I once thought i had a scratch on my roof what looked like 2 about an inch long nail scratches from a cat or something. All i had with me was some spray glaze so i sprayed it and wiped...all gone! It was 2 cat/dog hair parallel to each other. I was very close to making my neighbors cat disappear forever LOL.
Close that one was....
I woke up the very first morning I had my car and grabbed my cup of coffee and went outside to stare at her. Now what I found was paralyzing. My neighbors cat actually had spent part of its night on my car! 3 deep scratches (all parallel from the same paw) on the hood, one scratch right above driver door on the roof, and a full paw scratch about 6" long down my back window! I think I dropped my coffee and it fell to the ground in slow motion like in Hollywood, but I don't really remember because I'm pretty sure I blacked out, lol. Paint has been repaired as good as it can without respray but that window, I see it every day and want to find that cat and take it to the Chinese joint up the street. (OK, maybe the Chinese don't cook cat and that's a bad stereotype, but until you can tell me they all don't... I'm sticking with they do) That's when my obsession truly began and I found my way to AGO and the great threads and info. To answer the question from OP, that happens to me ever.y single. day. when I wake up and go outside to see any hair (my boxer has wiry hair that looks like scratches when it gets to paint) or mark on my car now. Oh, and the cat, the cat is still around because it belongs to a very nice special needs family across the street and I just don't have the heart. Just reinforces my reason to be on the forum daily!
Speaking of the neighbors cat.
I had a guy call me a few weeks ago. His neighbors cat had gotten INSIDE his Dodge truck, boy cat, and not only sprayed but also was on the hood and scratched it. He had to turn it into his insurance company, trying to fix it. They sent out an 'odor specialist' to clean the interior (cloth seats) as well as the carpet. NO LUCK!
I could have told them it's IMPOSSIBLE to remove tom cat spray. Just ain't gonna' happen.
So he went out and bought vinyl floor mats to replace all the carpet. That took care of that. Then he bought new OEM seat covers to take care of the smell, but the smell is STILL THERE. Well DOH, it's in the foam (I told him). The only thing that's gonna' fix that is get a junkyard seat (for the foam) and put the new seat covers on it.
Then he was telling me he had $100 to buff the hood. BUT... he didn't want me to TOUCH the rest of the truck, just buff the hood.
WTF? (
In my world that's What The Frick)
I told him at the very least I could do an "Exterior Only" job that included a exterior detail, decontaminating the paint by using a Nanoskin pad (he didn't even know what claying was, but I explained it to him) and then do a $75 buffing upgrade to the exterior only package, which was basically an AIO that was a cleaner wax and I'd spend extra time on the hood, even if it meant it needed to be compounded and polished and make it the best it could be. Thing is, that would be $225 and for an extra $90 he could get the whole thing done top to bottom, front to back, including buffing and it would be better than he's seen it since new. But being as he's already put a new seat (cover) in it, and a new floor, maybe it'd be a good idea to just do the exterior package.
However, if I just did the hood and didn't touch the rest of the truck it would look very
very noticeable, (worse than with the scratches actually) because the truck is 10 years old. Plus with the exterior package and the buffing upgrade he also gets a polymer sealer and his truck would look really great. So much so, that I guaranteed if he didn't think it was worth the price I'd knock the extra $75 off. (I know... that's stupid, but I am that confident of my work and know that anyone that's paid for it before typically tips $25 so no worries there.)
After all that; He wanted me.... BEFORE I EVEN SAW THE TRUCK... to write him an estimate to his insurance company saying the smell wouldn't come out, that I had tried to remove it, and that it needed a new seat! Seemed he wasn't as concerned about the hood scratches as the smell and figured I could just do a quick buff-n-fluff on it, collect the money, and write an estimate to replace his interior. (So he could get more money from them.)
Told him AFTER I looked at it, and did the exterior, I could write the estimate, but not until I'd done my best to fix his problem, and certainly not until I'd seen the truck. Then I suddenly remembered I had a scheduling conflict. :laughing:
