Car window markers, and sucrification of cars in general

I am SO pissed off.

I bought a used car from overseas. Same car is available here, but at double the price. When I bought it, the pictures showed the classic so-called "temporary" marking paint on the windshield. The car goes through two other countries before getting here, and I have to say, these folk who do their numerical graffiti on the windows apparently REALLY enjoy their jobs.

It's bad enough to gather your dollars together and spin the big auto wheel and buy something that you hope will last you a few years. There is not a SINGLE window -- even the wee quarter windows at the back that doesn't have some senseless rune on it, and lemme tell ya, these things are not easy to remove. There is no solvent (at least one that I'm willing to risk dripping on the paint) that easily removes them. The only answer is careful strokes with a razor blade, followed by ammonia to remove the stain.

I've been at this for four hours, and have it about halfway done.

Add insult to injury, the car arrive with the front "bumper" cracked, and some wiseass tried to use a nonmatching touch-up paint to hide it. Okay, fine. Because this is a used 2004 car it couldn't be insured. Quite a racket. Local used car dealers go through the same outlet that I did, and double the prices. I suspect a grande conspiracy to damage cars that aren't ordered through the local dealers and pay their uber-greedy prices. I would've paid $1000 more for a local car, but not double.

So, fine. I'll use carbon fiber to repair the cracks and repaint it, NO big deal. Bumpers these days are nothing but cosmetic fiberglass reinforced plastic. NOT rated for even a 2 mph impact.

I briefly looked at a '63 Chevy truck and if it were not for the extra $2500 imposed upon import of such relics, I would've gone that way. I once had one, and I know their bumpers were REAL bumpers. I was once broadsided by a cement truck driving 50 mph at night without lights and I was driving such a truck. My truck, although its wheels were bent near horizontal, stayed upright, and I survived with minor injuries. The cement truck rolled. Both vehicles were totaled. I walked away from the wreck.

In my idle hours, I daydream about meeting one of these roller-ball paintstick warriors who find in necessary to graffiti their runes on car windows as they pass through their spheres of influence. I wonder how hard it is to removed that "temporary" paint from skin.

Well, I feel better now.

Nice rant!

I've never brought a car "in", but it sounds like a situation that would have had me pissed as well.

I mainly had to reply because of your comment about older vehicles. I am of the age where my first car was laid over in a ditch quite a few times and it never even crinkled a fender. I had a head on collision in another older model vehicle and everyone walked away. I had a bad case of "dashboard knees" but we all survived with nothing more than that and a single stitch.

Since then, we have had newer cars. Cars where someone could seemingly lean into the fender and all but total it. I'm being dead serious. I know you know what I'm saying. I am in a position now where my daughter is getting ready to need her first vehicle and I am absolutely terrified. Like most parents.... I want to put her in a tank. As it stands now any car with less than 100,000 miles on it is going to crumble to pieces if she hits anything and anything older than that may not be safe mechanically. Double edged sword.

Things aren't made like they used to be. Not only did the older cars hold up much better... they looked a damn sight better as well. You can't beat a classic, the problem is in finding one that you can afford these days because it seems more people are realizing that. The lines, the form, the purrrr, of a classic car just can't be beat IMO.

I wish you luck with the rest of your task argentus. I hope you get done in time to have some dinner without finding any other damage on top of it.

a reply to: argentus

What the hell kind of car did you get that you can buy overseas and then pay to ship it here and it costs half the price?

Your either one hell of a wheeler dealer or something, the math don't seem to add up.

How much does it cost to ship a car across the ocean?

Sometimes good deals aren't.

a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe

I hear you. Autos used to be made of solid stuff. One of the reasons I bought this car was because the crash tests indicated that it doesn't crumple. I remember once (before the dreaded cement truck event) a person slid on ice and rear-ended my truck. They were going about 25-30 mph. Mashed up their front end. I think I detected a minor scratch in the truck's bumper.

I knew an old man where I grew up in northern Idaho who had removed the bumpers from his truck and replaced them with creosote-soaked railroad ties. Awesome bumpers. He seemed to have lil' 'accidents' every now and then with those he perceived to be his enemies. Thus, I believe we are allowed to get away with more as we age, since he was still driving when we moved away.

My dream car is a '70 Dodge Challenger, but I'll never get one, because it would kill me to watch it rust in this heavy salt environment. Not just autos, but everything. Stuff used to be better made. Maybe a nice Plymouth would be a good car for your daughter; a real land yacht.

a reply to: mwood

Cars from Japan. They want to encourage citizens and businesses to buy new or newer cars, so they make the registration and insurance progressively prohibitive. This car I bought was worthless in Japan. yes, I scanned it for radiation. The selling company does also. It's actually fairly difficult to make an object radioactive.

I have no other view other than to believe that our local auto dealerships are greedy. I know they source from the same place, and jack up the price. There were three other of these cars locally, and the cheapest was not quite double of what my end cost was. What's a person to do?

So, I have to make repairs, and there's no help for it. Fortunately for me, working with plastics is easy, and I can shoot paint and clear coat.

p.s. the car was $1000. Shipping was $1500. Duties, taxes, made-up governmental fees added another $2300. Cheapest local car of the same year and model (but with much more mileage) was $9200.


p.p.s.s. BUT! I'm not even angry about the mark-ups and the local dealerships............ I'm numb to all that -- I've been here a long time.

I'm not even much mad about the damage. It could've been much worse -- I can fix this.

No, I'm still smoldering about the temp paint all over the windows of my new ride. I can't make heads or tails of the numbers or marks, so I have to conclude that it was just done because they can. Whatever happened to grease pencils? Too easy to remove? (red wet explosion sound)

a reply to: argentus

Well, I feel better now.

Nice rant!!

This thread deserves before and after pics. Tell me you got the front end before you went to work.

a reply to: Snarl

LOL! I haven't even driven it to get it inspected, plated and registered yet. no, I don't think it'll be done before work. I have to buy paint, catalyst. Flat black, I think. I may do the hood along with both bumpers. Pics may be forthcoming. Depends entirely upon whether I leave runs in the paint.

a reply to: argentus

Don't let my expectationsscare you off!!

a reply to: Snarl

Beautiful. Almost brings a tear to the eye. Almost.

Our maximum speed is 40 mph. Your dream machine or mine would drive me absolutely inSANE for not being able to open it up. Better than I have a MPV Honda with a VTEC that is merely fun to apex corners with, while providing 90 cu. ft. of cargo for dump runs.

a reply to: mwood

I neglected to mention that I live in the Cayman Islands. Every'ting slightly askew here. What I did probably wouldn't be true for the U.S.

........... and it probably wouldn't have arrived all marked up with devilish runes and numbers. rant, rant, rave!

a reply to: argentus

I think it's some customs shipping regulation that they have to use those paint markers.
I bought a Skyline many moons ago with the same paint. Is it a righty?

originally posted by: argentus
I am SO pissed off.There is not a SINGLE window -- even the wee quarter windows at the back that doesn't have some senseless rune on it, and lemme tell ya, these things are not easy to remove. There is no solvent (at least one that I'm willing to risk dripping on the paint) that easily removes them. The only answer is careful strokes with a razor blade, followed by ammonia to remove the stain.

I've been at this for four hours, and have it about halfway done.

Add insult to injury, the car arrive with the front "bumper" cracked, and some wiseass tried to use a nonmatching touch-up paint to hide it. Okay, fine. Because this is a used 2004 car it couldn't be insured. Quite a racket. Local used car dealers go through the same outlet that I did, and double the prices. I suspect a grande conspiracy to damage cars that aren't ordered through the local dealers and pay their uber-greedy prices. I would've paid $1000 more for a local car, but not double.

So, fine. I'll use carbon fiber to repair the cracks and repaint it, NO big deal. Bumpers these days are nothing but cosmetic fiberglass reinforced plastic. NOT rated for even a 2 mph impact.

In my opinion, we shouldn't worry about paint, on anything. I do enjoy graffiti though. And maybe try WD-40 to remove the # on the windows.

originally posted by: AnteBellum
a reply to: argentus

I think it's some customs shipping regulation that they have to use those paint markers.
I bought a Skyline many moons ago with the same paint. Is it a righty?

Skyline..... I bow to you AnteBellum. What year?

a reply to: AnteBellum


Yep, right-hand drive. I finally got all the graffiti off the windows. Even one mirror. Will start on the bumper repair in a soon-come (which translates to sometime in between a week and infinity)

a reply to: argentus

I had such an issue with the steering wheel that I got rid of the car I bought, well I also got 3 times what I paid for it also.

Parking was great though, just weird. I also live in NJ land of tolls, this was before easy-pass. Toll booths, ticket dispensors and drive through windows were a glitch to deal with.

Well good luck with your car!

a reply to: thirdcoast

1993 Skyline GTR R32 I'll post pictures if I can find them, this all happened in 1995. It took me longer to get it then I actually owned it, It was fun to have money THEN.

After I sold it I bought a white '95 300zx TT SMZ stage 8 and flawless. It was my baby and the best car I miss to this day. I lost my licence doing 220mph in a 55 and parked it behind my house for the 30 days. On day 28 it was stolen, they pulled out my driveway, saw a cop(who was oblivious), floored it in 1st, melted the rear tires, lost control and crashed into my neighbors brick house. Aftermarket parts were uninsured, so it was totaled and chopped.

I was part of the old school street racing click, before F&F came out. I also had nearly unlimited money back then which made things easier. I've had faster cars but found them nearly unusable especially Cerberas, truly the most dangerous thing I've ever driven. But that's a whole other weird story.

originally posted by: argentus
a reply to: AnteBellum
Yep, right-hand drive. I finally got all the graffiti off the windows. Even one mirror. Will start on the bumper repair in a soon-come (which translates to sometime in between a week and infinity)

I'm assuming you took my genius advice and used WD-40 on the windows right....right? RIGHT?! But forget about the appearance of the vehicle, how fast can it go? Pics may interesting to see....

originally posted by: AnteBellum
1993 Skyline GTR R32 I'll post pictures if I can find them, this all happened in 1995. It took me longer to get it then I actually owned it, It was fun to have money THEN.

After I sold it I bought a white '95 300zx TT SMZ stage 8 and flawless. It was my baby and the best car I miss to this day. I lost my licence doing 220mph in a 55 and parked it behind my house for the 30 days. On day 28 it was stolen, they pulled out my driveway, saw a cop(who was oblivious), floored it in 1st, melted the rear tires, lost control and crashed into my neighbors brick house. Aftermarket parts were uninsured, so it was totaled and chopped.

I was part of the old school street racing click, before F&F came out. I also had nearly unlimited money back then which made things easier. I've had faster cars but found them nearly unusable especially Cerberas, truly the most dangerous thing I've ever driven. But that's a whole other weird story.

220 mph?!?!??? You are mad! Day 28.... lol wow.



If you haven't already, you should make a thread with stories like that. Cool man.

a reply to: thirdcoast

If I told some stories of the things I used to do, nobody would believe me.

On that occasion it was 1:pm on Rt 24 in NJ, Summit. I just had the the car re-tuned and was going home, the roads were empty. I passed the parked cop, but at those speeds by the time I noticed him I was 1/4 mile past him, so I slowed down and pulled over right away. The officer 30 seconds later pulled behind me and walked up asking me if I had been drinking. I quickly responded, "If I was drinking I wouldn't be driving that fast." He took my info went away and then came back 2 minutes later telling me his radar was the such that didn't record speeds above 101mph, so he could only give me a ticket for 101 in a 55mph zone. But he also added he had been around the block long enough to know I was going twice that speed for his car shook from the shock of me passing. Told me to slow the F down and let me go, it would break his heart to have to shovel me off the road after an accident.
When I went to court the judge was not amused. He asked me why I was going that fast and in my normal glitchy manner of the time, told him, "If you were driving that car and the roads were empty wouldn't you?" Bad idea for those that haven't tried that line. He had to look in his little book to see what he could do to me - 5 points and a huge fine, which put me over 12 points and suspended I was for 30 days.

My favorite pastime back then was to go from Watchung, NJ to the PA border at night as fast as I could. So far I think my record still stands at 12 minutes 23 seconds for @41 miles. Funny how being a mom now looking back, it's easy to see how stupid these things I did were. 20 years ago was a different time though police were cool, I was pulled over on RT 78 before this and even told an officer the reason I was doing 80mph was the sign said 78! He laughed said originality counts, gave me a warning and let me go. Different world today.

Sorry for going off track op, reminiscing is all I have left, I'm a mom now.