Range Rover Velar covered in hardened exterior paint -- vandalism job for an insurance company. Paint in every gap, on the glass, under the trim. Solvents struggled to soften it. Cleaning, polishing, parts replaced (roof rails, mirror, badges, door handle), some panels resprayed at the body shop. Tom and Paul on it throughout. Came out spotless.
Someone had covered this Range Rover Velar in paint. Not splashed -- covered. It had fully cured on the bodywork, worked its way into every gap and behind every piece of trim, and the owner needed it restored for an insurance claim. It became one of the biggest, most challenging jobs the workshop has taken on.
What Made This So Hard
Most exterior paint vandalism jobs involve emulsion -- house paint, which is water-based and responds to solvents reasonably well. This was different. Whatever had been used -- possibly an exterior or epoxy-based paint -- had bonded in a way that standard solvents struggled to touch. Tom describes it in the progress videos: "it is like concrete -- it has dried very, very hard." It had stuck to the plastic trim more stubbornly than to the metal panels, which made the light and trim pieces especially difficult.
The 80/20 rule applied hard here: 80% of the paint came off in the first 20% of the time. The remaining 20% -- in the gaps, around the roof rails, behind the mirror, on the lights -- accounted for 80% of the total labour.
The Work
Tom and Paul led the clean-up, softening and jetting the paint section by section. To get to the mirror properly, the door panels had to come off -- which is when the faulty check strap was confirmed and repaired at the same time. The window on one side had to come out. The roof rails came off. Where parts had been damaged too badly to clean -- or where cleaning time would have exceeded replacement cost -- new parts were ordered. The mirror casing, roof rails, bonnet vent strips and badges were all replaced.
Some panels went to the body shop for respraying: the mirror itself, the tailgate underside (discoloured from cleaning products), and the door handle (paint had penetrated a small button recess that could not be polished out). The headlining was done in the workshop.
Where a new part went on, every neighbouring panel was polished to balance the finish in -- so nothing looked mismatched. The bonnet, in Danny's words, came out "like a mirror."
The Result
The Velar left the workshop without a speck of paint on it. New roof rails, new mirror, new badges, resprayed door handle, repaired check strap, polished throughout, clean inside and out. It looked better than before the problem.
Insurance Paint Damage -- What to Do
If your car has been vandalised or had paint sprayed on it, call your insurer immediately and report it. Do not attempt to remove hardened paint yourself -- the wrong product or technique will scratch the lacquer, create more damage, and complicate the claim. Get it to a specialist as quickly as possible.
We work directly with insurance companies and loss adjusters on jobs like this. If the car needs a combination of cleaning, polishing, and bodyshop work, we can coordinate all of it. See our car paint spill clean-up service for more detail.
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