Horrible body shop experience-350Z ruined

**d.manning** · 10-04-2008, 05:41 PM

Found this on a few other car forums, wanted to pass it along here. Hopefully its not a repost, haven`t found it and don`t really know where this should go.

HORRIBLE body shop experience - details inside. 350z ruined. - MY350Z.COM Forums

**imported_shine** · 10-04-2008, 06:14 PM

That looks beyond awful.

**1 high bald guy** · 10-04-2008, 06:27 PM

wow and that shops right around my neck of the woods...

**LouisanaJeeper** · 10-04-2008, 06:33 PM

That is terrible work. I hope that guy did not pay the shop..

not to knock this owner... but when you are price shopping installing a body kit and respraying 1/4 the car and get a price of $250 red flags should fly up. Even $780 is low for that type of job. I would expect $1200 - $1500 for installing and respraying the kit (done right).

When you go with the lowball bodshop you get deck screws and terrible paint with no prep.

**Slow_racer** · 10-04-2008, 08:11 PM

wow.. just wow.. thats just insane.

**d.manning** · 10-05-2008, 06:38 AM

Originally Posted by 1 high bald guy

wow and that shops right around my neck of the woods...

I`d say don`t be afraid to speak up then to anybody you hear of looking to get work done and tell them to stay the hell away from that place. Thats just me though :cooleek:

**wfedwar** · 10-05-2008, 07:55 AM

Looks like he used up a bulk pack of wood screws.

**Scottwax** · 10-05-2008, 08:03 AM

Saw that on another board, just unreal on both ends. Why would anyone think you are getting quality work for the initial estimate, regardless of the price boost halfway through the job? On the other hand, how can anyone be that utterly incompetent to do such horrible work?

**imported_rydawg** · 10-05-2008, 09:44 AM

WOW!!!!!!! I have seen some hack work in my life, but that is just awful.

The sheetrock screws and wood say it all. It looks like he also ran out of clips, so he took them out of the front bumper. To fix that correctly, it is going to cost a few thousand plus now.

He gets the hack-a-whack award for sure. I feel very bad for the owner of the car and I hope he sues for 5 times the cost of the damage.

**Bradbmx1** · 10-05-2008, 09:59 AM

so I can`t imagine this shop priding themselves on their work. That`s just awful.

**JohnHenry** · 10-05-2008, 10:25 AM

Seriously, the Z owner would have been better off dropping his car off at the local Vo-Tech Auto Body class.

Lower priced car painting is an interesting industry. The little shop of horrors featured in this thread obviously has enough of a local reputation to attract at least some customers with decent cars. It seems that with any discipline at all, the operator could do acceptable work. His customers are presumably looking to get by on the cheap, so why not capitalize on this market, and do a minimally passing, if not quality, job?

Finding myself between jobs, I once applied as a manager at a well known discount auto painting location. I arrived for the interview to find a very professional, polite, frazzled regional manager apologizing for making me wait. He was trying to cover three stores that day. Customers... drop-offs, pick-ups, and comparison shoppers... were literally lined up on the street.

I`m sure that five grand worth of business drove off in the couple of hours that I was there. I looked over the shop and observed the employees as I waited. Beyond the corporate signage, the place was a wreck... filthy, disorganized, in serious need of repair. The phone rang off the hook, mostly unanswered. The actual painting operation was a complete nightmare... spraying in an open garage bay - I guess the paint booths were full (You can`t make this stuff up!), equipment in various stages of disrepair, employees arguing with each other, absolutely no apparent process or supervision or quality control.

I saw some "finished" cars waiting to be delivered. I was reminded of a coloring book where the kid didn`t stay inside the lines!

What are these guys thinking?! They`re sitting on a goldmine, with a minimal capital investment. Get some adult supervision! I didn`t hang around for the interview. I hope that the regional manager hasn`t had a heart attack yet.

**wfedwar** · 10-05-2008, 10:48 AM

One time may years ago I dropped some wheels off to be resprayed by a local body shop. I`d taken several hours to strip the old paint off and get the bare metal prepped. They said they would spray them and then harden them in their oven, and I could pick them up in two days. I called after a couple of days to see if they were done. They said no, but they`d be doing them soon. Apparently they thought I was being pushy (I wasn`t, the car was on stands and the engine was out) and decided to "expedite" the service. They called me the next day and I went up there. They had given them to some guy who was so lacking mentally that you couldn`t carry on a conversation with him, and he took them home. He brought them back the next day and 1) they were grey--supposed to be stock silver, 2) the paint/clear ran in big glops, and 3) they had a lot of dead moths and other bugs stuck in the paint. Totally ridiculous. I wasn`t too terribly upset, because I knew I could strip them and start over, it would just be more work. What I couldn`t believe was that they wanted to charge me for this. I just put them in the back of my truck and left. Ended up doing it myself in the garage using those little Prevail cans (or whatever they`re called). They turned out pretty good in the long run.

**johny** · 10-05-2008, 10:50 AM

It was painful to scroll through all those horrible photos ... I think the misaligned (wood) screws and the piece of wood are what stand out in my mind the most ... but everything about that bodywork was a nightmare.

**FairladyZ32** · 10-06-2008, 03:46 PM

the screws on the side skirts are just awful. when i installed my sideskirts, i just used 2 screws on each end and 3m dual stick tape along the door sill.