Paintwork Repair Question

[diaz101]

Hi All,

I've just had a paint repair on my Indium Grey, which I looked after and used good products etc. when detailing it and I'm pretty disappointed at the finish and the response of the repairer.
The vehicle was broken into and the passenger windows smashed, they also damaged the rubber door surrounds trying to get in and when the windows were replaced the idiot who did the job managed to scratch the rear quarter panel through the lacquer into the paint, anyways, the insurance approved repairer took the car in and had it for 5.5 days,I get a call 3 days in saying that they're not happy with the finish and want to do it again, so I have to accept, finally call them up to ask about the car and was told its ready, go to pick it up and......the paintwork doesn't match 100% on the passenger door which has been resprayed to the rest of th evehicle(why i don't know as it wasn't marked), it's darker, has a slight ripple in it and it definitely looks like its been resprayed, there was also some contamination caused by foreign objects which were still stuck to the door,they didn't glue the rubber window / roof trim on so its peeling away and isn't fitted properly either, I've driven 15 miles so far!, the interior fixing for the wing mirror hasn't been replaced properly and road noise has increased,they've also left dirty finger prints on the A pillar interior, and to top it all off the door hasn't been refitted properly as the quarter panel / door doesn't line up on the horizontal line and they didn't even respray the quarter panel, they just tried to polish it out it seems, oh and they broke a panel in the boot and left glass on the passenger seat.

I have complained, and to be fair, they have agreed to rectify the faults, however given the response "the contamination will buff out, and of course you call tell its been painted, you will" and the fact they have already tried to fix it once, I'm not that keen on them going anywhere near it.

Spoken to my insurance company who are going to investigate, but its a bit ominous that when I call them up they even mentioned the name of the repairer as soon as I said I have a complaint,I didn't say a thing about the name or my vehicle index.

Anyway, I just wanted to know what other people think of what the standard of paintwork should be after a repair (I did work in a car coachworks when I left school, so I know a little bit about what it should and shouldn't look like, and once watched someone create a new panel for a Porsche 356 speedster out of sheet metal!) and the attitude of this "National" repairer, who may read this as the workshop foreman owns a Roc himself, if you are, then you should know better!

What do you guys think?

[maisbitt]

Unless a car is old and so has been subject to some fade, it should be relatively easy to get a colour match. Yours is how old? Just around a year old i'm guessing?

When a garage has done a crap job like yours, chances are it isn't a one-off and the remedial work will be crap. As many people know - I had a similar story to yours with an old Golf. Oily handprints on the headlining, items stolen/lost from the boot, metal filings inside (where they cut in the new rear quarter pnel presume), and a poor preparation to teh new rear quarter panel coupled with a paint job so thin the rear wheel arch rusted up every 3 months. 4 sets of remedial work later and I got shot of teh car for my first Roc.

Try and get the insurer to let you take it somewhere else or at least inspect the workmanship.

It seems bad that teh insurance company are fully aware of the body shop's shortcomings and yet continue to use it as an approved repairer.

I had a panel replaced on my (then) 5 month old Rising Blue Roc, and the paint finish on the new panel is perfect - you can get a perfect paint finish from a good repairer.

As for the door ripple - maybe they dented it, beat it out and then resprayed the door? Can't imagine the paint having a noticeable ripple in it unless it had been dented and straightened out.