Heres where I'm at after returning to the body shop for corrections-

Improvements were made with the paint flaws and body gaps. To my satisfaction? I think it could still be better.

Now the insurance company used aftermarket parts. So at this point I have some of the parts that need to be replaced with OEM parts.

Working with the insurance company and a new body shop, hoping to get this wrapped up by Feb. Its been over a month of this b/s. I don't know where I would be at if the damages were worse.

to be continued...

 

Well I've gone through two insurance guys. Now onto the third top dog. This one seems capable of taking care of my concerns. He says everything is going to be taken care of this time now that he is handling it. The truck is going to a new body shop. Monday this guy and the body shop will be doing some fax exchanges and I hope to hear from the body shop sometime Monday to schedule a date to repair the bad repairs....

 

Glad that something is finally going your way in this whole ordeal.

 

Ok, I ran my own custom paint and body shop for a long time. And here are my thoughts....

1) a good shop WILL (Not can) make all the swirls disappear. There are processes to follow in doing the final finish work. There ARE shortcuts that can be taken to do the final buff in about 1/2 the time, but marginal results will be had. The temperature, time of year, time of DAY...NONE of it should have ANY affect on the results because a professional shop doesn't "air dry" their paint jobs. They booth bake them. So they are cured when done. Even if they don't have a bake booth and DID air dry, there are STILL processes to follow to ensure the finish is ready. If they didn't follow those instructions and buffed too early, they basically trashed the surface. They need to fix it. Some places will do a final buff with a wool bonnet. It rips through it and makes the finish smooth, but you will get swirls. If they wet sanded it (color sanded) correctly, and used a good clean buffing pad, then you should have had a glass finish.


2) You entered into a contract with the shop to do "X" job on your car. You didn't sign saying you would be happy with a half assed job. That contract isn't "approximate"...if you didn't pay them all of what they expected for the work, that wouldn't fly. So don't let them fly on shorting you on the promised results. And you are paying your insurance company a **** load of money each month to protect your vehicle....make THEM uphold THEIR end of the deal also. Your insurance company has lawyers. They SHOULD be going after this schmuck to uphold that contract.

3) It is true that OEM vs Aftermarket parts can line up differently. That's the roulette game you play using aftermarket parts. But AGAIN! You should have had the CHOICE to use cheaper after market parts, or requiring OEM....

4) If you found dirt/particles...ANYTHING buried in your paint that shouldn't be there, that's TOTALLY and COMPLETELY unacceptable!

 

ok, here is the bottom line where i learned it, im a icar and ase certified autobody tech with 4 years experience in the spray booth. according to the ase test the acceptable gap on a body panel is the thickness of 5 dimes stacked together, ive always hated this rule, but it gets you by when you are fixing a car for $1000 that the parts and paint cost $700 on, after market parts will never line up right, even if you put them on a vehicle that hasnt been tweaked by a crash, even manufacturer replacement parts will never line up like the one that came off your car at the factory.

You will have trash in your paint, ive yet to see any show car come out with none, its how you finish the job that makes the paint job.
Most shops have a little 16 year old kid running the buffer, which would explain alot
Now for the paint scratches, those look like exactly what im sure happened, because ive tryed to pass it on back in my earlier days in this bussiness, the guy didnt blow out the booth when he did his painting, or he didnt have a good booth to begin with, he had some trash in is more than likely runny paint job, he gets out the trusty old 2000 grit sand paper to save $30 bucks on a quart of clear coat, sands out what he can, says that guy will never know, buffs it out to a nice semi gloss shine, puts the polish to it and sends it to you. I bet that thing looked awesome before it got wet and washed the polish out of the scratches.

 

the wool bonet is the best pad you can have, for compounding, after you get a nice smooth shinney surface you switch to the foam, then the polishing pad

 

Dude I hope your'e getting stuff in writing.

 

Now the new body shop is playing games. After taking it back to the original shop and still not being satisfied, on the 15th I was approved by my insurance company to get the loose ends taken care of. I was written a check and told anything additional they would cover.

Called the new body shop that day and faxed over a list of the corrections to be made. I was told they had to look things over and get back to me on Monday.

18th- I noticed after reviewing the new supplement details the prices were not adding up. I called the insurance guy and he said not to worry about it, everything was correct and to trust him on it. No call from the body shop, like they promised.

19th- Still no call from the body shop. I call at the end of the day and sure enough am told the supplement prices are short of what it will actually cost. They tell me they are working with the insurance company to square things away and they will let me know the following day of status.

20th- No call.

21st- No call. I call at the end of the day ask about the status. They told me they spoke with the insurance company and everything should be ok. And that they were going to order the parts on Friday and call me by noon to tell me so.

22nd- No call. I call at the end of the day and no answer. So I call the regional manager for the insurance company. He says he was told it was all taken care of and is not sure why nothing has been done. Makes a call to the body shop. Calls me back and tells me on Monday they are going to write a new claim and start over. The shop was going to fax them a detailed list with prices and then they would review it and get the parts ordered.

25th- No call. I call the previous insurance guy and ask of the status. Tells me he had one of the former guys I was working with fax the shop and verify part order and that everything should be all set. He says I should hear from the body shop by the end of the day. No call from the body-shop. I call and leave a message stating that I hadn't heard from them since Thursday when they told me they would be calling me on Friday and I wanted to know what the status of things were.

26th- Body-shop called and left a message. Stating they talked to the regional manager of my insurance company on Friday and about how they were starting a new claim and faxing docs to each other. And that they are waiting on the insurance company to send the ok back. I call the body shop at the end of the day, and tell them I was told everything was a go on Monday. They say they good, and they will have to contact the insurance company still. I say everything is a go just order the parts, I will pay out of pocket if I have to while I wait for a supplemental check. They say ok we will get the parts ordered. Me- You will order the parts today? Them- Well its late in the day so prob. not until tomorrow.



WOW
I really cant catch a break with this entire ordeal! Well thanks for all the support from everyone who has written in, its made it much easier to deal with.

 

For anyone still following this thread.. I'm still working on getting the truck back to my satisfaction.

After dealing with going back and fourth with the new body-shop and my insurance company I finally have approval for the FULL amount for the parts and this upcoming Monday I will be dropping the truck off at the body-shop.

The shop is supposed to have the parts already, so it should only be a day or two in the shop and hopefully everything will be up to my satisfaction and this entire event will be taken care of.

All the aftermarket parts that they repaired it with originally are being replaced by OEM. Even after all the hassles and walls I have had to deal with for me it was worth it.

For anyone particular about their truck, do not put aftermarket body related parts on for repairs they are not the same as OEM.

Thank you to everyone who has helped and supported me through this entire process.

 

glad to see someone finally win