A girl I know has had her car damaged by grinding sparks. She got me to have a look at it to see if it was something that could be polished out. I said it looks like gringing sparks, and she said the old lady next door had her sons putting a new roof on the verandah and they were grinding all day in the driveway next to her car. She spoke to them about it, and they admitted it looks like their mistake.

Now the big question is who's insurance is going to take care of it. Does the old lady make a claim on her house insurance, as it was her sons working on her house, in her property that caused the damage? The girl only has third party insurance.

Maybe they will have to pay for a cut and polish? The sparks have stuck to the white paint everywhere, and the particles are rusting. If it is cut and polished, the metal particles will dislodge, get on the buff pad and turn the buff pad into sandpaper.

I am thinking maybe overspray clay, then a buff, however it is so difficult to find a car detailer that can do this type of work without making more damage. It could take a whole day, so would be costly. She lives in Thornbury.

I'd be really careful with that, if the 'sparks' are in there relatively deep, it could easily be a full respray, which could make the car an economic write-off!

Yeah, go their home insurance for negligence.

use a product called ferrous dueller

Clay and ferrous dueller look good

Isn't that a movie?
Ferrous duellers clay off.

My Brothers work had an issue like that. Something spewed out of the factory and coated all the employees cars. They had to get someone to come out and claybar all the staffs cars.

clay bar works wonders.


I pulled little nodules off an old respray that was done years and years ago that was never cut and buffed. I didn't even know they were there until the clay bar.

But at the end of the day if the damage is someone else's fault then it should be down to a professional repair or a payout, not having to repair yourself no matter how well the repair works.

I've been told before that even if you only have bomb insurance (aka 3rd party) that your car's insurer will still go in to bat for you in the event of a "not at fault" claim. If you can identify the perpetrator then they will arrange assessment and repairs for you as though you are comprehensively insured and pursue either the home owner's insurance or take civil action to resolve. This has been particularly useful with people claiming for damage to cars by trolley collectors in shopping centre carparks. Usually its less cost than an excess but the trolley boys are not driving so they have no car insurance to claim against.

Tell her to go through her insurance and ask them to help, otherwise I fear it may end up having to be a "her vs them" civil case as I don't believe contents or house insurance will cover anything to do with cars (even car parts stored at your house are not covered under a lot of policies).