advocate it but a client had similar problems, his solution was a bit radical, he phoned a scrappy posing as the owner of an offending wreck. They took it away. There was a reason why he ended up telling me about it though !
Edited by Pugugly on 25/05/2008 at 21:03
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Do you have a fence between your drives? If so, when he is spraying could you not rather carelessly start spraying the fence with the product that "does what it says on the tin".
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If your neighbour doesn't want to be reasonable about this, you could always go out and do a bit of lawn edging with a strimmer or sweep the drive while he's painting.
Edited by gmac on 25/05/2008 at 21:16
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Get your hosepipe out and spray your car down with a fine mist.
It will keep his overspray down and with a bit of luck will drift over to his side.
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why dont you invest in a small grinder, so next time its fine weather and he insists on doing some spraying you could decide to rake out your front wall to be repointed but be careful it makes one hell of a cloud of dust
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"my car (57 Reg, £20K of my money) was only 20 feet away"
To be honest, at that range I would have thought the danger of your car catching any "overspray" would be about zero. I've used those spray cans and they hardly give good coverage going over about 6 times at a range of 9 inches!
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Try sneaking out at 2am, and covering the bonnet & roof with breadcrumbs or birdseed. You can bet by 9am it will be covered with something else.
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Ring council and speak about health/environmental hazard. They are bound to act if it is really serious issue.
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To be honest at that range I would have thought the danger of your car catching any "overspray" would be about zero. I've used those spray cans and they hardly give good coverage going over about 6 times at a range of 9 inches!
He got the bonnet/front wing and a bit of the door of my Dark Blue Mazda with Silver paint about 7 years ago!!
So don't tell me aerosol paint does not blow in the wind!
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Fair enough FB,
Must be me - unable to hit a car with a spray can from 9 inches!!
Good luck
Phil
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Sounds like one of those difficult neighbour situations that seem to be on the increase these days.
Odds on he doesn't give a toss about your car, he has an old banger after all.
Either move your car out of harms way and/or ask the neighbour to let you know when he is planning to spray so you can move your car out of the way. If he doesn't then put it in writing that you will hold him liable for any damage done to your car as a result of his spraying. In the meantime it's worth considering adding a good layer of polish to help protect your cars paintwork.
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A claybar will sort any overspray, it did on my old Fiesta which came back from the bodyshop covered in fine gold flecks!
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