The body shop is still painting the center. Do you like it better silver or black.

Black




Silver




if i keep silver i will have the edges painted black to tone it down. the flat edges the are on each side.

 

Doug, any way for them to paint the horizontal lines silver and keep the rest black? I think that'll look good and keep the continuation of the lines from the foglight surrounds.

 

thats my thought, and thats what im going to have them do.

 

Definitely go silver, and if you can do the black around it, i think it would look awesome and match well with the grill.

 

Hey Doug,

Yeah painting it black will match what's already there for the foglamps. Shouldn't be too hard. Could even be done by hand with some model paint instead of masking & spray painting. Looks good Glad to see your car is nearly done. Hey I have no cell reception BTW.

 

Do it

 

doug, i think the silver is better, but it depends lols, maybe if u paint the inside of ur star silver it look good too?

 

This is an excellent suggestion! It will keep the flow going from end to end.

 

Silver to match the evo grille and black to match the Citron grille. Looks great.

 

i voted silver

 

silver

 

my plan is to keep it silver and do the trim in black to keep the flow with the fog light area. that is what i will be working on tonight in my garage.

 

on your car.... sliver, esp, cause you did your lower grill silver.

 

definitely silver

 

was this meant for the green/silver vote?

 

Green, paint it body color

 

Looks Great!, Silver

 

i think green body color would be too much, even for my car.

 

Doug, what's the final verdict? You rollin' in your car yet?

 

no, i went to get it, the bumper wasnt sitting right. they wanted to put shims or something in it. i told them that was unacceptable. they told me the other pieces like headlights, etc must have been redesigned. i got the epc info, faxed it to them with part numbers and found out they used 2003 mounting brackets. anyhow, they didnt order the 2005 mounting brackets. they will be in tomorrow at 10:30AM. trust me i want to get this done.

sad when you have to do their job.

 

WTH?...Man, they didn't charge you extra for painting the grille did they? Was that done properly, at least?

 

they are taking $150 off the price i was going to pay.

i have been fighting over the alignment of the bumper and driverside headlight. it isnt much, about 1/4" but it hasnt sat right. look at the top pic, you can see the gap between the bumper and hood. it is more than it should be. most people i guess would accept this. i, myself will not. if you didnt know the car, it would look ok. but i know that everytime i got out of my car i would see this and drive myself to the madhouse. so i refused to sign for the car. i would go in every day and they would have it shimed one way or another and in some cases it would look better (still not the way it should) or even look worse. i told them, i come in here every day, i have helped supply part numbers, parts, etc. i am not the type of person you can slap together the car and not have it the the way it was or should be. i know the car isnt new, but there is no reason, if they fixed it right, they couldnt get the car to look right. they insisted the fenders, headlights, etc must have been reshaped, and i was loosing leverage since i had the new bumper installed anyhow, i got to the point where i was going to accept the car, but suspected the mounting brackets. steve told me that on his epc the mounting brackets were different for a 2005. so i thought if they didnt order them, then this may explain why the bumper doesnt sit right. i called the body shop this morning, they checked and had installed the old brackets. i called Hoehn, gave them the p/n for left and right 2005 bracket, had them fax me the EPC, i then faxed the body shop and provided the part numbers, and a copy of an email i sent to the body shop dated oct 3, showing what parts are required for the 2005 install, specifically brackets. they called Hoehn, are getting the brackets FedEx'd from the east coast, will be in tomorrow by 10:30, will install them and i should be on my merry way! i hope!

trust me i have pretty much given up hope on any body shop. mercedes didnt want to do the upgrade, a private shop doesnt listen, understand, and/or care about quality of work.

i cant wait to end this saga!

 

I know exactly what you're talking about, Doug! I was the same way with my MX-6 before and I definitely see the slight fitment issue that you're referring to (it would bother me too). Thank God you were able to figure out that they had used the old brackets.

Well, it'll all be resolved by today (hopefully). Make sure you take pics once you've driven out of the body shop and free/clear!

 

dude, sad thing is im still awake. i cant sleep, ive been mulling over this **** in my head. good thing i dont have to work today!

im just really upset with the body shop. i guess they expect some people to sign off on a job 98% complete. i am not one of them, and i looked close at the paint, panels, alignments, got on my hands and knees and looked and at the lower plastic panels, popped the hood, etc. i would point stuff out, and they would fix it. this bumper/driver headlight issue just hasnt stopped and i will not accept it until it has been fixed right.

the paint i could accept not beeing faded perfectly, the rest of the car is nearly 3 years old. but there is no reason the panels can not, and should not line up.

 

Dude, you're approaching it the right way, bro. After all, you are paying them, so they need to do it right. Better off having them do it right and take longer, than them doing it quickly but having a lot of issues.