Flusher
Member
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2016
- Posts
- 527
- Reaction score
- 250
Sorry in advance for the long rant.
Transportation issues and a new job forced me to start driving my '08 GT500 again.
My coworker had a crackhead moment while leaving for lunch. He neglected to check to see if anyone was parked next to him when he pulled his dually out. He just hooked the corner, right from his parking space. The dually fender took out the driver side fender and front bumper.
My coworker said that he would take care of it and make it right. The company I work for builds $100K sand cars. The guy they use for custom paint touch-ups was called in to do the repair work on my car. This guy was presented to me as super badass and does amazing things with touch-up repairs. He was doing a repair at our facility about a week before he was to do mine, so I introduced myself. He is a swaggerer and acted every bit as badass as as his reputation implied.
When he brought me out to look at the repair work on my car, my initial reaction was, "You got to be F'n kidding me!" I did my best to give him the benefit of the doubt and maybe, after it was color sanded and buffed, it would look acceptable.
At the end of the day, I had time to fully inspect the finished results:
1.) There is a lot of dirt, from being sprayed in the parking lot. No effort was made to even wet down the area beforehand.
2.) The body filler shrunk and all the sand scratches are clearly visible.
3.) He killed the body lines around the headlight and wheel opening.
4.) There are pinholes/fisheyes where filler was applied. Paint was globbed on in heavy coats, in attempt to cover, resulting in runs and big fisheyes.
5.) Paint is dry coats on the rest of the fender. I don't believe that there is sufficient coverage to facilitate color sanding and buff. If there is, I don't believe it will tolerate a second buffing without burning through the paint.
6.) He painted right up to the stripes, which were undermasked, now the stripes need to be replaced.
In general, the whole repair is of first semester high school auto body quality.
When I called him out on his workmanship, his response was, "I'm just a poh mobile guy. I don't got nice tools. I ain't got a nice spray gun. I don't got a spray booth." He said the best he could do is return 40% of my coworker's money, because he doesn't want to go out of pocket on this job.
It appears that everywhere he touched needs to be stripped, to remove his poor quality work. Is there a way to just strip down to the original paint, trying to preserve the original paint?
AAA, my insurance company, is always less-than helpful when it comes to protecting their insured (me).
Had I been able to sell the car, before this happened, I could have lived with taking a $20K loss, selling it for just what I owe still. Any guesses on how much this car would be devalued with the previously mentioned hack job?
I have been detached from paint and body work for a good 25 years now, so I don't know what the current technology is. Is it as bad as it sounds, or am I missing something?
I'd really appreciate some input from the industry professionals. Does the whole car have to be repainted for black to look right?
Are there any financial avenues available or do I just have to eat this?
Thank you for any thoughts or ideas. I apologize for my tone, I'm really struggling with this. Also, I can't seem to be able to post any pictures, not that I want to, I just don't want the damage to be the only thing I see when I look at my car.
Transportation issues and a new job forced me to start driving my '08 GT500 again.
My coworker had a crackhead moment while leaving for lunch. He neglected to check to see if anyone was parked next to him when he pulled his dually out. He just hooked the corner, right from his parking space. The dually fender took out the driver side fender and front bumper.
My coworker said that he would take care of it and make it right. The company I work for builds $100K sand cars. The guy they use for custom paint touch-ups was called in to do the repair work on my car. This guy was presented to me as super badass and does amazing things with touch-up repairs. He was doing a repair at our facility about a week before he was to do mine, so I introduced myself. He is a swaggerer and acted every bit as badass as as his reputation implied.
When he brought me out to look at the repair work on my car, my initial reaction was, "You got to be F'n kidding me!" I did my best to give him the benefit of the doubt and maybe, after it was color sanded and buffed, it would look acceptable.
At the end of the day, I had time to fully inspect the finished results:
1.) There is a lot of dirt, from being sprayed in the parking lot. No effort was made to even wet down the area beforehand.
2.) The body filler shrunk and all the sand scratches are clearly visible.
3.) He killed the body lines around the headlight and wheel opening.
4.) There are pinholes/fisheyes where filler was applied. Paint was globbed on in heavy coats, in attempt to cover, resulting in runs and big fisheyes.
5.) Paint is dry coats on the rest of the fender. I don't believe that there is sufficient coverage to facilitate color sanding and buff. If there is, I don't believe it will tolerate a second buffing without burning through the paint.
6.) He painted right up to the stripes, which were undermasked, now the stripes need to be replaced.
In general, the whole repair is of first semester high school auto body quality.
When I called him out on his workmanship, his response was, "I'm just a poh mobile guy. I don't got nice tools. I ain't got a nice spray gun. I don't got a spray booth." He said the best he could do is return 40% of my coworker's money, because he doesn't want to go out of pocket on this job.
It appears that everywhere he touched needs to be stripped, to remove his poor quality work. Is there a way to just strip down to the original paint, trying to preserve the original paint?
AAA, my insurance company, is always less-than helpful when it comes to protecting their insured (me).
Had I been able to sell the car, before this happened, I could have lived with taking a $20K loss, selling it for just what I owe still. Any guesses on how much this car would be devalued with the previously mentioned hack job?
I have been detached from paint and body work for a good 25 years now, so I don't know what the current technology is. Is it as bad as it sounds, or am I missing something?
I'd really appreciate some input from the industry professionals. Does the whole car have to be repainted for black to look right?
Are there any financial avenues available or do I just have to eat this?
Thank you for any thoughts or ideas. I apologize for my tone, I'm really struggling with this. Also, I can't seem to be able to post any pictures, not that I want to, I just don't want the damage to be the only thing I see when I look at my car.
