While washing the car, I generally raise the wiper arms to locked upright vertical position off the windshield for ease of washing the glass. Do not attempt to raise the hood while the wiper arms are in the raised position. It should be noted that the rear edge of the hood engages the wiper arms when the hood is raised while the arms are upright. No damage to the hood was done other than a very small chip to the paint (easily touched up) but it could have been worse if the hood was raised more quickly. DUH!

 

wow never thought of that. I'll keep that in mind!

 

i did the same exact thing yesterday, i was freakin' pissed because i did take some paint off.... like you said, touch up paint will fix it

 

I feel your pain. I did the same thing to my '03' altima...Ouch

 

pucker factor of 8.5 while reading.... thanks for the advice!

 

Why would you open your hood with the wipers up? I never have my wipers up for more time than it takes to hit the windshield with windex.

 

Windex? Ugh...windscreen killer

 

I learned this lesson the hard way with my FD. I was lucky, just scraped a little paint off the very edge of the hood.

I completely removed the wipers after this since I never drove it in the rain anyway, and it looked much cleaner without the wipers.

 

Been there. Did that. Car was 5 days old. ARGGHH! What a moron.

The Lighting Yellow touchup paint went on a bit orangey but dried to a good color match. It seemed a bit thick but it flowed out pretty evenly. I'll probably put more layers on and wet sand/polish some day when I'm feeling really guilty again about pulling such a boneheaded stunt.

 

Man, I did the same thing a couple of weeks ago. To answer Chodapopp, I finished washing and drying. Here in TX, the water is really hard and spots very badly. I always clean under the hood, trunk, and around all the doors and sills. When the sun hits, those white spots gleam right out from under the hood. Anyway, it's a mistake you'll make no more than once. I have 2 little scrapes right on the edge. I think I'll use the sewing needle to touchup these.

 

Sewing needle?

I did that on my '00 Mustang GT Vert like 3 days ago. 2 marks on the hood and it snapped the wipers down so fast i though thte windshield cracked. Lucky it didnt but the proper touch up paint is over $20 for that little bottle. Oh well.

Anyone know the best way to clean glass? Best product?

 

Yes, for applying touchup paint, a torn match works better than the nailpolish brush they give you. For still more precision, a sewing needle to apply the paint. There is an old old thread with the details - I think it was by Omicron.

 

Well, who woulda known...

 

This is a common problem - every Honda I've had, every Acura I've had, etc... all do this. Just gotta be careful!

 

i clean my windows with water and soap then apply rain-x. it makes bugs and road grime come off much easier. it also works so well in the rain, you don't need your wipers. (assuming you have a good coating on the windshield) i get my rx-8 tonight and will do that after i get home because it's forecasted to rain in oklahoma.

yamajj