Ask the Expert Question-and-Answer Archive

by Ron Joseph

June, 2006

Overspray on Cars

Q. The other day a firm was using an epoxy paint to spray paint a building. This was carried in the wind and consequently covered my car and several others. The paint we believe was one of the following: Thortex TX 840A, Uni-Tech UV Activator, TX152A Chemi-Tech 152LV Activator, TX840B Unit-Tech UV Base and TX152B Chemi-Tech 152LV Base. Any ideas on how to progress a lawsuit or how to get this stuff off a car?

A. This is somewhat of a common problem. The easiest approach is to go to a body shop in your local area and ask if they can scuff sand or rub out the overspray without damaging the original paint.

Ask the company that did the damage if they are willing to pay for this work to be done and tell them that in many cases insurance companies will pay for the entire car to be repainted. In fact, recently I worked on a case in which the insurance company paid over $1M to repaint several hundred cars that were damaged for a similar reason.

If the body shop can scuff out the paint overspray and leave the original paint intact, the costs will be a fraction of that to repaint the entire vehicle.

I would not want to go to a law firm unless all other options have run into a dead end.

Best wishes,

Ron Joseph