Bodyshop advice needed.......

[shanksy]

Hi all,
The day finally arrived on Friday for me to take my W124 coupe in for partial respray.
I had fully prepped the new panels (passenger door and front wing) plus both rear wheelarches and a few other small areas.

I chose the bodyshop due to them doing some good work on my drivers side front wing, which was replaced when someone left their handbrake off a couple of years back now. My car is red so I was impressed with the colour match and blending in with the rest of the paintwork.

The guy suggested his guy do it as a 'homer' so it would be £20 an hour as opposed to £32 + vat through the books. He quoted me £300 which I thought was a little bit steep (costs were factored in at £100, I can only see about 7 hours labour in there at the most)

Anyway, I went to pick it up today and i'm really disappointed with the quality of the finish.
The 2 new panels are fine, however both rear quarter panels have lots (and I mean lots - I counted about 15 on one side) of blemishes which look like small dings where the paint has failed to cover small dots and the paint has run around them. Hard to explain but when looking along the line of the panel they are extremely visible and it looks terrible.

The guy couldnt offer any explanation other than maybe they were wax marks and that they should flat polish out.
From the depth of the 'dings' I am very sceptical as to whether this will work.

I have refused the car and insisted he try a flat polish to see if it works, if it doesn't I am not sure what the next step will be.

Anyway, sorry for almost writing a book but my question is if anyone with bodyshop experience knows what may have happened.
Also am I entitled to insist he redo the work from scratch if that is what is required ?

Appreciate any advice from anyone who has been in a similar situation

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Any photos?

 

[zenman63]

Sounds like silicone, very common with bad prep work.
It will need wet sanding to see if they come out, if there right through then repaint.

There a painters worst enemy.

 

[MB-BTurbo]

So in other words these guys dont know what they are doing or know exactly what it is and trying to fob you off? Either way if you have passed £300 their way thats not goo enough.

 

[nick mercedes]

The guy suggested his guy do it as a 'homer' so it would be £20 an hour as opposed to £32 + vat through the books. He quoted me £300 which I thought was a little bit steep (costs were factored in at £100, I can only see about 7 hours labour in there at the most)

Cheap job turned out to be a cheap job?

At £100 labour they were never going to put much effort in.

 

[BillyW124]

pics would be good

 

[Barry-p]

Does sound a lot like silicones if he has put a good qty of material on the job you should be able to flat and polish a lot of it out. If not the only way is to re paint.
I can't believe he would let a job go out the door like that and then not even no what they are talking about to explain what the problem is.
Hope it works out for you

 

[shanksy]

Update -
Had a call this morning from the guy who said he wasnt able to spare any time today after all so I could come and collect the car.

I have not paid him any money as yet and he had forgotten even what he quoted me anyway.
So I told him he quoted £250

The phone on my camera is not great and its quite hard to get it to show up on a pic anyway but i'll take a few pics tomorrow with the proper camera and see how they come out to upload.

He's basically said it would be better if I get my new door and wing panels (which have no issues as I did the prep work on those) put on the car then he'll flat polish the whole car to try and rectify the situation.

In the meantime i've obviously got the car back to use and he hasn't asked for any money. He seems like a nice enough guy but I get the impression he just rushed the job and come unstuck.

If I can get those pics uploaded tomorrow i'd be keen to know peoples opinions on them.

 

[Barry-p]

I don't think he could ask for money if the job isn't right. Yes with painting there is a lot of things that can and will happen its how you deal with them is the issue.
If any customers of mine every has a problem all work is corrected foc so he should do the same even if you have to do the job again.
I'll be interested to see the pictures

 

[shanksy]

Cheap job turned out to be a cheap job?

At £100 labour they were never going to put much effort in.

Maybe I didn't make that clear enough, the costs factored in were £100 and the remaining £200 was labour.
That gives him 10 hours labour which is more than ample to flat off a door, wing and 2 rear quarters.

The work was due to be done last weekend but on the Friday I was due to take in I called to check what time he was open til and he explained he'd forgot about it !
Not impressed at the time and this week he said he may not have time to finish in the weekend and would rather wait another week if I needed the car on the Monday. I said it wasn't a problem if it run over a couple of days which is why it went in this weekend. This is why I think he has just rushed the job with being busy.

 

[shanksy]

pics

Ok, these are the best I can do unfortunately......... think its time to upgrade the camera !

 

[shanksy]

pic 4

 

[shanksy]

Update :

The bodyshop guy had agreed to try and rectify the problems and the overall orange peel finish i'd been left with. He suggested once I had fitted the sprayed door and wing panels he would machine polish (which we disagreed on the likelihood of it working) or respray if necessary.

I've now built up the new door panel with the locks, window, trim etc and fitted both this and the wing.
Dropped the car off to him yesterday for him to look at today..........

He rang at 5.45pm to say he'd finished and I could come and collect. When he asked if I would have the cash I told him i'd rather inspect it tomorrow in daylight and could then drop the money off to him Monday.

He then said i'd have to collect the car tomorrow then as he wouldn't release the car until he had his cash.

This may all be irrelevant if I turn up tomorrow and the finish is now satisfactory, but if he has not sorted it (or made it worse by machine polishing edges down to primer) I'm not sure where I stand on getting the car back without paying.

Has anyone else had any experience in this field ?

Cheers

 

[paulC180]

You are both on dodgy ground, you wanted a cheap job, which he has done, you paid him cash. He has more than likely avoided duty, and you have taken part in it too. If you would have paid him and got an invoice then its a different matter. I dont see you have a leg to stand on, if he says tough, I'm not doing any more, then you are stuffed. If you have an invoice then all well and good. But little you can do, a cheap job is a cheap job. I would assume an expensive job is via, an approved merc body shop. I dont mean to sound rude, but I have been down this road with people in my trade. People have to pay tax and Vat it is the law, I have been offered cash many times, I reply you can pay cash or cheq, either way I have to pay vat and tax. It protects you both.

 

[shanksy]

No offence taken, this all has the nasty whiff of 'lesson learned' about it

 

[shanksy]

Just to be clear though, I never asked for a cheap cash job, it was suggested to me. Not that that helps in any way.

 

[paulC180]

Just to be clear though, I never asked for a cheap cash job, it was suggested to me. Not that that helps in any way.

But in all fairness, you knew what he meant

 

[shanksy]

I'm not always the brightest spark but I can't really plead ignorance on that one !

 

[pwright6666]

Can anybody help I want to take off my mirror body casing from my c class 200 sport to re paint them but don't know how to get the body off . Regards paul

 

[shanksy]

Just as a final note I picked up the car weekend before last and he'd machine polished the new panels (door and wing) and resprayed both rear quarters.
All now done to a good standard so lots of hassle but eventually happy with the result.