mbonness

OK so I just got my car back from the dealer body shop yesterday, they had to remove and repaint the rear bumper to fix the cracked paint from where it was hit by a truck. They brought me out to inspect the paint job and here is the way the conversation went:

Me: Looks like we have some orange peel going on down here.
Them: They come that way from the plant.
Me: Yeah I know the factory paint has orange peel but not like that.
Them: Why don't you bring it back next week and we'll wet sand it and buff it out.
Me: OK.
Them: The guy who sprayed it is one-handed, he broke his arm yesterday.
Me:
Them: We can detail it for you if you want.
Me: No thanks.



So it looks like I have effectively traded spiderwebbing for orange peel. Sigh...

supercoolsix

i would take it back and make them do it again.. the paint looks "bubbly"

VET4LES

Don't settle for it. You paid good money to have it done right. They can get another painter. A broken arm takes at least 6 weeks to heal, I'm sure they will not wait for him.

ZeusC6

As long as they don't wetsand through the clear which is easily done and hard to see if it is done until its too late usually.
Make sure the body man has two arms that work also.

beaversstonehaven

Unacceptable!

JmpnJckFlsh

Yeah...One-armed trainee, at that. Looks like it also has a big booger...right in the bend where that dip in for the license plate turns back flat. As someone said, they might go through the clear trying to fix that. They have some remedial work to fix that booger (relative to simply sanding and buffing)...I think they're going to have to re-paint it.

He knew it wasn't right...He just thought he would run that lead kite past you to see if it would fly. You never know; some people have a high BS recognition threshold.

mnmvette

Definitely unacceptable!! I would have it repainted rather than wet sand. At the very least, get them to commit to repaint if the wet sand doesn't meet your satisfaction. Good luck!!

nuvetteowner

Make sure the body man has two arms that work also.

Garrett W

Thats bullsssit. I would be pissed. Any respectable auto body shop would re do it so you shouldnt have a problem.

nuvetteowner

actually that looks like there is plenty enough clear on it ,that is why it is like that,I recently wet sanded my own car where I scratched it on the fender. The job came out perfect,just have to be careful do a little at a time buff it,do more,buff again.

2005ArcticWhite

ryshla3

Sorry guy, but that looks horrible. I see cars being repaired everyday as I'm an adjuster and that is bad. Does this dealership have a body shop on site? I cringe when I hear people say they are taking their cars to a "dealer". Even people with Hyundai's. Why? I know of just a few dealers that actually own a piece of a bodyshop. Yes, they will take your car for repair etc., but 98% of dealers have no financial interest/ownership of a body shop. A collision business needs special licenses and permits for spray booths and other eccentricities related to hazard waste. What usually happens is the dealer takes your car and subs it out to a really great place (read: that does it dirt cheap for the dealer) and the dealer can keep some of the profit from the payment they accept from the customer. Remember they are dealers, you know middle men. I can't say for sure this was the case with the original poster but it still mystifies me why people bring their beloved autos to a dealer, even when explained to them that dealers don't actually do the work. Yes they tell they trust the dealer, but really how can they say that without even seeing the surroundings of the actual repair facility much less the results of that particular business' work. After being confused on the matter at least at the end of the day I can say "it's not my car." I should start taking pics of how cars are really repaired while the're in the shop. What people are told and what gets done is another story. You wanna talk about controversy on this site. Any way hope the dealer rectifies this for the O.P. I would have not paid them and left the car their until it was done right.

Dave Tracy

I would be very concerned about this shop. For them even to consider this a finished job on a $50+ car is unbelievable.

mbonness

Thanks for the feedback guys, pretty much echoes me and my wife's sentiment about the subpar paint job and I will be definitely going back to have it remedied as was promised to me by the damage appraiser and I have a signed note from him.

BTW, my dealer does have a dedicated collision shop with a paint shop on site and they don't contract out paint work. I had heard from one of my club members that this dealer did a good job repainting his C5 so I thought it would be OK to have them do my rear bumper. In retrospect I should have taken it to a different auto body which I have used before with better results. Oh well, live and learn...

ryshla3

BTW, my dealer does have a dedicated collision shop with a paint shop on site and they don't contract out paint work. I had heard from one of my club members that this dealer did a good job repainting his C5 so I thought it would be OK to have them do my rear bumper. In retrospect I should have taken it to a different auto body which I have used before with better results. Oh well, live and learn...[/QUOTE]

Best wishes.

JmpnJckFlsh

In order to look right, that booger (nib, glob) in that corner must removed. If they try to "block" it down without cutting it down first with a nib file, they will cut through the few mils of clear before they ever get close to getting that big hunk level. Trying to use a nib file in that concave corner will also be nearly impossible without deeply scratching the paint on either side of it. (Done that! ) Using a flat, hard block on the rest of it...not a problem.

BTW, the presence of orange peel does NOT mean it has a lot of clear on it...it may mean it was sprayed at less than recommended pressure with heavy catalyst. The lack of gloss around the license frame leads me to believe this small job was given to an aspiring trainee to get some booth experience...the customer should never have been called until this job was redone.

Z0SLIK

Yep!!

mbonness

OK so I went back to the dealer collision shop today to talk to them, met with the original damage appraiser and pointed out the flaws, he agreed it was a lousy paint job and they made an appointment for me to bring it in next week to get it fixed. They said they sprayed on 3 coats of clearcoat so hopefully that will be plenty enough for buffing out the orange peel. Also they will give me a loaner for the 3-4 hours they said it would take to work on it. I have a commitment from them to repaint the entire bumper again if it doesn't come out right this time.

One thing which disturbed me a little bit was the damage appraiser noticed another section of the bumper where he said the paint looked "a little dry", and I noticed the area he was looking at was just flat black with no gloss or orange peel at all, so I don't know if they totally missed this section when they were spraying the clear or what (this is the section of the car near where the spiderwebbing was so they had to strip the paint down to the primer in this area) I am going to see if I can grab a picture of this to get your guys' expert opinion on that one since I don't know what it would look like with just the primer.

BTW, you guys are good, I have a much better closeup of that ugly "booger" (which they said will buff right out) but I didn't even have to post it and you spotted it right away. This forum is great

PAVette

Guitarstar

Orange Peel???

You've got the whole Grove there, Make them pay for a pro paint shop.