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So, I recently had my hood and bumper repainted due to landscaping kicking dirt, rocks, and other debris against my damn E550 and nicking the hell out of the paint. When I picked up the car I noticed there were already a TON of swirl marks on the fresh paint (across the whole hood, not just a spot here or there), but I decided that since it was fresh out of the shop I would try to polish it out myself. Once I got home and I was cleaning up their "wash" job and I noticed a ton of tiny dents in the paint, like popped blisters or bubbles.
(You can actually see two on the last picture, if you look closely.)
I sent the shop guy pictures and took the car back today and his response was basically "all paint jobs will have this". I know for certain that's not true but I wanted to get the opinion of some other people. Am I being hypersensitive? Do all aftermarket paint jobs have this issue and I'm just wrong? Do I need to tell him to just repaint it? He did tell me that he guarantees his work... and I feel like if *I* did any work that looked like this it wouldn't ever leave my shop.
It's either one of two things. Fish eyes on the clear coat due to oily surface (hood) or contaminated spray gun/line or the hood had chips and they just threw paint/clear coat over them without covering them properly. Either way, I would take the vehicle back and have them redo the work.
It's either one of two things. Fish eyes on the clear coat due to oily surface (hood) or contaminated spray gun/line or the hood had chips and they just threw paint/clear coat over them without covering them properly. Either way, I would take the vehicle back and have them redo the work.
100% agree - that's not a good job. Heavy swirl marks are often the result of not wet sanding to even out the clear coat and just relying on buffing with heavier compound. Looks like fish eye to me as well.
My car door was bumped in a parking lot about a year and a half ago, requiring door replacement. The paint job applied was absolutely perfect. It's not difficult for a shop to do a good job.
Thanks guys. I didn't think I was being unreasonable, but the shop guy sure did so I was beginning to doubt myself. He's got my girl right now, I just hope he doesn't mess it up worse.
“All paint jobs will have this”, coming from my shop.
Yup, that's about the gist of it. **** I'm angry. I know he's not going to correct it. He didn't want to repaint the whole thing and I'm worried that if I push it he's going to mess it up worse. Anyone in CA know if this would fall under something that the BAR would handle?
1) 3 years ago, we had a “rock spray” on our hood hood - insurance claim on the SL. Faded out over the 1/4 panels and also fixed the clear coat failure on the driver side mirror. A flawless paint job.
Ok (1) very tiny bubble popped on the hood - I filled that after noticing - with clear nail polish.
2) Just before Christmas some one backed into the corner of my E Class rear bumper so hard (in the parking lot at work) that when I got home (it was dark when I drove home) and opened the trunk to get something ... the first time I noticed ... the trunk would not latch shut - everything was out of alignment.
This led to a new bumper and trunk lid dent repair ... all done flawlessly.
Same Paint Shop ... 2 different cars ... 3 years apart - 99.99% perfect.
This shop owner is full of BS & you should threaten to advertise and tell every one you can to run as fast as possible from his shop - Yelp? ... Google? ... FaceBook?
If he does not re-do your paint job to your complete satisfaction. If he does not respond to that / then he should be out of business.
In January I had my hood and front bumper repainted at a the local MB recommended shop due to stone and sand chips from a trip to Phoenix. Their first effort was less than satisfactory, but when I returned it for a wet sanding, they were able to correct all the imperfections. It ended up looking as good as a factory paint job. A month later I had a clear bra installed at the local Tint World just to provide an additional level of protection. It is barely visible with only a thin line that can be seen from a few feet away. So far, so good. I made a trip to south Florida in February and picked up no dents, dings or chips.
I would not be able to go to the same place if that happened.....you got a service, and paid for said service and are not satisfied........why doesn't said business owner cowboy up and stop being a fawking wuss??
In January I had my hood and front bumper repainted at a the local MB recommended shop due to stone and sand chips from a trip to Phoenix. Their first effort was less than satisfactory, but when I returned it for a wet sanding, they were able to correct all the imperfections. It ended up looking as good as a factory paint job. A month later I had a clear bra installed at the local Tint World just to provide an additional level of protection. It is barely visible with only a thin line that can be seen from a few feet away. So far, so good. I made a trip to south Florida in February and picked up no dents, dings or chips.
Be very careful about putting vinyl wrap or clear on non-factory paint applications, no matter how nice they look. In most cases the mfg won't warrant paint pull off on aftermarket paint applications.
Goddammit. So, this is the guy's "correction" of the paint bubbles.
And no, that's not wax or anything. Looks to me like someone went buck wild with wet sanding the ****ing paint job. This time I just straight up told him that it doesn't look good and to let me know when to bring it back in.
Oh yeah, that escalated quickly. Junior with the 60 grit is having a blast. It would be difficult to take the car back to him if it were me. Does he have a paint booth? Man, I hope you can get some satisfaction at the end of this.
Oh yeah, that escalated quickly. Junior with the 60 grit is having a blast. It would be difficult to take the car back to him if it were me. Does he have a paint booth? Man, I hope you can get some satisfaction at the end of this.
Yeah, totally know what you mean. The problem is if I don't have him fix it then I'm out the hundreds that I paid for this ****ty job, yanno? So I'm going to work on having him either fix it, or screw it up enough to have the Bureau of Automotive Repair get involved.
Yes, I agree with KEY08, this guy isn't able to complete your work.......you may have to sue for correct repairs.....elsewhere. Good luck to you, and at least it's just a car and not your right lung or something
Yes, I agree with KEY08, this guy isn't able to complete your work.......you may have to sue for correct repairs.....elsewhere. Good luck to you, and at least it's just a car and not your right lung or something
I can live without one of my lungs!
Okay okay. In the grand scheme of things it is minor, I agree with that. It's just BS that shops put out work like this and get away with it. I'm going to keep fighting it until I have to take legal measures. At least in California we have the BAR that we can have get involved. I'm not certain paint will fall under their purview, but I'll start there.
Also, since I have a (kind of crappy) dash cam I finally thought to check out the videos it caught while it was there. I pulled out two of interest and put them together. This is the day I picked up the car the first time (but a few hours before), when there were just the bubbles, before the sanding of the hood. (These are also in chronological order.)
To me it looks like the guy in the gray is pointing out something(s) to the painter, and then in the next clip he's looking at whatever he was pointing out. The fact that he's even seeing something and talking to him about it to me says the job is unacceptable. (I also really like how they're rubbing, hard, on the paint.)
Stop dealing with them. Share that daylight photo and tell them you want every penny back. Start over with a shop that comes highly recommend and check their references as well. I’m astonished
What's funny is that he has a good rating... On Yelp. But I should have known that the typical Yelper doesn't know two ****s about a good paint job. Though, he doesn't have many reviews. Maybe put those two together and that's my mistake. I'll look for a local car club and see what they recommend or something. But first I'm giving this guy one more chance. I know, I know. He hasn't earned it. I already told him I wasn't happy with it currently so he's expecting me, but I'll tell him what the alternative will be.
What's funny is that he has a good rating... On Yelp. But I should have known that the typical Yelper doesn't know two ****s about a good paint job. Though, he doesn't have many reviews. Maybe put those two together and that's my mistake. I'll look for a local car club and see what they recommend or something. But first I'm giving this guy one more chance. I know, I know. He hasn't earned it. I already told him I wasn't happy with it currently so he's expecting me, but I'll tell him what the alternative will be.
IMO that's a mistake taking it back. That car's a mess - they are grinding away at the clearcoat. From the pics I believe it needs to be re-painted, both base and clear.
IMO that's a mistake taking it back. That car's a mess - they are grinding away at the clearcoat. From the pics I believe it needs to be re-painted, both base and clear.
Yeah, that's what it looks like. When I got the estimate he said they would sand it and repaint it... so they would have replaced the clearcoat anyhow, no? (Sorry, I'm a little car stupid.) So if they went and ****ed it up they're just going to have to basically redo their whole work.
But, you're right. I'm basically tempting fate at this point. My luck is they'll screw up some unrelated part of the car.
Yeah, that's what it looks like. When I got the estimate he said they would sand it and repaint it... so they would have replaced the clearcoat anyhow, no? (Sorry, I'm a little car stupid.) So if they went and ****ed it up they're just going to have to basically redo their whole work.
But, you're right. I'm basically tempting fate at this point. My luck is they'll screw up some unrelated part of the car.
A very generalized overview of the paint application is surface prep/de-grease, primer/sealer, base color coat, clearcoat.
Primer is wet-sanded before color coat. No sanding on color coat. Wet-sanding on clearcoat followed by buffing with proper compounds to first smooth out the surface and then eliminate swirls. Note that the more the clearcoat is worked, the more of it is removed. A good shop knows how much they will remove to get to a final smooth protective layer.
^ And they need to be laying this down in a paint booth. I can see from your video they are spraying in a garage. All kinds of debris floats around in that hack setup.
06-06-2019, 06:04 PM
