[fleming23]

I had my car painted a little less than a year ago and have been battling to get the car finished at a level that meets my expectations ever since.

I went off the suggestion of another Chevelle enthusiast and used a body shop a little over 1 1/2 hours away as he had his convertible done by them and at the time was having his truck finished (not sure he is happy that it still isn't done.) I dropped the car off with the body shop and gave them just over a 30 day deadline to have the car repaired & repainted so that I could make it to Chevelle-a-bration 2011. They ended up sanding the car down to bare metal as shown here. (These were taken by the shop, I never got a chance to inspect the car as I was busy with work and could never make it by the shop as it was approx 2 1/2 hours from my office to the shop.)

All seemed good as they finished the car the weekend before CB11 and I was a happy camper.

While at CB11 I noticed some weird discoloration in a few spots on the paint so once I returned home I dropped the car back off with the painter to have it looked at. Bother quarters & roof were resprayed and back home it came. There was over-spray absolutely everywhere this time and halos & swirls ALL over the paint. There were areas that were clearly not wet-sanded and others where there appeared to be just a light dusting of clear. Not what I paid for but I was so tired of taking my car back and forth I thought I could just deal with it for the time being and address the runs, solvent pops, & other imperfections at a later date.

Well this winter I decided to swap out my small block for a big block which left the car on a rack for a few weeks. This gave me the opportunity to see the car from a new angle at which point I noticed a few small bubbles in the paint behind the rear passenger quarter. Sent the photo to the body shop, asking what they thought and they said "Bring it back, we can fix it", been there, done that... During the final stages of the motor swap I needed to roll the rear quarter lip to fit the 295/50 tires I put out back as they had a slight rub. As soon as the roller touched the quarter a crack went through the paint as the BONDO started cracking. We stopped and called someone that only works on classics & does high end restorations. He took the car to his shop and began to probe around.

These are the results.....

Before

Photo showing bubble in quarter

And After

I should be absolutely pissed right now but I am not.... I think I am more disheartened and sad than anything. I feel like I was taken advantage of to some extent. It was not as if this car had no rust to begin with and the original body shop had already cut out a section of the driver door as well as a patch in the cowl so they were already making rust repairs. I was never told the quarter was bad or needed a patch, it was never brought to my attention. Instead it appears bondo was used to fill rust pin holes. Apparently the inner quarter & wheel housing are just as bad and were "repaired" the same as the outer quarter. They knew I wanted a perfect car with no rust and yet this is the level of work I got. I am sure I could take the car back to the shop that did the work but if this was what I got after 3 or 4 trips to them why would I want to trust it to them again? I know this is why many of you do work yourselves but I simply do not have the space, tools or even expertise to do work at this level.

What worries me most, what other short cuts did they take that I don't know about....

Anyway, I'll get it fixed and done so CORRECTLY this time and hopefully when Derrick is done with my car it will look 10 times better than before as he plans to wet sand everything and remove all the crap that was not done the first go-round.

John, if you read this, make sure you are very specific about what you want done on your truck! I imagine being closer helps as you can follow your progress along the way whereas I could not due to work and distance. I didn't mention the shop's name and don't plan on it so there is no need to go and tell them I posted this as I am done taking the car up there. It was a learning experience for me and led me to find the guy who has my car right now which I think will be better in the end for me.

Rant over,

Thanks for reading!

Eric

 

[CoolBlueGlow]

Eric,

I'm really sorry for your trouble. Very disheartening, but thanks for posting the pictures.



It looks like someone at body shop #1 wasn't thinking when they selected a talc-based body filler for use at a location where backside moisture was sure to infiltrate, leading to your problem. I expect they didn't treat the metal with conversion coating either. Even a simple epoxy primer would have helped. Bummer.

Maybe they were in too much of a hurry?

Systemic corrosion issues like these are not "one time" events. They happen because of the design of the car. Unless one mitigates the cause, or changes the conditions of the material at the point of corrosion, they will come back. This is the same as the rear window rust issue on Chevelles. I would have your #2 body shop look VERY closely at those rear window lower sections too.

Those Chevelle wheel wells are really prone to rust on the trailing edge. Call me crazy, but this is exactly why I put new quarters on my 66SS. What I had didn't look too bad, but they had the same problem...externally, at the trailing edge of the wheel wells. When I peeled off the old quarters, I did way over the top corrosion treatments of all the metal under there, sealing and drainage improvements and other corrosion prevention steps, precisely because of this kind of issue. Probably way over the top, but I can both own and sell the car with photographic evidence as to the precautions I took with the corrosion control.

(Speaking of RANTS, This is what drives me crazy about these TV reality shows where they slap classic and hot rod cars together on a super tight deadline. They are so fake, because NO steps are taken to deal with any of these very real issues. These fakirs do a disservice to the honest shops who want to do excellent work, and create a huge false impression of what can and can't be done on a budget in 30 days or less.)

Hope you get satisfaction from shop #1. IMO, they owe you more than an explanation. I don't think a reputable tech should have painted over this kind of problem at that particular location. Even though it would have been bad news, and even though it would have busted your 30 day completion window, he should have called you and said "we found lots of holes - we should replace the metal or they're going to come back and ruin your paint job". That should have been YOUR call ...NOT theirs. They obviously made the wrong call.



just my 2C



CBG

 

[fleming23]

Eric,

I'm really sorry for your trouble. Very disheartening, but thanks for posting the pictures.


Maybe they were in too much of a hurry?

Systemic corrosion issues like these are not "one time" events. They happen because of the design of the car. Unless one mitigates the cause, or changes the conditions of the material at the point of corrosion, they will come back. This is the same as the rear window rust issue on Chevelles. I would have your #2 body shop look VERY closely at those rear window lower sections too.


CBG

Thanks,

Yeah I am disappointed to find this but glad it is being fixed, I guess....

I am pretty sure I am going to have the shop pull the rear window because I am 99% sure they seam sealed a rust hole in the window channel in an attempt to stop a trunk leak. I imagine there will need to be new metal cut in there as well. Pretty sure the panel between the trunk & window is solid both on the outside as well as the inner panels.

One of these days I might get to enjoy my car for more than 1 week. Seems that is about how long I have it before it gets torn down again to fix or change something else.

 

[Raven1]

I dropped the car off with the body shop and gave them just over a 30 day deadline to have the car repaired & repainted so that I could make it to Chevelle-a-bration 2011. They ended up sanding the car down to bare metal as shown here.

All seemed good as they finished the car the weekend before CB11 and I was a happy camper.

I should be absolutely pissed right now but I am not.... I think I am more disheartened and sad than anything. I feel like I was taken advantage of to some extent.
Eric

First of all, I never commit to this kind of deadline demand on a job without seeing what's under the paint first. Or any job. They should have contacted you upon discovery. How much did you pay for the job? Or what did you tell them was your ceiling? Either way, the job was not handled correctly, perhaps by both parties. If someone wanted me top do a hack job like that I'd tell them to bring it to a butcher who does not care about his work.

Eric,

It looks like someone at body shop #1 wasn't thinking when they selected a talc-based body filler for use at a location where backside moisture was sure to infiltrate, leading to your problem. I expect they didn't treat the metal with conversion coating either. Even a simple epoxy primer would have helped. Bummer.

Maybe they were in too much of a hurry?
CBG

Ummm, they never should have used filler in the first place, talc or no talc. Replacement was required. I don't care how much metal prep your soaked it in, it was coming back.

 

[fleming23]

Put it this way, I paid more for the paint than I did when I initially purchased the car.....I did say I wanted to try to keep the job under 10k-12k if possible which, to me, seemed like more than enough to do what was needed in the allotted time frame.

I called and asked if it could be done if I dropped the car off on April 28th, 2011. This gave them until June 7th or 8th to have the car done. They said it would be tight but if I got the car to them that day they could get started and have it done. Was it tight on time, absolutely but I am not a paint & body man and I don't know the resources available to them or what their work load looked like so I took it at face value and let them have at it believing the car would be done correctly. I already knew about an issue in the driver door and they informed me of a rust issue in the lower cowl that they fixed so I don't understand why this was not mentioned unless they just ran out of time which....well makes it even worse. I was not trying to rush this car in and out of the booth just to meet a deadline. Yes, my goal was to have it done by a certain date but I never agreed to or suggested corners be cut to make that deadline.

Agreed about contacting me.... I would have been disappointed for sure but would never have said, just cover it so I get the car done on time.

 

[Raven1]

Not calling more than one place was your first mistake. No different than seeking different evaluations when getting surgery. Any place that commits to a deadline without stripping the car first, and then consulting with the customer should be avoided. I never operated like that.

 

[Raven1]

I did say I wanted to try to keep the job under 10k-12k if possible which, to me, seemed like more than enough to do what was needed in the allotted time frame.

That price went out the window with the rot discovered. The place practices poor business. Period. They took advantage of your naivite.

 

[BillsCamino]

Sorry to hear about this Eric. :sad:

 

[Jerry Briggs]

Eric, sorry to hear about your issues. Did you discuss that if any rust issues were discovered that they would call you? If so you should have recourse to seek compensation back from them. With a 30 day schedule you should have made at least a weekly trip to inspect even if it was that far away. Always loved the paint color and interior color on you chevelle and was looking forward to seeing all the improvements at the Peach State Show. Keep you head up!

 

[fleming23]

Eric, sorry to hear about your issues. Did you discuss that if any rust issues were discovered that they would call you? If so you should have recourse to seek compensation back from them. With a 30 day schedule you should have made at least a weekly trip to inspect even if it was that far away. Always loved the paint color and interior color on you chevelle and was looking forward to seeing all the improvements at the Peach State Show. Keep you head up!

I guess that may be a matter of debate.... There were known rust issues that were to be fixed. I told them I wanted the car "fixed" and when it was done to have a "show car finish" if there is such a thing. Did I specifically say, if you find rust in the quarters, fix it? No. But they also found rust in the lower cowl behind the fenders and fixed that so it would seem pretty evident that it was implied I didn't just want filler spread over the quarters and have it sprayed. I sent the shop an email earlier today and they said they told me the quarters were bad but I guarantee that did not happen during the body work stage or I would have done anything that was needed to fix the car. The only time I recall there being an issue is when I returned to pick up the car after everything was done and I noticed the rear quarter/bumper/deck lid/valence gaping was not nearly what I would have expected. At that point they mentioned how the quarters could have used more work, but that was all that was said, nothing about rust or pitting, etc. I did try to visit as often as I could but I think it was only maybe once or twice as I was slammed with work. The shop is about 1 1/2 hours north of my house and I work 1 hour south of home so it was always tricky trying to stop by and see progress.

It is done now and the money has exchanged hands. Lindsay and I did discuss if we should consider trying to seek any sort of monetary restitution for a breach of implied warranty but I have no desire to go through all that. The shop that did the work also said they could put in a patch if I wanted them to help but I am not taking my car back up there for any number of reasons listed in this thread, which I think is understandable.

Definitely was looking forward to the Peach State show this year but it seems I will miss it again. Last year the Chevelle was backed into at work the Friday before the show (which started this whole body work fiasco) and this year it obviously will not make it either. Another registration fee down the drain. I'll probably still come up and try to help work the show this year though.

 

[cheveslakr]

You're handling it with way more self control than I would.

I'd seek legal action. He said, she said would not stand in a court of law. If they practiced good business sense, an email was in order.


Jerry

 

[oktunes]

That's a shame when you think you have it fixed for good. There is just no way to repair rusted 1/4's with filler. We all know if you see a bubble in the paint, the rust inside working it's way out. The shop definitely should have contacted you and told you the deadline should be forgotten and the estimate was out the window also. Then they should have given you a new estimate for 1/4's, drops and outer wheel wells. No doubt it would have been another $3-$5 k, but at least you would only have had it fixed one time. Good luck getting it done right this time. Hope it lasts a lifetime when fixed right.