JessicaH
09-05-2009, 03:23 PM
Hi everyone,
I need some advice dealing with something a lot of people come here to rant about--bad encounters with body shops.
At the end of June, I got a new paint job on my 1994 Acura Integra. The shop seemed reputable and I got a good deal. They gave the car back to me for a few days so the paint could set a bit before they wetsanded it (it was very hot and humid here). The car looked great and I was pretty happy. I didn't inspect it very closely since it wasn't finished. The only thing I noticed, the day I got it back, was a scuff mark below the right front turn signal. It wasn't very noticeable and I figured the mark was due to damage on the bumper that was there before. I took the car back to be wetsanded and had forgotten about the mark by that time. A couple of days later, I picked the car up. A quick look over revealed no major flaws, so I accepted the car. If I could go back in time and inspect the car more closely, I would.
First I noticed that there were some hazy spots on the hood. These were hard to see and I thought maybe I was just seeing things. I also noticed some pinholes due to, I assume, solvent popping. They were very small and you had to look pretty closely, so I tried not to let them bother me either. The most noticeable thing to me was the orange peel, which was more significant that I'd anticipated. After I noticed a blister on the right side mirror and a crack in the paint running along the roof trim, I decided to take the car back. The shop agreed to repaint the mirror, try to reduce the orange peel a bit more, and fix the crack. When I got the car back again, the mirror was fixed, but the other problems were only improved slightly. I inquired about the crack, worried that it would eventually peel. The manager assured me that there was a lifetime guarantee on the paint and if it ever peeled, he would fix it. They said that they didn't remove the trim because they wouldn't have been able to get it back on. I was annoyed, but I didn't want to be an annoying perfectionist customer, so I took the car.
A day or so later, I noticed the buffer swirls. As the glaze the shop had put on wore off, I saw them all over the car. This is when I decided to invest in the PC to correct the swirls myself; I didn't trust the shop with the car anymore. A few weeks went by and I started educating myself about paint correction, detailing, etc. The buffer swirls made me angry every time I saw them. One day I decided to call the shop to register my disappointment. The owner told me I just needed to put a good coat of wax on the car. This would have been funny, except for he wasn't joking. I told him that what I was going to have to do was polish the car, that wax wouldn't fix the problem. He stubbornly insisted, though, that waxing would fix the swirls and that they would put the wax on if I wanted them to. I declined and got off the phone, knowing that talking to the guy more would just infuriate me more.
A couple of weeks have passed and I'm about to start polishing the car. As I'm going over the paint, spot claying to remove bug residue, I noticed some more bubbling on the side mirror. Then, as I was running my microfiber cloth across the body line where the front bumper connects to the fender, I felt the cloth catch on something. I thought it was just a rough spot along the body line, but when I looked down at the cloth, I saw two flakes of paint. A piece of paint a little more than half an inch long and maybe a centimeter or two wide had come off, leaving bare metal. There had apparently been a tiny crack that the cloth caught on. I was horrified. I don't know what to do now. I'm afraid that the entire paint job was probably done shoddily with poor prep work (otherwise why so much peeling and cracking?). I don't want to even interact with the shop anymore, but this isn't fair.
HELP! What would you do?
P.S. I can post some pics tomorrow, but the family camera has been taken to a family reunion for the weekend.
I need some advice dealing with something a lot of people come here to rant about--bad encounters with body shops.
At the end of June, I got a new paint job on my 1994 Acura Integra. The shop seemed reputable and I got a good deal. They gave the car back to me for a few days so the paint could set a bit before they wetsanded it (it was very hot and humid here). The car looked great and I was pretty happy. I didn't inspect it very closely since it wasn't finished. The only thing I noticed, the day I got it back, was a scuff mark below the right front turn signal. It wasn't very noticeable and I figured the mark was due to damage on the bumper that was there before. I took the car back to be wetsanded and had forgotten about the mark by that time. A couple of days later, I picked the car up. A quick look over revealed no major flaws, so I accepted the car. If I could go back in time and inspect the car more closely, I would.
First I noticed that there were some hazy spots on the hood. These were hard to see and I thought maybe I was just seeing things. I also noticed some pinholes due to, I assume, solvent popping. They were very small and you had to look pretty closely, so I tried not to let them bother me either. The most noticeable thing to me was the orange peel, which was more significant that I'd anticipated. After I noticed a blister on the right side mirror and a crack in the paint running along the roof trim, I decided to take the car back. The shop agreed to repaint the mirror, try to reduce the orange peel a bit more, and fix the crack. When I got the car back again, the mirror was fixed, but the other problems were only improved slightly. I inquired about the crack, worried that it would eventually peel. The manager assured me that there was a lifetime guarantee on the paint and if it ever peeled, he would fix it. They said that they didn't remove the trim because they wouldn't have been able to get it back on. I was annoyed, but I didn't want to be an annoying perfectionist customer, so I took the car.
A day or so later, I noticed the buffer swirls. As the glaze the shop had put on wore off, I saw them all over the car. This is when I decided to invest in the PC to correct the swirls myself; I didn't trust the shop with the car anymore. A few weeks went by and I started educating myself about paint correction, detailing, etc. The buffer swirls made me angry every time I saw them. One day I decided to call the shop to register my disappointment. The owner told me I just needed to put a good coat of wax on the car. This would have been funny, except for he wasn't joking. I told him that what I was going to have to do was polish the car, that wax wouldn't fix the problem. He stubbornly insisted, though, that waxing would fix the swirls and that they would put the wax on if I wanted them to. I declined and got off the phone, knowing that talking to the guy more would just infuriate me more.
A couple of weeks have passed and I'm about to start polishing the car. As I'm going over the paint, spot claying to remove bug residue, I noticed some more bubbling on the side mirror. Then, as I was running my microfiber cloth across the body line where the front bumper connects to the fender, I felt the cloth catch on something. I thought it was just a rough spot along the body line, but when I looked down at the cloth, I saw two flakes of paint. A piece of paint a little more than half an inch long and maybe a centimeter or two wide had come off, leaving bare metal. There had apparently been a tiny crack that the cloth caught on. I was horrified. I don't know what to do now. I'm afraid that the entire paint job was probably done shoddily with poor prep work (otherwise why so much peeling and cracking?). I don't want to even interact with the shop anymore, but this isn't fair.
HELP! What would you do?
P.S. I can post some pics tomorrow, but the family camera has been taken to a family reunion for the weekend.