Customer complaint Damaged Paintwork on install

[David Stevenson]

Hi Mark, for that type of job you’d be better to get some 3m knifeless tape and run it around the edges. Saves having to cut on the paint.

[David Wilde]

Agree with David. 3m knifeless tape.

Run it along the contour of the panel and then overlay the graphic with bleed.

[David Wilde]

Also, for the cuts to rust, they must have been fairly deep. Usually you would only scratch the lacquer with a scalpal unless excessive force was used. I’m afraid I’m with the customer on this.

[Kevin Mahoney]

Absolutely he’s being reasonable as much as it hurts. If you were having some work done on your van & found a scratch, would you expect it to be sorted at their expense? Although it’s frowned upon to cut on the vehicle, I’ve used this method for over 25 years & never had an issue. Occasionally if the blade is wearing, I’ll just go through the laminate & not the vinyl but never had a client remove it ready for sale & mention a single mark. If you have grazed the paint I would doubt that you’ve gone anywhere near the metal itself unless you’ve cut it with a Stanley knife or something. Trouble is, it’s going to be difficult to prove your innocence as nobody else is a likely culprit to point at. In this case, I would carefully read the small print on your insurance policy & as David suggests, get some knifeless tape in. Maybe a call to a trusted body shop would be prudent, you don’t want the headache of dealing with the clients insurance. Hope you sort it out without too much grief.

[David Hammond]

Knifeless tape it’s the way forward, and whilst not the cheapest does save issues like this.

We make a bit of a judgement call, if it’s a wreck of a van, we’ll lightly cut it with a scalpel, using a new blade.

We’ve had a customer return claiming we cracked their windscreen… unlikely but hard to prove otherwise, and we ended up replacing it.

Since then we check the vehicle over before we start work, and check it back out with the customer collects. Disclaimer covers any damage to poor paintwork etc which has saved our bacon at least once. Customer can’t claim damage that wasn’t spotted when it’s left.

However, I doubt that’d help in this case, as it’s pretty obvious how it was caused, and it’s perfectly reasonable for the customer to expect you not to damage the paint.

I doubt the customers insurance will cover it… so best speak to some bodyshops as it’ll be the cheapest option.

[David Stevenson]

If you’re buying knifeless tape there a couple of different versions. "Design line" goes round corners much better than "finish line" but tends to snap if you’re not careful. "Finish line" on the other hand will slice you open if you try to snap it by hand.

[Pane Talev]

quote Mark Elvin:

Hi, we did a couple of vans last year for a customer, both transits and fitted printed panels into the side panels and rear doors and trimmed in with a scalpel to follow the contour of the panel.

The customer now says his vehicle is rusting where we cut the prints. How does everyone else do this sort of job? Do you cut them on or off the vehicle?

Is the customer being reasonable in his expectations?

Any thoughts welcome.

Mark

Agree with the knifeless tape.
Another way is to print panels.
Trace panel on the van with backing paper.
Trim prints on he table using the traced template.
Apply pre-cut prints.

[Simon Worrall]

You would have to be pressing very very hard to go through the layers of paint and laquer to get down to the metal underneath!
Peel back the vinyl in the affected area and double check that it is your cut that has gone deep enough to expose the metal. I find it hard to believe a sign writer can be so unaware of his strength that this has happened. The customer might just be trying to put an existing problem onto you.
While it is easy to scratch the top clear coat surface, it is very different from gouging out a canal. I dont think i would have the strength to cut that deep even if I tried. Perhaps a stanley knife would do it, but you said you used a scalpel.
Either way, use knifeless tape next time!

[Alan Drury]

I run a length of FineLine tape along the panel edge before fitting vinyl, then when I trim with new blade in knife I’m cutting into the tape. Vinyl tends not to stick to the fine line tape and it is easily removed. Final squeegee of the vinyl edges completes job with no cutting into paint.

[Chris Wilson]

quote Simon Worrall:

While it is easy to scratch the top clear coat surface, it is very different from gouging out a canal. I dont think i would have the strength to cut that deep even if I tried. Perhaps a stanley knife would do it, but you said you used a scalpel.
Either way, use knifeless tape next time!

Wish I had a photo of the van we had in recently. Had been inlay panels and am guessing when it was removed the lacquer and paint had gone with it. Had been touched in with a light re-spray and was a old banger anyway, but my god. Corners weren’t even first go. There was 3 or 4 cut lines on each one all following slightly different curves.

[Kevin Mahoney]

Seen a few like that, client recently bought an old snotter as a pool van. It was wrapped in a previous life & I think it was trimmed with an axe. Cut around the number plate was horrifying, somebody get that man a screwdriver

[Chris Wilson]

Here’s the bad boy. I’ve zoomed in but even from afar you can see the difference in the paints and thickness.

But yes +1 for knifeless tape.

[James Martin]

You can feel when your even touching the lacquer.

I always cut by hand in panels and the only time Ive saw rust was on a van I let a suby cut. Butchered it big time and he was meant to be experienced. Funny thing was he taught me a nice method of getting bubble free flood coating in panels with bare vinyl on the same day which I have used loads of times on the same customers vans since.

They’ve never mentioned the rust any time Ive been back to do more work thankfully.

[Jamie Palmer]

I have noticed that newer vans don’t seem to have the same depth of paint, the new transit custom has the thinnest coverage of paint of all I have seen. This may be a factor, I used to cut by hand but it’s almost impossible not to damage the paintwork when the paint composition is so thin on the metal. Good luck with the customer