Car back from body shop....Dust in the paint?

[Hamster]

Thanks Buddy Fan And A-Dingo-Ate-My-Baby (ha, hah, I love that username!). I can't put in words how depressed I am right now. I paid a small fortune to get the paint fixed and it seems I just traded one problem for another. Since the owner's refusing to fix it, I bet that the only option would be to go to court. However, the cost of a lawyer, paying experts to testify, etc. would far exceed to cost to getting the work re-done. Looks like I'm just have to suck it up, save up some cash, and pay for someone else to fix it maybe a couple years down the road. I feel like I was really taken advantage of. Given that this place is supposed to be the best body shop in Ohio, I'm really shocked that the job is less than perfect. Maybe they were good in the past, but perhaps they're rushing jobs through or something. After spending all that money (which is probably more than one should spend on an entry-level car like a Yaris), and they had my car for nearly three weeks, there shouldn't be any obvious defects.

[mazilla]

Holy shit, $2,200 to re-spray a few panels half ass? :-/


Make sure you leave shitty review on Yelp(etc).

[Hamster]

Yeah, I plan on leaving negative reviews on various sites, so that no one has to go through the emotional roller coaster than I'm going through right now.

I am madly in love with my car, and this whole situation just makes me want to break out into tears. I was so looking forward to getting the key scratches fixed. I wish I had just kept the insurance company's check and my deductible and gone on a cruise or something, rather than spending it on half-assed paintwork. My car's color is meteorite metallic, which as you guys know, is a light color. So the dust sticks out like sore thumb. And the car has just under 10,000 miles on the clock, so it's still basically brand new. Gee whiz, is there any decent body shop out there? The place I took my car to has a excellent reputation, which is why I took it there. I don't understand why this happened, or why the owner is handling it so poorly.

[KCALB SIRAY]

So, I am confused.....was there not a contract or agreement signed before said work was performed AND in that agreement there should be satisfaction/guarantee information as to the quality of the work performed?

What's the phone number there?

[Hamster]

Originally Posted by KCALB SIRAY

So, I am confused.....was there not a contract or agreement signed before said work was performed AND in that agreement there should be satisfaction/guarantee information as to the quality of the work performed?

What's the phone number there?

Yep, that's the correct phone number. I signed a contract, but it just said that I agreed to pay the work at the agreed-upon price. Nothing about the quality of the work that is to be expected. This is the first car I've ever owned (I'm 26 years old), and the first time I've ever brought a car to a body shop, so maybe I'm young and naive. I just didn't know what to expect. EDIT: I just wanted to add that this wasn't done under the table or anything like that. I was just a typical customer.

[KCALB SIRAY]

614-890-5099
got it, NM

[cali yaris]

First you said:

I didn't go out and get a count, but it's got to be at the very least between two to four dozen or so bits of dirt/dust in each panel.

Then:

Looking at my car again, it appears that there is about one piece or less of dust in the paint per square foot.

Two to four DOZEN to ONE or less? What just happened?

[KCALB SIRAY]

Where again did you say the keying was done? Not sure exactly where a "panel" is located as the car is full of them, and usually, a keying type incident is done at the waist level along the key as one walks by. Did you also get your rear bumper fixed while you were at it; those deep groves?

[Hamster]

Some people here said that I shouldn't be naming the shop without back-up. Good point. I don't want to be sued for slander. I edited out the shop information in my post. I can re-post it once I put up pictures, should this situation not get resolved. If there is a problem, that is.

I swear to you all, I'll get a new digital camera soon. I have a Best Buy gift certificate that I need to use up!

[KCALB SIRAY]

You spent 3G's for a respray...and insurance as part of that...SMH...

[cali yaris]

Besides i love when cali chimes in with his 2 cents.....

I'm flattered. Here's two more cents...

So, when this thread dies down, I plan on reviving it.

Please, no!

[KCALB SIRAY]

...plastic dipsticks...

[mazilla]

Next time, take a piece of the 3K and buy yourself a 100.00 camera. ;)

[Hamster]

Cali Yaris, you have nothing to worry about, this thread is not going to be revived. Had I been able to take pictures, it's likely this this matter would have been resolved pretty quickly. I feel really stupid and embarrassed right now. I'll explain.

In the two weeks since I got my car back, I had only seen it under bright sunlight. I went out to my garage today in order to get an exact count of the dirt specks. Today, it's been cloudy and rainy for the first time in a while. Therefore, I was able to see my car under completely different lighting conditions.

Turns out that what I thought was specks of dirt was actually clumps of metallic pieces that formed little round balls. These balls slighly raised the paint above them To my untrained eye, they appeared as dust or little chunks of dirt sitting between the base and the clear. Under more muted light, I was finally able to see what they actually were. When I got picked up the car, I was told that it's impossible for a body shop to exactly replicate the way a robot at the factory sprays on metallic pieces in the paint. Therefore, imperfections are inevitable in a respray. In some spots, the metallic pieces look like black specks. But, now I can see that they also formed clumps here and there, and I had mistaken them for dirt when looking at it under very bright sunlight. No wonder the owner refused to re-do it. When he referred to one piece of dirt per square foot, he was probably referring to defects that can only been seen with a maginifying glass. I just wish the owner had spent a few minutes pointing out and explaining away all the imperfections. Looks like the whole thing was a breakdown in communication. I got angry over nothing, and I feel really silly. So, if anyone here owns a meterorite metallic Yaris and you need a respray at some point, have the body shop point out and explain the imperfections in the metallic when you get your car back. This way, you won't wind up fretting over nothing like I did.

One thing I'm confused about, though. The metallic chunks, the ones I thought were dirt, often appear far away from the site of the original scratch. I thought that new color/basecoat was only sprayed at the site of the damage, and then the whole panel is re-cleared. Or is the color coat sprayed on the entire panel? Could someone explain, in layman's terms, how key scratches are fixed?