$1500 + 500% ferrari tax paint job

I have a perfect example here of someone being taken advantage of and being swayed by an attractive price on a rust repair and repaint on an 81 308GTSi. The car was bought right, was mechanically great in that it had ferrari dealer invoices showing a rebuilt engine and gearbox plus countless other repairs. The only issue was typical fender heel, door bottom and lower quarter rust like many northern area older f-cars. I supplied an estimate in 2011 for $14K to remove glass, trim, lights, bumpers, etc then properly repair all rust areas then repaint in base clear, wet sand then polish - a show car paint job. Understandably the owner was a little uncomfortable with the seemingly high estimate so he had the job performed by a shop that estimated $7K to pretty much duplicate what I did on Bretts red 78 308 restoration last winter. Not all shops are created equal so this particular job is probably well below what one could get for $7K from an outstanding shop with a conscience. Well, the car is back after being painted for $7K, heres what he got and Im redoing it before it even turned a wheel with the new paint job.
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So I started to take it apart for a sand and repaint, plus clear and wet sand etc etc. We weren't going to go back through the body repairs due to a budget but weve found some issues that cant be ignored so were going a little deeper than a scuff and paint.

Head light assemblies took 10mins a side to remove, probably takes longer to mask them off in the car. Ducting full of red paint, fender heel hits the door skin and takes paint off when you open the door. Orange peel is an under statement. The clear coat is too thin and not enough hardener in it so its still soft after the respray in april.

Grill brackets should be silver like the grill, even the brackets have runs.
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More carnage
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Good Lord! I would be on the phone to my lawyer if someone did that to my car. What a disgrace. A $500 Maaco job would probably be better.

 

Agreed on all points, problem is they offered to make it right. Would you let them?

 

That's just sad. Any attorney's in you local FClub area?

I would not, but there might be some law that says you have to give them a chance to make it right.

 

Tough to make a case I think because they offered to make it right. Im not sure how much luck they would have in court. Its terrible what they did to these people and the car, im not sure what they'll do about it. I think they just want to look at it as a lesson learned and cut their losses. We'll see.

 

Wow. That's pisses me off just looking at it. What a freaking crime! I'd be sick.

 

Only thing that would come close to making it right would be a full refund.

It will cost more money to undo what they did than if they had done nothing at all.

 

That's always a tough choice. Give them a chance to make it right, or run the risk they make it worse.

It would be worth investigating Canada law though.

 

Wow Paul, that was a great price for all that work.

 

You..... Your client.......had better take the rust areas back enough so you can discern whether or not they really fixed it vs slathering on the filler. No point in putting effort into the car just to have bubbles popping this time next year.

As to letting them have another go, hell no. That is what court is for..... Full refund. That car was sprayed by a child, and masked by a clown. You can bet any metal repair is pure crap.

A high price does not necessarily equal quality, and a low price does not necessarily equal crap. You had better just know the quality of work of the guy you are having do your car.....whatever the price. This poor fellow was clearly clueless in that regard.

 

I mean really, did they just close their eyes at some point? That is just sad. They should be ashamed. A plastic bumper cover repair on a Toyota Corolla usually comes out better than that.

 

..and here I thought Earl Scheib went out of business...

 

Personally, he got what he paid for.... I don't understand the problem here.

 

That's what I was thinking. Had one of those $99 deals on my VW 412 (1987ish). They tried to upsell and I said no I want the $99 special and they did it. Turned out about like what is shown in this thread.

 

I would publish the guy who did this...the Public Court of Opinion should do a good job...the real question is did you learn anything here? In life...cutting corners always catches up to you sooner or later....

 

Couldn't have said it better myself!

As for the metal work were digging to see whats there and we've already discovered that its not right - nobody is surprised. Were working within a budget like 99% of us are so were making it right and helping where possible so everyones happy.

 

He didn't get a $7K+ job but thats what he paid. Proper jobs are usually $10K and up but the paint finish was just a matter of the right guy holding the gun ignoring what lies beneath.

 

My mommy always told me, if it's too good to be true, it probably is.

Surely, for 7k you can't expect a 10k or 20k job....you should expect for 7k you will get a 5k job. How else can you stay in business....you won't be in biz long doing 10k jobs for 7k.

 

The orange peel almost looks the same as the factory paint on my QV...

 

You know, that is exactly the sort of work that scares me to death. I'm usually the guy who pays the $7 grand and gets the $ 99 job. Last paint work I did myself. It aint perfect but it's damn good and certainly better than that. Granted it's on my E-Type but to a great extent, painting is painting.

Wow.

Lester

 

I would take the shop to court, but then i am a litigator and that's what I do for a living.

The damages here are not the price paid for the job, i.e. not a refund. It is the cost to fix the work to put the car in the condition he had a right to expect it to be in following the new paint and body work. That could be more or less than the price paid, depending on how much work was done right and how much new damage was inflicted.

I get that $7k is not a lot by Ferrari standards, but its actually quite a bit in the scheme of things. Most judges would view that as sufficient to expect a pretty solid job. And the pics tell the tale: the job was done to a very substandard level. Seems like a fairly easy case.

The problem is at $150 to $500 an hour for good legal representation, he'd burn up the recovery in legal fees. So I'd take the shop to small claims court. Cheap and you don't need a lawyer in most jurisdictions. Bring the photos and the shop manager who is redoing the work as a sort of expert witness on what was done right and wrong and on te cost to set it right. Not much to lose...

 

I saw this debacle live, it looks ten times worse than the pictures can even remotely depict. If that is even possible. Its in the right hands now!

 

I have a problem with statements like this,.. you really have no idea what your talking about except to antagonize, My Family owned a Body Shop for over 40 years and this individual damn sure didn't get what he (or she) paid for, not by a long shot!
I agree with John M's post, and go one step further and strip the car to metal and start over because there is bound to be so much material on the vehicle at this point that I would be concerned with the top coat cracking and high build primers and fillers shrinking after a year in the hot summer sun. Newman gave the owners a very good estimate for the amount of work being done for sure, but this is criminal.