Lessons learned.
I started my “mod” journey with my 200 coupe 6 speed in March of 2013. The plan was to upgrade engine performance, suspension, brakes, wheels and tires, re-do the entire interior in leather, add front and rear spoilers, wide rear quarter panels, wide front fenders, rear brake vents and duct work and side skirts. Then have the entire car repainted the original black.
Fast forward to Aug 2016 and I finally take the car home on a flatbed and start the process of sorting through all the things left unfinished, broken, or missing.
The list:
• Coil overs are set so low that the clearance in the rear and front from tire to inner fender is less than one-half an inch. The car cannot be driven as such. Manage to build some ramps from staggered 2x12 and get a low profile jack with a cross beam under the front cradle and adjust the fronts. Then manage to get another low profile jack without the cross beam under one side of the rear and get the rear up first one side at a time up on the ramps then get the cross beam to raise it up enough for jack stands and adjust the rear coil overs.
While up on stands notice the following:
• The front sway bar, end links, bushing clamps and bushings are missing.
• The center OEM air dam (the one that directs the air to the radiator) is on backward and virtually just sealing the space where air is supposed to be flowing to the radiator. Removed it for now.
• The front inner fender panels that enclose the rear of the front fender (where the computer is located) are missing.
• The air deflection panels for the cove vents are missing.
• There are no two lug nuts the same on any of the wheels.
More issues noted so far:
• The hood (aftermarket) is separating. (After numerous emails with the manufacturer he is replacing the hood, but I will have to eat the cost of re-prepping and having it painted to match.)
• The side skirts and front spoiler were not mounted, though painted, because the body shop felt the car was too low. No problem other than they did not bother to tell me this until they were ready to give the car back as “completed”.
• The rear splash guards for the rear quarter panels were not installed. The shop said they could not make them fit, though everyone else I have talked to said they used the same pieces with just a little bit of modification.
• The interior is filthy even though they charged for a complete detail. The interior all pieces, seats, carpet, everything is brand new which I provided for install.
• The driver’s side newly covered sill piece has 2 of the 4 clips that hold it in place broken off.
• The piece that covers the overhead portion of the rear hatch is broken on one side and will not fit flush.
• The new leather dash has white overspray on it.
• The new custom covered leather Corbeau A4 seat, passenger side recline mechanism is broken.
• The driver’s side seat had one of the plastic seat belt slot covers broken and the plastic cover for the recline mechanism is missing.
• The door panel reflectors were not installed.
• The passenger side door switch is broken.
• The rear quarter panel marker lights are not installed and one is missing. It looked like they attempted to install one marker light but there are multiple holes drilled and I cannot locate the harness in the rear panel that attaches to the marker light.
• The radio rear back up camera supplied by me for install with the new Kenwood double din radio is apparent wired (best I can tell) but not installed just lying in the rear hatch center storage compartment under the carpet.
• The radio comes on but will shut off if you turn on the fans for the vents or the AC (which is not now cooling and turns on for a brief second and shuts off). If you have the vent fan running and hit defrost, the radio come back on.
• The battery (brand new Optima Red Top) will not hold a charge but I suspect that what’s going on with the radio there is a constant drain on it somewhere.
• The struts that hold up the rear hatch were missing the clips that secure the struts to the hatch mounting posts.
. Driver's side windshield wiper arm is missing as are both nuts and nut covers.
. Driver's side sun visor missing, passenger side is broken. These were new replacements.
. Cabin temp sensor (the one next to the ignition key) missing, the harness connector was just hanging out of the hole in the knee bolster.

After washing the car I noticed that a microfiber towel would snag all over the car while trying to dry it. Using the baggie test you could feel what seemed like the entire English language vocabulary was inscribed in braille over the car and windows. Obvious overspray, though I was told the cars was wet sanded and waxed after the paint had cured.
Sorry for the long post but I write this just to give a lessons learned perspective. Which are as follows:
• First, if you have the time, space, and skills then do all this work yourself. No one and I mean no one will take care of your car like you will
• Don’t believe in a one shop can do it all hype. Most shops can be very good in one aspect, not all. I trusted and had no reason not to, two shops to complete all that I wanted. Both shops came highly recommended and I do not believe that anything here was done maliciously. They both are really nice guys but both lack organization, attention to detail, and both I think overestimate the capability of their shop and their employees. So the lesson is segregate your mods to specialty shops who deal only in the mod you are wanting to do.
• I spend a significant amount of time out of the country and had to depend on the shops to complete the work and send the car to the other shop for work. So I was not able to view and verify what condition the car was in when it went from one to the other shops. DO NOT make this mistake. As now it is a he said she said issue. One shop saying that the parts were there and functional when they delivered the car to the other shop. That shop saying they were missing or broken when it arrived in their shop. I don’t really care but because I did not inspect myself and I have no way to know and I am stuck with replacing parts I have already bought once.
What is most frustrating is not the missing or broken pieces, but the fact that either shop would let the car go out as “complete” with all that is currently wrong and has to be corrected. I could live with, “hey we know some things have to be addressed and will get to them later” not “here you go, pay me”. I brought a car in, in its entirety and I supplied ALL of the replacement pieces, but a get back a car with missing pieces, broken pieces, and only have myself to blame.
So hopefully some others can benefit from my mistakes. I am currently in the process of trying to correct all these issues myself, but if I have to get other professional help you can be assured I will pick a shop for that aspect only and be there every step of the way to assure it's done right.

 

Holy smokes, that's a lot of issues/work. Gonna subscribe and see how this plays out.

 

wow... what shop did all of this and how long was it there?... stories like this are why I'm so hesitant to have any body mods done to my car... I can take care of all the mechanical work but I don't know any body guys that I could trust to leave my car there and not have to worry about it being messed with or them screwing it up... if something like that happened to me I would not be nearly as nice about it as some others might be... I hope for the best from here on out, experiences like this can really ruin your passion for this hobby

 

subscribed

 

Yeah, it's been a nightmare. I won't name the shop(s) until I get their responses. Candidly I am so fed up that even if they come up with the parts I will just install myself. I really don't want to put the car back anywhere other than my own garage.

 

Three and 1/2 years of vendor repair with little or no oversight seems a bit odd. Sounds like no one really cared about the car.

 

No, not repairs, upgrades and customization. It was not the time involved it was the end results that is disappointing. Again, a lot of the work was fine, but other parts were left obviously unfinished or not done at all. If it was just a matter of the shops asking for more time to do it right I would not be as frustrated. As I stated, had I been able to shepherd it through things would have been different. My work does not allow that so that is my fault, not a matter of not caring. It looks like the shops are willing to step up to make things right so I will give them the chance to do so.

 

OK - change the words to "upgrades and customization" - 3-1/2 years is still a ridiculous amount of time to trust a car to any third party without taking a personal interest on a routine basis to ensure the performance meets the expectations of the contract or the owner. The bed has been made and I can't provide a lot of sympathy. Not trying to pick a fight here. You may have some legal recourse but not sure of the position you've established. Good luck.

 

So you have missed the entire point of the thread. I am not looking for sympathy or advice legal or otherwise. I explained that I, because of circumstance, could not give the project the attention that I should have. My fault, and the lesson learned. I was only giving the benefit of my experience to others in the hope that they would not do the same. I will either get the shops to finish the car correctly or I will. So no luck is needed, but thanks.