What are your reasonable expectations from a driver paint job?

I am sorry but I don't think it matters for any car, if the paint job is as you say they have screwed up. Sounds like a rush job, and could be due to the $ spent. Good quality paint jobs cost good money and takes time. I will not stand looking at my car day in and day out knowing there are so many flaws with the paint job. I would have them repaint it but if they cannot do a quality job you should take the car to someone who can.

 

If you are in fact serious, this sounds crazy. For 10k, no there shouldn't be ANY flaws no matter what kind of car it is.

 

$10K seems to be on the mark for an excellent 'driver' paint job. The bodies on these cars need a lot of prep and that accounts for the price (compared to your $2500 re-sprays in the past). So assuming that you paid the right amount of money for the job allow me to offer a simple piece of advice: MAKE SURE THE CAR IS PERFECT BEFORE ACCEPTING IT! I'm not talking Pebble Beach perfect but the following is essential and not hard to achieve:

1. All touch ups must be perfect in colour and finish. Any competent painter can achieve this and to be offered less is just plain lazy on their part.

2. Of course no scratches, fish eyes, dust in the paint, or runs. For $10K I'm assuming the car was colour sanded and polished so no orange peel near the edges either.

The car should also be given to you FINISHED with nothing needing additional time or visits. I have lots of paint and body experience so make sure the car does not need to go back. Inspect it both outside and under bright flourescent lights(they are the best for showing flaws) only when satisfied then pay your bill. Lots of shops have you pay then drag out return visits hoping that you will loose interest. Don't fall into that trap and good luck in dealing with the shop.

 

He's 100% right. It should look better than when it came out of the factory if you'd spent that amount. It should also be able go get a perfect score for paint at a car show. What you're describing is inexcusable. Start putting the pressure on them to make this right (i.e. do it again) and then get ready to call your attorney. You'll wind up spending less on him to get them to do it again than if you'd pay them to paint it again. Does that make sense?

 

Ridiculous situation.

Expect nothing but perfection.

Was this place used with multiple references?

 

You'll never get satisfaction from this shop, IMO.

Sub par performance will ALWAYS be that......

The same goes for trim shops I'm afraid.....'ve had the worst experiences of my Fcar ownership from guys like this...referral or not...

I walked elsewhere.....

 

I think good paint jobs are one of the hardest things to find. I also think that the most money spent is not an assurance for a perfect paintjob. Good paint guys don't last simply because they breath all that crap all day long and sooner or later loose their braincells.
I know guys who rebuild classic Aston Martins and drop 25.000 on a paintjob and they still don't get what they expect and I also know guys who do paintjobs for a fraction of that amount who will take off all of the old paint and do a pretty good job.
I once had my mercedes painted, it was already prepped, so the paintguy tells me he will shoot it for 600 just to make it look good for a couple of years. I say ok and leave, soon thereafter he tells me to redo the bid, when I show up he tells that he won't do the roof the trunk and the hood because it didn't really need it and that's when he also gave me the "fade" crap, the paint will fade and then it will match, I think that's a common BS line for paintshops.
He then has the nerve to say that a paintjob like that usually runs for 2 to $3.000 and that I should pay him more, obviously he completely forgot at this point that the car came to him prepped already and that we already agreed on a price for just shooting it. That's when the lost braincell theory really started to make sense to me.
The paintjob ended up being so awful that I seriously had a better paintjob on my campervan down in Tijuana for 250 bucks.

Don't walk away with anything but perfection for that money.

Helmut

 

Wow, 10K for a job like that? A friend of mine does award winning paint jobs for 10K; he has painted a few cars that have won awards at the Sacramento Autorama and they are done to be drivers, albeit show quality drivers. I'm having him do my Camaro when it is ready, and if he is comfortable doing a Ferrari, a 308 if I find one I like.

 

$10,000. and it's not a "show car" paint job?????

I'd tell 'em where to put that "Pebble Beach" BS........

Napolis has been there, maybe he'll chime in.......good paint is just good paint.

It's all about the suface prep and then the cat on the spray gun. Any shop that scratches or chips up a fresh spray job are just careless dumba$$, that's the only words for it.

 

$10K would paint BOTH my 308s here, in an EPA compliant booth with top grade materials....

 

I am sorry to read about this.

I hope you are able to make it right and become happy, whatever you do.

 

Once the prep work is done, painting it with even coats without mistakes is a given. Only the depth of the shine should seperate a show car from a driver. It sounds like your guy spent $9500 on the prep, and $500 on the painting.

Ken

 

I agree with all the comments. For $10K, that paint job should be really nice, no flaws, even color, nice shine, no orange peel, etc. An as far as matching the color goes, that should be absolutely perfect. Fading? I ordered some scratch repair paint for my rosso corsa red Mondial that's 20 years old this past summer. From one of those places on the internet. Perfect match. Most good shops have computer color matching and should be able to match it perfectly.

Sounds like you've been getting the run-around. Time to threaten them and if you don't get satisfaction, sue them and file complaints with BBB and other agencies. There is just no excuse for shoddy workmanship.

 

Someone needs to devope a referral/or ***** line so we know how these shops rate across the country, this goes for mechanics, dealers, ect.

Whoever can do this do it, it's a great idea. Do it similar to Ebays rating system, not perfect, but it works. This will save others BS&T, I hate bad workmanship. I am thinking of getting my car resprayed, and am afraid of the same issues. So what do you do? Spend 10k with someone who has done this or go for the 2-3K local who wants to paint a f car?

Who can recomend Sport Leiht or Flashback in GA?

 

I got my 330 GT 2+2 painted this year. Not as complicated a job as a Dino. But they stripped old paint, took all glass emblems etc off, resprayed, and color sanded. The paint job is very good (I wanted a driver job as well), an 8 or 9 on a scale to 10. Cost= $3200. For $10k, I would want perfection.