it happens sometimes. We heard of a guy, a relative of a woman I work with, to save a few $$$ on body work and a paint job for our Colorado. We had a safety inspection per check done on our truck and much to our surprise it need a few major things done to it. We have until the fall so we have the time to get these jobs done. We have been chipping away at the list and getting the body work done was one of them. So we took the truck to this guy (twice) so he could see what needed to be done. He said he could do the job and gave us a price, said if hubby could remove a lot of the trim pieces he could bring the price down some. It all sounded great. My mom actually took her car to him to have some body work after a rock from a lawn tractor hit her car and left a large dent. So we dropped the truck off last Sunday evening, went to the cottage for the week an much to our surprise he had the truck done by Thursday. We stopped by to pick it up today...it's awful! We knew it wouldn't be show truck, we knew it wouldn't be perfect but it's not even the right color! This is not our truck but it looks like this one. Now the color is more of a Paprika color not quite red not quite brown. We probably could get used to it but it's not even painted well. There seems to be run marks, it's not the paint, maybe it's the clear coat, I don't know. There are places that the paint is so thin we can see white spots. When I got him to open the door the paint isn't blended inside the door frame, so we can still see the copper color. The roof is so rough...it looks like it's been parked under a tree dropping sap. And if that wasn't enough he decided to do us a favor and buff the head light...they are scratched so bad that I'm not sure they'll be of any good at night. What do you do? He's not a "Body Shop" no recourse really. He's some guy that works out of his back yard. He was suggested by a co-worker and he had done a small job for my mom. We took a gamble and lost. Tomorrow we are calling around to see if we can get it repainted. Hubby just wants to sell it, I just want to fix it. * * * Who paints somebody's truck a different color and doesn't call them to tell them that he couldn't get the right color...IDIOT!
Guys like that either think you're not gonna hire a lawyer, or they truly are stupid. I have never had anyone that is not in an actual well-known body shop for many years and a rep to go along with it ever touch any vehicle i'm associated with. Hell, I'm no good at body work, and I'd rather do it myself. It just irks me that you ended up getting taken by this guy, but even without a written contract, you should be able to sue him. At least you stand a chance of getting your money back.
What was wrong with the Colorado? I wish you would have checked with us first. I would have told you in no uncertain terms, DO NOT use a backyard bodyman. If they were that good, they would be making good money at a REAL shop. Also, Painting a vehicle inside a garage that 'makes do' as a spray booth pretty much guarantees you a bad pant job. He's not going to go to the extra effort to clean the entire garage (including overhead), and set up exhaust fans and filters to pull out the airborne contaminants.
I'd say the color change is the kicker, judging by your description of the job though I wouldn't feel too cheated. We used to do minor body work and then take the cars down the road to maaco or some place like that I forget what they were called. Although only one customer complained I thought every job we took to them turned out sloppy. They didn't take the time to prep, would paint over key holes and exhaust and all sorts of little details that really bothered me. But they were cheap and quick and ya get what ya pay for. I don't know but I think a quality job done by real professionals might be around the $3000 range? That's just a wild guess. Sorry about your luck
Since I've never lived in Nova Scotia I don't understand what a new paint job has to do with passing a safety inspection. I do realize in some countries rust holes are a concern. Here in the midwest most vehicles older than a few years have more rust spots than paint. My Impala is what they call Salsa Red. Sorta like the car pictured. The same color as 1/3rd of all brands of cars yet each is different. That color is not even close to the original. Good luck with the truck. Chances are you will have to learn to love that color. Mild rubbing or polishing compound applied gently with a finer grade to finish works well on modern plastic headlights. An old cloth baby diaper works well. Look for an old baby!
That sucks, fannie! I do know a guy who is a body man and painter by trade, he also does side jobs out of his garage. To go along with KK's post, the guy I know will only do a dent repair repaint of a panel etc for the fact and he admits,, dust, debris in the air etc. His own words..." I'd spend more time polishing out dust than prepping and painting a car if I did a complete at home." The wrong colour though!? I'm afraid to ask, but I hope you didn't pay all upfront but if you didn't, I sure hope you never handed over any $ after it was done.
You are all right, we should have gone to a professional shop to have the work done. Hind sight is a marvelous thing. The quotes that we gotten, from a few different places, went as high as $15,000.00. The truck is a 2004 with 417000 kms, we use it a lot so we didn't want it to be so pretty that we would be nervous to use it, if that makes sense. During the pre inspection it was discovered that the rockers were rusty and there is a small crack in the frame, these would have to be repaired for it to pass the safety inspection. Over the winter the paint started to blow off in several places mostly on the drivers side. Also when the fender flares came off there was a lot of damage. We thought that trying to match paint in several places might be difficult. Since we really like the truck and want/need to keep it for a few more years we decided to get an all over paint job done. You do quite often get what you pay for. We have had a couple of other trucks/Jimmy's painted by back road painters and have been very pleased with the out come. But this time it didn't meet our expectations. He said he could spray black rock guard in the box, he did but then the over spray from the paint has discolored it. As for the color, we both agreed that if the paint/body work was done well we would probably learn to like it. But it really is a bad job. In places you can see the primer showing through, the body fill wasn't sanded well over the wheel well. I expect he thought that the flares would cover but they don't. Live and learn. A few before and afters... The roof.
Not to play devil's advocate, but you had a pretty rusty vehicle to begin with and at 417000km? That's well into the usable life of the vehicle if not starting to exceed it. It's going to start nickel and diming you to death before too much longer. and arguably has started... You already admit you only are going to keep it a few years longer. While I agree the work doesn't look great, it's a well used and rusty truck that presumably passes inspection for another year or two. Unless you spent $5k+ on this, I'd just consider it the price of maintaining a salt\rust belt car that every 5-6 years you have to toss in this amount of money for frame and body work to keep it alive. If after looking at it for the next year becomes too much of a heartache, start looking to replace it and factoring in that when the next vehicle needs this amount of major work, you'll either pony up the work to a reputable shop or just save the money and buy a rust free vehicle from out west with the savings. There are guys who do great work out of their garage, but they are few and far between and generally are busy because of the aforementioned "great work" they do and it being in demand. The hacks are a dime a dozen.
elB is right. Even back here in the midwest most vehicles over a few years old look much worse. Those plastic fender flairs and trucks with plastic bed liners are salt collection places. Mine had a fibreglass topper also. My 2004 Dodge truck looked like new and is Dodge red. The problem with it was the Hemi's of 2003 and 2004 had problems and I was running out of patients and dollars. A blind man could have matched the paint color better. However I like the new color and your neighbors will think you traded trucks. Remember the thread about 'Paint Roller Paint Jobs'? You're already an expert at cottage painting. After that body filler falls out in a year you can roll an original color back on. We gambled and lost Ya gotta know when to hold em, fold em, and walk away!
Well the truck has been repainted and it looks amazing. The guy who painted it the second time couldn't believe how bad the first paint job was. Apparently some of the rusted areas around the windows hadn't been sand, just painted over. The roof had been sanded but wasn't cleaned off before being painted and didn't have much clear coat. And the lack of paint in a lot of areas, showing the primer through the paint. He just shook his head and called it a shame, a damn shame. He asked if we were going to take him to small claims court to get our money back. So we are and he has agreed to be a witness. He also wrote on the receipt some of the major issues that needed to be address. I hope it doesn't turn into a circus. I called our lawyer and got advice on how to proceed, she was very helpful. I've got before and after pictures and a credible witness. And the truck is back to the original color after he told us it wasn't available. It will take months but hopefully we will get our money back. I'm having a bit of trouble getting pictures off my phone so I have no pictures yet but it looks almost perfect, better then when we first bought it.
Tha's good news Fannie. Now find that shop, sell that cottage, and enjoy the things you love. Don't scratch the new paint job while moving all the junk around!
Not to discourage you Fannie, but to secure a judgement is one thing...collecting a whole different matter.
Well let the games begin. Hubby and #1 son went around to buddy's house this morning to serve him with the court papers, it didn't go well. At his door hubby hands him the papers. When he asked what was going on, hubby told him we had to get the truck repaint and we were taking him to small claims court to get our money back. He told hubby "F-you" and throw the papers back. Hubby picked them up and dropped them inside his door on the floor and headed for the truck. Buddy runs after him and as hubby is backing out he throws the papers back into the truck with some exchange of words. Son tells him he must be F-in blind if he thought that was a good paint job. He's calling son to get out of the truck. Hubby's telling son to shut up and gets out of there. So not sure what we do now. We'll have to call the courts on Monday.
