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I dunno. It needs paint and tires, maybe $1000 in other stuff. I'm gonna get it. Nobody try to stop me!
Dude, you should get that. A little mallet work and some Bondo and you'd be good. The front left tire even has some tread left.
When I got the S550, closing mechanism of the cup holder was broken. I used krazy glue(that I found in the center console) to fix it last night. Reinstalled it today, works like a charm.
Last edited by mercedesbenzs55; 03-11-2016 at 10:14 PM.
Titles in!(laces out)
I figured out that Oregon does not do vehicle inspections. So I can get a transfer title in Oregon, wait 30 days, then just register it in Washington.
It's an easy process as Oregon is two miles from my house.
Does anyone know how to get the cup holder lever back the other way? I also seem to have trouble pushing the assembly back down to original height. I tried it some, but I don't want to break it.
Last edited by mercedesbenzs55; 03-12-2016 at 12:20 AM.
I showed the pics to my guy, and asked about the body work. He said black flaws show. Since he owns the rack, he guesstiquoted me "$300, maybe less".
I wasn't too far off.
He said, after some of the quarter panels undent, he will need to redo them and paint them. $150 for paint + labor for medium quality laquer. It'll be a little bit more for the good stuff
I will need to bring in the car for a solid quote next week.
I showed the pics to my guy, and asked about the body work. He said black flaws show. Since he owns the rack, he guesstiquoted me "$300, maybe less".
I wasn't too far off.
He said, after some of the quarter panels undent, he will need to redo them and paint them. $150 for paint + labor for medium quality laquer. It'll be a little bit more for the good stuff
I will need to bring in the car for a solid quote next week.
Cars haven't been shot in laquer in decades, and no modern commercial body shop is set up for laquer. Some shops that specialize in very old restorations might. The paint on the S and all modern production cars is two stage (base coat/clear coat) enamel. Maybe you misunderstood?
Honestly with the bit about the laquer (and varying grades no less) and the low ball body work numbers I wouldn't let the guy within a thousand yards of my S.
I guess the good news is you don't need the GoFundMe account.
Cars haven't been shot in laquer in decades, and no modern commercial body shop is set up for laquer. Some shops that specialize in very old restorations might. The paint on the S and all modern production cars is two stage (base coat/clear coat) enamel. Maybe you misunderstood?
Honestly with the bit about the laquer (and varying grades no less) and the low ball body work numbers I wouldn't let the guy within a thousand yards of my S.
I guess the good news is you don't need the GoFundMe account.
Yes, it sounds like Vlad's body shop isn't the right place to go when you have perfectionist standards like Benzs55. He better keep that GoFundMe account open, unless he's decided to lower his standards.
What's weird is that the guy allegedly is dirt cheap on his labor estimate but wants to paint using an absurdly labor intensive process.
To get a glossy finish with 2 stage, you lay on a color coat (base) then shoot clear over it. For laquer the gloss has to come from the color coat itself, so it takes multiple coats and a ton of hand sanding in between coats. To try to get the repaired areas looking like the rest of the car's 2 stage paint in laquer would be silly. Benz55 must have misunderstood.
Mike,
I don't think he misunderstood. The shop supplies, labor, and overhead for an auto body repair facility would involve deep losses to professionally fix his car back to a near pre-collision standard.
Think chains and trees with a running start for frame straightening, dent puller and some bondo for the creases, a compressor and a paint gun with some black automotive lacquer for painting. It'll be painted in a garage or outdoors.
S55 should buy some flex additive for shooting the rear cover otherwise the lacquer will spider the first time it's flexed. Actually, I don't know whether that still even exists anymore, this is basically 70s technology.
The sad part is I've seen "professional" shops leave sanding scratches, dirt in the paint, overspray, runs, and orange peel which result in a job not much better than some guy in his garage.
S55 - do you mind me using your first name in posts?
Regards,
Cary
Mike,
I don't think he misunderstood. The shop supplies, labor, and overhead for an auto body repair facility would involve deep losses to professionally fix his car back to a near pre-collision standard.
Think chains and trees with a running start for frame straightening, dent puller and some bondo for the creases, a compressor and a paint gun with some black automotive lacquer for painting. It'll be painted in a garage or outdoors.
S55 should buy some flex additive for shooting the rear cover otherwise the lacquer will spider the first time it's flexed. Actually, I don't know whether that still even exists anymore, this is basically 70s technology.
The sad part is I've seen "professional" shops leave sanding scratches, dirt in the paint, overspray, runs, and orange peel which result in a job not much better than some guy in his garage.
Yeah, MAACO comes to mind. Basically anyone who didn't have the money for the deductible, or didn't want to pay the deductible, would take the estimate to MAACO to get the car done cheaply enough to wipe it out. These are the guys who can paint your whole car for $249. (They can't, and don't).
To cut the price they do almost no prep. They don't remove trim, lamps, moldings, emblems. They just tape around everything. Overspray all over the place. Tires painted over. Terrible workmanship. No tinting or computer color matching. At one point they were mixing the clear into the color in the gun and shooting two stage in a single pass.
It's true that a professionally equipped shop can do crappy work, but an under equipped shop is a virtual guarantee of a substandard finished product.
MB55 may be using lacquer as a generic term for 2 pac, base coat/clear coat. Rack and bodywork time and cost seem absurdly low. Did you bury a body for this guy?
Yeah, MAACO comes to mind. Basically anyone who didn't have the money for the deductible, or didn't want to pay the deductible, would take the estimate to MAACO to get the car done cheaply enough to wipe it out. These are the guys who can paint your whole car for $249. (They can't, and don't).
To cut the price they do almost no prep. They don't remove trim, lamps, moldings, emblems. They just tape around everything. Overspray all over the place. Tires painted over. Terrible workmanship. No tinting or computer color matching. At one point they were mixing the clear into the color in the gun and shooting two stage in a single pass.
It's true that a professionally equipped shop can do crappy work, but an under equipped shop is a virtual guarantee of a substandard finished product.
He owns the shop, frame rack, paint booth, ect. His specialty is painting.
I actually got a quote from Maaco for painting my Acura TL. It was $16xx for their most "prestige" paintjob. I didn't do it because I'm not sure Maaco and prestige go hand in hand. But there no guarantee that nicks body shop does either.
Last edited by mercedesbenzs55; 03-12-2016 at 01:38 PM.
Mike,
I don't think he misunderstood. The shop supplies, labor, and overhead for an auto body repair facility would involve deep losses to professionally fix his car back to a near pre-collision standard.
Think chains and trees with a running start for frame straightening, dent puller and some bondo for the creases, a compressor and a paint gun with some black automotive lacquer for painting. It'll be painted in a garage or outdoors.
S55 should buy some flex additive for shooting the rear cover otherwise the lacquer will spider the first time it's flexed. Actually, I don't know whether that still even exists anymore, this is basically 70s technology.
The sad part is I've seen "professional" shops leave sanding scratches, dirt in the paint, overspray, runs, and orange peel which result in a job not much better than some guy in his garage.
S55 - do you mind me using your first name in posts?
Regards,
Cary
My Auto guy Nick said there is going be be a little bit of dust specks because he does not floor airflow to take out the dust, but mentioned that he can use something to buff out the specs. Then he warned that that route may leave permanent buffing marks.
Originally Posted by RichM
MB55 may be using lacquer as a generic term for 2 pac, base coat/clear coat. Rack and bodywork time and cost seem absurdly low. Did you bury a body for this guy?
No, Like I mentioned before. I used to go to the body shop and help with auto body work at ages 6-8. I wasn't kidding when I said I dismounted an engine from a car with a cherry picker(Engine hoist).
So these guys know my father and I since I was a kid.
Last edited by mercedesbenzs55; 03-12-2016 at 01:33 PM.
Hate to even ask this but does Oregon show title status. I think there are a few states that do not show salvage or totaled status so you can clean a title that way. Not sure that it matters much with carfax now and days but I thought Oregon was a state that you could clean a title through.
Hate to even ask this but does Oregon show title status. I think there are a few states that do not show salvage or totaled status so you can clean a title that way. Not sure that it matters much with carfax now and days but I thought Oregon was a state that you could clean a title through.
Which states null a salvage and give back a clean title? Sounds like a case of "Title Laundery".
If that's the true, I think if I took it to register in Washington it would reshow as a branded title.
As far as I know Oregon does show title status, unfortunately.
Mike, Downdraft spray booths are expensive.
Last edited by mercedesbenzs55; 03-12-2016 at 03:41 PM.
03-28-2016, 07:21 PM
