Tulsa World

Return to Story

Source of damage remains a mystery to car owners

by: JARREL WADE World Staff Writer
Friday, July 20, 2007

Insurance com- panies are trying to sort out responsibil- ity for the damage to the classic cars.

Insurance companies for various downtown contractors are continuing to investigate the sources of spray that damaged more than 300 classic cars at a Pontiac convention last week.

Different sprays -- red or brown speckles on some and a rough, sandpaperlike substance on others -- left their marks on the cars, some of which are worth more than $100,000.

The cars' owners are growing impatient without word from the insurance companies that represent contractors that were working on various downtown buildings during the July 10-14 convention.

Larry Crider, president of the Indian Nations Pontiac Club, which sponsored the convention, said a representative of an insurance company contacted him for the first time Wednesday to request samples of the substances.

Billy Tobey, a spokesman for Green Country Interiors, the main contractor for renovations at the Crowne Plaza hotel, said that once the investigation is concluded, each insurance company will pay for damage caused by its clients, he said.

Green Country Interiors hired subcontractors for the Crowne Plaza's outdoor work and is not responsible for any of the damage, Tobey said.

One possible source is red spray paint that was applied to patio railings on the west side of the hotel -- the convention's host site -- and another is a roofing spray that several of the conventioneers said they saw being taken to the roof.

Bart Haake, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tulsa, owns a white 1971 Pontiac Firebird that was damaged in the show Saturday.

He said the wind was mostly blowing west and south west in Tulsa on Saturday, which points to work at the hotel as the main source of the spray.

But Tobey said varying damage reports could point to other downtown construction, as well.

A quick investigation is important to car owners because the longer a chemical is on a car, the more damage it can do. But until they know what they're dealing with, the cars' owners don't want to try to remove the chemicals, fearing that they could do more damage, Crider said.

"Virtually all" of the 329 cars attending the convention were damaged by the substances, he said, but other cars downtown were damaged, as well.

Susan Hall, an electrical designer for the Benham engineering firm, parks her silver 2006 Honda Civic at Second Street and Boulder Avenue -- next door to the Crowne Plaza -- during the week.

Although she was not parked there Saturday, when hundreds of Pontiacs reportedly were layered in the spray, she said her car was covered in the same chemical.

"I washed my car (Tuesday). When I finished, I dried it off, and I wiped my hand over any place on my car. It feels like sandpaper," she said.

On Thursday, Hall took her car to a detail shop, where workers tried two removers, but neither worked, she said.

Next, they tried buffing the surface with a clay disk and then used another product, which successfully removed the substance, but the car was left with a milky-white appearance and will have to be resealed, she said.

The whole process cost about $400, Hall said.

"My car is flawless -- or was. Not now," she said.

As for the Pontiac owners, "everybody is wanting answers," Crider said. "I'd hate to think of the price at this point."

Return to Story