I just picked up my 69 vette from the body shop in mid July and now a month later some of th repairs are evident. The body shop says this is normal for vettes and that there was nothing he could do about it. By the way, the tab for the paint was $14600.00 . I dont think I was cutting any corners and he was highly refered. The paint job could not be better, but a couple pf the repairs leave something to be desired. He thinks that they are old repairs that had some adverse affects from baking the paint. What are your experiences with glass repairs and can they be done correctly?

 

For what you paid, he should have taken care of any prior body-work issues. They should have been visible to them when the car was stripped.

 

my son and i did it ourselves. 1st time too. we tok lessons at the shop. we had an 8" tear in the front fender. we "made" the corners for the L88 hood and we added 1" to the ps fender which appeared to be from another year vette because it never did match the bumper, and we filled several 'pin holes' in the fiberglass fender. We finished the car 1st of June. We still have a beautiful paint job with no repairs showing. My opinion is they did a bad job. for that kind of money they should have dug out all the old repairs and made them right if that is their argument.
This is the ripped fender...

 

If he had to do the repair in a week, then you are stuck. If you left it with him for several months, then it should be perfect.

Stripping the old paint would have revealed all old bodywork, and no paintman around would have painted over old repairs without telling you that he needed to repair those first (more $$) or you would have a mess.

Sounds like court time.

 

Sounds to me like he's trying to get out of doing the right thing. I would take it back and make them fix it if I were you. These days there's a lot you can do to hurt there reputation. If he cares at all about that, he should make it right.

 

You have any before and after pics??

 

I do have before and after but i have not figured out how to post pics

 

Posting pictures is easy. I assume the pictures are on your computer. Size them and crop them so they look good on yours first. You don't want to post pictures that end up being 20 inches wide.

Go to http://tinypic.com/

Click the Browse button to find the pictures on your computer.

Select the photo file and click the Open button.

Click the Upload button.

Copy the Image line that begins with IMG and ends with /IMG.

Open the Reply on here.

Paste the Image line in your message.

Repeat for each picture.

 

there is no way body work should be showing through in that little bit of time.

my corvette had exstensive body work done to it (every panel was cracked and shatterd) and 20 years latter, only some of the work is starting to show through.

 

Correct fiberglass repairs should not show through primer/paint.

 

Assuming this is color variation due to fillers under the paint:
Even old crappy repairs should be covered with epoxy primer or sealer
to keep them out of the new paint.

 

Falken,
There should be no bodywork showing thru. Saying it is from previous repairs is a pi$$ poor excuse. For what you paid it should still be perfect 10 years from now.
Most common reasons:
Using a laquer base primer. If he used red oxide laquer primer it will continue to dry and shrink for the next year. Start looking for sanding scratches showing thru. If it was sprayed extra thick for block sanding it will eventually crack and the paint will have a shattered glass apperance. Urethane is the only primer to use, i.e. K36. It is dried and done shrinking in a few days. It will also lock in fiberglass strands. The cost is three times that of laquer primer.
Using fillers instead of fiberglass. Best example is fender seams. Grinding down the old bonding adheasive and filling with bondo is not a proper repair. The bondo will shrink and the seam will reappear. Even worse is spot putty and polyester fillers. The type you don't mix any activator with. This will eventually shrink and seperate. They save the bodyman a lot of work and are cheap to use but is by no means the correct way to repair. I grind out the old adheasive all the way to the bonding strip and then fiberglass the entire seam. This takes several days of additional work but the repair is solid and permament and will never show thru or shrink.
Not allowing enough drying time. If solvents are used for wiping down, such as wiping a bare fiberglass fender with laquer thinner before spraying two coats of primer, and not allowing enough time for the solvents to completely evaporate out of the fiberglass. The primer or paint will lock in the solvent for awhile but it will entually work its way thru the paint. Bondo and fiberglass are a sponge to solvents and require additional drying time before spraying. Baking the area before spraying will speed up the drying time. Baking after spraying paint on a car that was not given enough time for the solvents to evaporate will also speed up the time for it to show thru the paint. Usually it will start out as very small bubbles and end up as blisters.
Sanding thru the primer to fiberglass just before painting and spraying the paint over the fiberglass. This happens quite often since it can delay a paint job by a full day. You'll end up with a ghost showing thru the paint or worse a dry spot that won't buff out.
These are my personal experiences and observations from 30 years of doing paint and body work on corvettes. I'm sure there are some people that will disagree on some points. I know there are new products on the market that also may make me incorrect on a few points. But I am a creature of habit and these are what have worked best for me.
Mike

 

Man, its reading stories like this, is why i've been procrastinating on gettin' a new paintjob.

 

For over 14K in a paint job, that thing should be flawless! Anything less and I would be knockin' on that guy's door. I don't buy this guys excuse that the repairs being evident are "normal for vettes". Hogwash! If that were true, then every vette off the assembly line would have "evident" body work or repairs. These bodies were assembled in pieces at the factory and they came out looking good. Go back to him and tell him that his work in not acceptable and to do it over.... properly.

 

Not normal, and if he won't stand behind his work, he's not reputable.

 

I had mine done about 3 years ago and I could not be happier with the results. I paid about $4,300.00 complete. The shop that did the work used a polyurethane and he had a few seams to repair. I remember the owner told me never, ever bake a fiberglass car so after he sprayed it in a HEPA filtered room and left it there for 3 days. Just an idea.

 

If you paid $14500 for paint it should be perfect for the next 10 years. Trackdogg is right on the money. If that car was painted right it should look like a million bucks. My car was painted 11 years ago and it still looks great. It has a couple of chips from road debris but no peeling, cracking, or other issues.

For the price you paid that car should have been stripped to bare fiberglass and any repairs that were not done correctly should have been corrected. He should have never painted over poor repairs because they will never get better only worse with time if not done properly.

He has got to do it over correctly. That is one of the most expensive paint jobs I have ever heard of so it had better be the best. No excuses.

 

If he charged you that much money for a paintjob, you should never have a reason to complain, becasue the job should be "PERFECT"!!! He should have thrown in a night out on the town for you and your gal too.

 

I had my 70 stripped and painted. The shop made the entire body straight by board sanding using a minimum amt of filler. After 5 mos the paint and body are perfect with no old repair signs.
Fred

 

If you pay that kind of money, it should be perfect with no excuses. I had mine painted a year ago by a company that was proud of their work and did it right. It cost $4500, but I did the majority of the repair work and prep. After I let it set for several months, they did some final filling and block sanding, 3 coats of epoxy primer, 3 coats of paint and clear coat.

A year later, and it's still perfect. I'd take it back to them and make them do it over again at their expense, and if it doesn't come out right, it's court time....