Can this be saved?
 

Hey everyone,

I recently was very much screwed over and out of $800.00 by a man and his 'business' who promised me a flawless paintjob. How could I trust someone who said I could have a flawless color-change paint job for only $800? Simple...my friend who recommended me to him got his car painted by this same guy and it was flawless. I have also seen his portfolio, and he's very good. However, for whatever reason, he decided to give me (Are you sitting down?) this... http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...l/P1010073.jpg

Scary, huh? For two weeks, he procrastinated and he lied to me about everything...from sanding the car down to doing the basic dent repair he assured me was already done.. The car was never sprayed in a booth, even with all the talk about how the shop they were going to use 45 minutes away where they had driven the car was full up, so they rented another one closer by for the next morning. Funny how my odometer reading was identical to what it was when I left the car with them, eh? He painted the car in one morning, outside, under a tree in his driveway. It was hot and humid out with a light breeze.

The car was not more than lightly hand sanded and you can see the sanding marks thru the paint. The car was not washed or wiped down prior to spraying the paint, and it's very obvious. The 'color change' (i.e. the door jams and the hatch jams only at my request) was not done properly, and as you can see from the pictures on my photobucket..the whole job was just very very poorly.

Now, I'm not stupid and I do know my way around basic painting techniques and the consequences of poor prep work and/or poor technique.. And this paint just looks all sorts of messed up. Considering the work he's very capable of doing, he did this to me and my car on purpose. Most likely because he thought I was just another silly little young fag who wouldn't know or do anything about it. Wrong. You don't mess with me, and you DON'T mess with my car. I am suing him for the cost, the court fees and most likely damages to my interior and my $1,400 exhaust system. There is overspray EVERYWHERE!

My question is, what can I do to possible make the car look even slightly better? It seems though, that in most places he didn't use enough paint...so of course it is very thin, which is why you can see red thru it. I have a bad feeling that if I remotely even thought about blocking it or buffing it that it would just wear right through the paint back to the red and it'd look even worse.

I guess all I'm looking for is a few solid responses to whether or not the finish can be made slightly better...more glossy...until I can fix it myself like I should have just done in the first place. Let's get something completely clear, I've done far better work with spray paint, a pack of sand paper and an orbital buffer.

Description of the finish: Still hardening, very rough like sand paper (From too much flake in the clear and no post-metallic coats of pure clear), tiger striped, too thick in some places and too thin in others. Debris in the paint from being done outside.

Link to photobucket, password is naonly
http://s146.photobucket.com/albums/r247/Acesanugal/

Discuss.

By the way, the color is Viper Blue Pearl Metallic...or it was supposed to be...-sigh-

that's definitely not flawless. i'll bet maaco would've done a better job for a fraction of the cost.

Strip it.

Thats fucking disgusting...I feel terrible for you, but as a body shop owner I can't help but laugh a bit. I always hear "I know a guy who can do that cheap bla bla bla" and this is the type of shit you get for $800. Actually, you should get more for $800, so for that I realyl feel for you.

Firstly, (without being able to touch the paint) I'd say thats acrylic enamel or acrylic urethane - either of those means you can't buff it being that its metallic. Second, there's so much missing paint, blotches and stripes that its seriously not even worth the effort it would take to wet sand and polish what was savable (if it is BC/CC that is)

Lastly, if it is anything aside from BC/CC or straight single stage urethane - it **HAS** to be stripped off before any real paint is applied or you're going to have problems with sinking/biting/adhesion you name it.

Hope it works out for you, given that he's not a registered business (by the sounds of it) you might have issues getting money out of him.

This freakin' sucks.

The real problem is that he KNOWS what he's doing. Remember, he did my friend's TII and it looked great straight after paint. He did this on purpose.

I think you guys are right about what I'll have to do to fix it, but I'll be doing it myself. This is the first time I've really trusted another person with my car and they blew it. I could've done a much better job prepping the car myself and using dollar store spray paint. I know I can, because I have. So I'll just probably end up stripping the car down to nothing, prepping the surface the right way and renting a compressor and a spray gun. I can make a makeshift booth in someone's garage with a good cleaning, tarp and a few fans. The point being is that I shouldn't have to. It should've been done to the standards agreed upon, as good as my friend's car was done.

Can you believe the jackass is trying to tell me there's nothing wrong with the way my car looks and that it'll all just buff out and look brand new? HA! Right.

lol yeah.

If he can buff that shit out tell him I'll pay $30/hr to do it 44hrs a week :)

Damn man. I feel really bad for you. You could have fucked up your own car for alot less. :(

Did you say something to this guy when you got your car back or did he just drop it off in your drive way and drive away? I can't imagine being able to give you your car back looking like that and look you in the eye and tell you that its just fine.


Did you ask him how buffing adds paint where it is needed, like your door jams? He gonna buff the overspray off your windshield? Seriously how the fuck do you get that much paint on the windshield?

Were the mirrors supposed to stay black?

Do you have pics of your friends car?

So true. I've seen so many people on here say that kinda stuff. The funny thing is most of the time you never hear from them again to find out how things turned out. Probably because something like this happened.


Shit, if he can add paint with a buffer he deserves alot more than that!


I never knew you could rent paint booths...

lol exactly...

The problem is you simply cannot do a top notch, or even real nice paint job with good materials for that cheap. So the guy does one nice car and works his balls off only to get enough money to cover material if he's lucky......then another guy wants the same thing. He's either got to charge more (which he can't because the guy bringing in the car only brought it to him because its cheap) or do less..........the cycle continues until some poor sonofabitch (you in this case) gets it broke off in his ass.

Hope this helps:

http://www.autobodytoolmart.com/p-10...13.aspx?cid=DC

That's not where I buy it, but its exactly what I use.

Man, i'd be pissed. I know paint jobs aren't cheap, but for $800 I'd expect it to look better than that. I've seen some cheap Maaco jobs that more professional. Good luck with getting it all sorted out.

So you wanted your mazda logo blue too?

holy shit... thats terrible...

he screwed you, a guy across the street from me has been doing paint and body his whole life and he is pretty cheap but he would have done a thousand times better than that for 800 just because his name would be on it and he would want you to tell everyone else he is good, sorry dude

Don't do a damn thing until the lawsuit gets you cash in your hand! If you erase the evidence you may walk away screwed even more. You should get more than $800. The judge should grant you full repair of your car including a full paint job to return it to what it should look like. Maybe not the dent repair.

It looks like rattle can to me... If you can't get any money out of him for some reason though... You can't go wrong with a good quality duplicolor or krylon flat black job. dont use cheap wal mart 90 cent shit.

Was he high? I'd kick him in the testicles or just take him to court if you can. That in no way is acceptable, even for $800.

$900 at maaco got me this for my s13
*took the car in pieces though had them spray the body kit seperate
http://a849.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...7dd6641b28.jpg
http://a333.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...66083c53c4.jpg
http://tunerbase.com/carsale/hardparked.jpg
had them repair some of the fiberglass spoiler and shave one of the rear turn markers in the back. Though that didnt include any dents or prep work.
It was a daily driven low project car, i dont expect the body to be perfect *cant stop people from dining your car at the mall etc*
I never got around to color sanding it b4 i sold it..

but asking for $$ for overspray on your exhaust is a little too much.. give a few months of daily driving and yoru exhaust will have road grime on it and you probably wont care.. thats as ridiculous as "you got paint on my tires! now i want new ones!"

Take it to a professional shop and get an estimate from them about spraying the whole car with a quality job.. then sue/slap him with that price.. So maybe you can get a hell of alot better job out of this.

Oh, the overspray on the exhaust and windscreen can easily be removed...it's the fact that he assured me he was going to wrap the cans in cardboard and obviously that didn't happen that causes the issue.

Let me have my friend step in and show you his car...

here is the same job he did for me and I'm the friend that made the reccomendation. I was shocked.

(before clear)
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n...t/100_4467.jpg
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n...t/100_4468.jpg

After clear
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n...t/IMG_0154.jpg
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n...t/IMG_0149.jpg

and for half the price...I got charged twice as much.

nice S13 dude. yea the way you do things is do your own prepe work if you can tape everything off and take it to macco have them spray it.. i personally would love to do all the work on my car myself but i dont have the facilitys to paint a car myself
ohwell nice S13 man

One thing is for sure, I'm never EVER giving a recommendation to him again. Ever.

I did this with cheap spray paint, some sand paper and a cheap buffing pad. It's a S4 tail light. Passenger side, as soon as it makes no difference. Smooth as freakin' glass.

Clean, sand/prep, spray, clear, air cure, wet sand, polish...magic. Took me a collective 30 minutes of work, MAYBE!

http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...P1010075-1.jpg
http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...P1010076-1.jpg
http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...P1010077-1.jpg

I rest my case.

dam i see what you mean. 87 turbo II 's car came out awesome.. wonder why this guy cheated you

Probably because I'm a fag, that usually has something to do with it.

I thought you said they were bi? They shouldn't of been hating on you for that.

Dude, they can say whatever they want. Doesn't mean it's true. Let's also remember the fact that they lied to me for two straight weeks.

Wow. That paint job is hideous.