Sorry about your luck.. Good shops are hard to come by.

Im a Autobody Technician, and owning a dodge ram and as well as FIXING a ton of them in our shop theres no reason as to why the gaps are wrong with your front bumper.. the front bumper has a TON of adjustment and my feeling is the shop is just too lazy to adjust and want the truck out the door to get the money out of it and move onto something else... this you cannot really help unless they offer to fix it or you talk to your insurance company etc etc. The swirl Marks are quite Posibilly from them painting it and having solvent pop and or pin holes and hangers which they then would have to polish out using a big orbital polisher.. and more than likely thats what it is... i cant really tell from the pix but are the swirl marks more of smudges or more of fine sratches.. this also could have been caused from them cleaning the truck while the clear was still alittle tacky, hence the swirl marks in the clear but can be polished out after the clear is fully cured.. I have forgotten what else was wrong and i dont wanna retype all this and refresh so anything else just pm me or ask and il try to explain from my expeirence what it may be..


the gaps from your hood to your fender are also probally from them not using OEM parts.. i know up here in canada and the province i live in our insurance companys "ICBC" requires that bodyshops have to try and order "remanufactured" parts and or "Jobber" Parts which are basically taken off smashed vehicles, repaired if there not that bad and then primered and resold as partial new.. If this is the case there isnt much you can do about fitment unless the parts they used are in deed OEM and then they should be taking the time to make the fitment correct. I spend sometimes up to an HOUR adjusting a Fender on a car.. making sure all the door gaps are even and flush and that everything lines up and looks good. Regardless if we dont get paid to spend time doing gaps and fitment from the insurance company we do it because its our job and our shop strives off quality and customer satisfaction.'

Bottom line is that shop is brutal, and its unfortunate that it gives us "good" guys a bad rep who work at body shops cuz not all of them are bad.. its the select few that just dont give a crap and its sad to see..

Good luck and if i was you i wouldnt stop harassing them untill it was fixed right.. tell them you've spoken with an autobody technician and im not stupid and know exactly what im talking about. If they say the swirls are ireversable have them repaint the truck and have them not TOUCH the paint, no poishing, no washing untill you have seen it, regardless if theres dust spec's, pin holes, etc so then you know exactly the condition of the paint as it comes out of the booth and then after when there done fixing the painters mistakes... okay now im done..

End of Novel.
-James
Hope this helps

 

The swirls will polish out as long as they are in the clear coat, not the base. The gaps are unacceptable. My dad has a auto body shop in PA, I'll call him today, but like everyone else said, take it up with your Ins. Co. However, If you took it to a shop that was not on THEIR "approved list", then your on your own. If the body shop was on their approved list, then they have a lot to say about having the shop redoing it. If they weren't then you'll have to take it up in cival court and sue them.

 

Mike649, finally got around to looking at my bumper cover. That line/edge that runs parallel with the wheel well curve of the cover is present on both sides of my truck. That has to be factory, but like I said, I didn't notice them until I went over the front end of the truck with a microscope following the repair.

 

Anything that involves having someone else touch the paint is a headache for me. I'm into taking extreme measures to minimize those horendous swirls most people get from automatic car washes or just in proper washing. Its sad that even most body shops respond with a uneducated anwser, how are these body shops!!

I think it must be normal, I looked at a few other Rams and all but one had it. Maybe they all had aftermarket part as well, but at this point it is what it is. If your not looking for it you wouldnt notice it.

 

James, all of your info is appreciated- Thank you.

My insurance guy told me I could bring it to a new shop and have the mistakes corrected. I dropped the truck off at the new shop, the insurance guy had a appointment to look at the truck mistakes with the body shop manager. I think after he went through it and verified the list of flaws he realized how much it would cost to have this new shop fix the mistakes. Talked with him later in the day and he told me I had to go the the original shop and the mistakes would not be covered. To say the least I made sure he knew what I thought of his little move. Now I can't get a response back from him... Can anything more go wrong!

I agree after looking at a few other trucks. I never noticed it before.. Thank you for verifying.

 

(Brief summary of where I'm at from picking up truck)

When the guy presented the truck to me it was at night, outside in the winter.. I requested it be inside under the lights for obvious reasons when the secretary called me to pickup the truck. After debating with the guy over visibility he finally pulled it into the shop under the lights. Now due to the temp. change the truck was covered with condensation, hiding the paint.

I began pointing out problems and the guy disregarded everything and had some b/s response. "You don't paint cars, you wouldn't know","Thats the insurance company's fault the parts done line up","Those swirls are normal, they will go away after waxing", "OK are we done now I'm pulling the truck out" When somebody tells you blk/white a answer thats usually it. So I respectfully took the truck and began with disputing process through the insurance company.

The insurance guy told me I could have my choice of a new shop to fix the flaws because of the circumstances. He told me he needed to verify the flaws before anything could be fixed. I found a new shop, arranged a drop off. Insurance guy met with that body-shop and sure enough everything I found flawed was verified by both that body-shop and the insurance guy.

Insurance guy tells me later in the day of the news. And tells me I have to use the original body shop otherwise the corrections will not be covered by this new body-shop. What!!!!!!!! I had a lengthly conversation where I called him out on his b/s promises and he argued he never said I would be covered... Just to make a bad situation worse I guess... So needless to say I was not happy and I have not had a return call from the insurance guy for almost three days.

After weighing my options, I decided to try dealing with the bad body shop again- but this time decided to go straight to the owner. Not all that impressed with him, as he revealed his guy who I dealt with in the beginning lost his patients with me, and found me to be high maintenance and fussy. Not a good thing to tell a customer! Not to mention I think he was trying to either push me to react or attempt to intimidate me...

I let the bad customer service of the owner roll off my back. Only focusing on the flaws. After he argued with me I eventually got him to break and agree every single one of the problems I had with what they did was indeed genuine.

He wants to see what adjustments they can make before trying to get new parts through the insurance company. Wants me to come back in the spring to get the badge moved, and paint flaws taken care of- claiming it would be better weather and lighting conditions. After thinking about that I think I would prefer to get everything squared away now, this has already been stressful enough let alone having to drag it out any further.

So beginning of the week truck is going back for fender tweaking and bumper alignment.

If I want the truck done without paying out of pocket I see no other way. This will be the final chance for them to make things right.

DAMN! Hard to keep anything nice! Let alone find a quality business that aren't all about the money!

 

If he can't paint a car in the winter then he should just close shop. I say, get a lawyer and put their feet to the fire, a$$holes pucker up when you start bringing potential lawsuits, you've been d--cked around enough.

 

Can anyone show me close ups of the front fender gaps to the door and to the hood?
Also the front bumper gaps and fit of a lower air dam/plastic valance..??

(Please only if they are OEM and have not been adjusted from factory)

Need for comparison...

 

thats suck man, sorry to hear and see what you are going through. Def call BBB and dont let those f*cks get away with it.

 

i am no expert but from what i know is the main reason for the swirls in the paint or the clear is a lack of wet sanding the pieces.

again i am no expert but in custom car builds you can basically use them as a mirror which is a combo of good wet sanding and a lot more clear coats, they can use up to like 10 clear coats and a normal truck or car uses 2-3