BBBSS

I'm FINALLY getting my car in for repairs from my hit and run a couple months ago and wanna make sure it is done correctly. I'm taking it to a body shop that has done insurance work for me before as well as painted about a dozen cars for people I know. He does top quality work and is a stickler for details and doesn't mind going back and forth with the insurance adjuster if he feels they're being cheapskates so he's getting the job.

He normally does restoration work on higher end muscle cars and various other cars including doing another Petwer E55 that had the whole side wiped out in an accident last year. When he heard I bought a pewter E55 shortly after he fixed the one he worked on he sent me a message wondering if I had bought the same car. He said it was one of the easiest cars he's done work on as everything just bolted up and lined right up very easily and that if I ever needed work done he'd have no problem taking care of it. When I asked how hard the paint was to match up as I've heard pewter can be tough to match he said that was also surprisingly easy as well. We were just BS'ing at his shop at the time and we had no idea I'd end up needing work done later so I'm confident he wasn't just blowing smoke. lol

I don't think he's ever worked with the ceramiclear before though. I see they make a reapir version of the ceramiclear under the Deltron line of paints from Dupont. This is what I'm looking to go with as it's best supposed to match the factory clear. Anyone have a shop work with this stuff and make any comments on if it was a pain to work with or needed specialized equipment or something? I know early posts about this paint had shops very nervous about using it as they didn't have experience with it. Just wondering what anyone elses experiences have been getting paintwork done on these cars.

Also I'm probably getting a junk yard replacement passenger rear as we think one of the structural beams may have been slightly tweaked in the hit. My insurance companies policy is any damage at all to the structural parts of the door is an automatic replacement. I really didn't want the bottom of the door skin pulled out, slathered in filler in low spots and having metal that was stressed from being worked back and forth anyway. Anything that should be looked out for in a replacement door that I should make him aware of? Were the rear air bags an option on these cars?

I know he can do everything properly, but I like to know what's going on with my cars. Hate letting others work on them.

cij911

I think the clear is a special PPG clear that is very hard. As for the color, I am sure he can match it if he is good.

I am looking at painting my front bumper because of rock / sand damage - a little too OCD, but I hate to repaint as the factory paint is so good.

BBBSS

Yeah I have very mixed feelings about how far out to paint the damaged areas, or to even leave the slight blemishes on some parts alone entirely. The stock paint had an SUV rub down the side of the car pretty hard and push in one of the doors and the car has barely any scratches!

Couple pics for those that forgot or didn't see my other thread. A ford exploder ran down the side of the car at probably a 25-30 degree angle to begin with at my back bumper and went down the car up to the front drivers door. I gotta say this paint is pretty astounding! lol

Can't make it out so much in these pics but scratches to both door handles, a rub mark about the size of a dime on the rear bumper right behind the tire, tiny pinhole like nicks in the paint around the wheel well - maybe 4-5 of these, a small dent in the wheel arch smaller then a dime which I'm not sure how they would even repair that, a very small scratch on the ground effect like 2" long that I couldn't even find when showing it to my friend the other week, some random scratches around the upper part of both doors but seem like they'd possibly just buff out, and the bottom of the door is pushed in obviously.

moosejaw

you never mentioned what happened to the kid
we've been awaiting the outcome

Did he show up in court?

stevieg

I recently had the entire front end replaced and painted. Magnum Collision in Kennesaw, GA did the work. They do all high end cars and the attention to detail is awesome.
When they told me about all the extra steps they do in laying down the paint and the clear coats, it was amazing.
It isn't cheap by any means, but when you hear the saying, you get what you pay for, I can see why customers swear by them.
Now if I can just keep the wife from backing into my car !!!
Seems like you have a pretty solid place picked out up in your area.
Good Luck on the project and post some pics afterwards.

BBBSS

He was in court. I'll share the outcome after the dust settles with something ongoing. Basically the judicial system has pretty much no bite, but we found a way that kinda worked out for both of us in the end I guess. My insurance is going after him personally for all costs involved. In the end I still have a car that had repairs made and I hope a semi truck backs over his kneecaps, but what can you do?