VTNZ guy wrecked my brand new paintjob!!!!
 

So I took my freshly painted FD down to have it complied so I can legally drive it on NZ roads, it failed on a few things (one of which I am NOT happy with) but thats ok. I bought it back home and I was on the phone talking to a friend about what it had just failed on and I noticed the screws in the front wheel well were sticking half out, had not been screwed back in. I then noticed that the side skirt was sticking out a bit and that the paint had been pulled off my front guard where the side skirt used to be attached!!! There is about a 2" rip in the paint where the urathane had been put on and as you can imagine I was highly pissed off!

I have just spent the last 8 months building this car as some of you would have seen on my build thread. I attempted to ring the place that did the test but they were closed so I rang them first thing in the morning and the guy who checked the car pretended to not know what I was talking about and has told me to bring the car down and they will see what they can do.
I spoke to another friend last night and he told me that when i take it down explain that it is a one off paint job and that the car may need to be resprayed as the paint will not look right if they try and remake it. These guys deserve to be put through the cleaners as they make the average persons life hell when it comes to comliancing and because they have a bit of power they like to abuse it.

What he should have done is phone me and inform me that he needs to take the skirt off to inspect the inner guard and that there is a chance that the paint may be damaged, I would have shot down and pulled it off myself if that was the case, now this loser can pay!!!!

That is my vent for now, I will keep you updated and will put up pictures sometime today!

Did they put the car on a lift?




=Ben

Yes but it was a drive on lift/hoist, they have obviosly tried to seperate the skirt from the front guard as the screws are still half hanging out. The other scary part is, what else has he either broken or left undone?? He has had the brakes apart, interior and other parts of the car as they are standard things to check and measure.

That sucks man.

It happened to me early last year. I'd just had the front guards, bonnet and bumper resprayed and I took it for a wheel alignment. They scratched the left guard somehow and also played dumb when I asked what happened.

Where did you have it checked over ?

That really sucks and I can't believe that you have to do all of those test to register a car in New Zealand. That is crazy!

I went to the Grey Lynn VTNZ in Auckland, I am really pissed off about this but I am taking the car back there today for them to see. The guy better not play dumb with me or I might be forced to give him a cock punch!
I was also told by a panel beater they they will only cover up to $2000 for damage but we will see how it goes as I wouldnt mind the whole car being re-painted!

Mikeric:
You really don't know the half of it here when it comes to vehicles in NZ, we have a pretty open book when it comes to mods, hell we put different engines in pretty much anything here and just get it certified for the road and its easy but when it comes to putting a car back on the road once it has been deregisterd they are making it really hard.
The way it used to work was if you had a car that had been previously regd in NZ it was a case of doing a full inspection but they were more leanient with some things, since they have changed the rules they class your car as if it has only just come into the country so they have more checks and tests that thay have to do!
The reason they changed the rules is because they are trying to get all cars that are older than 2000 off our roads.

This guy went the extra mile to piss me off so now I am going to rip him a new asshole for damaging my hard work!

Get some photos happening.

Hey Jon,
Gutted for you man! Whats the update????

Aymon

BADSVN2000,
Don't ever let anyone touch your car without your watchful eye's overlooking. I never let anyone so much as put my truck(not to mention my RX7) on a lift without watching. During an inspection I would hover like a bee around them to make sure they don't fuck something up. And, you just know they will play dumb if something happens as it obviously did in your case. I'm with you on this one but again, don't ever let anyone touch your car without being right there. Stay in the backround the whole time.

Here is an update:

I took the car down today to be inspected by the VTNZ guy, turns out they contract out to another company to have the vehicles stripped for inspection. The guy that did it looked to be about 18!!!
I spoke with the owner of the contract company and informed him he will be fixing it (after a heated debate) and that I will be getting a quote from my panel beater!
I went and got the quote of NZD $489.38 and took it down to the contract company office to hand to the owner. He looked at it and said he wasnt paying that much and that he would be getting his mate whos a panel beater to look at it and "touch it up" he was not happy with the quote as it was to repaint the entire front guard and he is not prepared to pay that amount for such a small amount of damage.
I then informed him that he should be taking ownership of this problem, that his "mate" will not be going anywhere near my car and that he will be paying for the damage. he tiold me that I will have to take him to court to get the money out of him so I turnd and said "oh dont worry, I will and you already know that I am going to win"!

Here are some pics, sorry about the quality I will get better ones!

The first one is the damage and the second one is the drivers side which incidently was NOT damaged.

good shit bro. you on havik?

I'm totally confused. So what your saying is they put your car up on the hoist and it damaged your side skirts?

I've had my car on a hoist plently of times with C-West side skirts and the car lowered and never had a problems. Another thing I should mention is that knock off C-West kits especially the side skirts have terrible fitment as you can see in the photo. I had this same problem and it never sat flush with the car.

Are you positive the panel beater sprayed the car behind where the side skirts go?

Ok just to clarify, the car was painted with all panels off the car, side skirts included so every panel has had a good coat of paint and clear, I was there when it was getting painted so I know what was done.
The fact the car was on the hoist has nothing to do with what happened. The guy that was employed to strip the car for the check tried to pry the side skirts off the car to help get the inner guard out to check the structual makeup of the car. He had undone the screws that I put on the car inside the wheel arch and I had used panel beating grade urathane to fix the side skirts to the car so they wouldnt come off. The guy would of had to pull on the skirt quite hard to have done what he did.

I hope this clears it all up.

i ve been through all these body kit crap with my previous car,,no with the fd.
taugh luck mate...
but if they are good on they are job..since the paintjob is brand new they will be able to match the colour without painting the whole thing again

Well I now know the benefits of using original fibreglass products, but seeing as I was on a small budget I had to use the cheaper version. The skirts still had nothing to do with what happened, the guy should have realised what he was doing and rung me to express his concern over possible damage but he didnt.
I have an appointment with a certifier to have the accident damage checked in the next few days and I have been told that the earliest I can get a court session is in April so I plan to pay to fix it myself then charge him when I win the case, unfortunatly in NZ (this is small claims court) we cant ask for anything above what it cost us to fix othewise I would be charging him for my time and a piss me off fee!
I am also going to apply to have my car re-checked somewhere else and I will be laying an official complaint to the NZ LTSA about the way this has been dealt with as I feel it is unacceptable! The guy is lucky I didnt smack him in the chops with the way he was speaking to me but I know that wouldnt have got me anywhere apart from jail.

I know a good assassin...

lol


Dude, that sucks. I hope you can get everything worked out.

dont you just love people like this that think that its okay to fuck up other people's (expensive) cars and just give some low ball number like its no big deal. they dont how much hard work goes into these cars and that it is okay to say "oh well, tough shit, your problem", thats why i think that u should kick his ass. lol

It really shouldnt matter whether I have a $200 car or a $20,000 car, at the end of the day it is my car, I took it in to this place in perfect condition for them to perform an inspection which they do every day and they damaged it! I dont care if they dont like the car, I dont care what they think of it I just want them to fix it and I should be entitled to that without hesitation. If it was me in this guys position I would remedy the situation right away, I dont really think he knows who he is messing with as I plan to go further than just take him to court for the cost of repairs. I plan on writing to the LTSA to lodge a formal complaint about the sheer lack of intelligence and accountability this person has. Why would they want a company like this working fo them as I am sue there are 10 others waiting in line. I have had it with assholes like this, why should they get away with it, yet if was him in my position he would fudge the quote and make me pay double! I have tried the nice guy approach and now he can suffer the consequences of his actions. If I end up getting his company's contract terminated then so be it, he shouldnt be in business anyway!!

Make em pay $$$

your right they shouldnt abuse some guy becuase he has a honda and walk on egg shells around a ferrari. but my point is that just treating any car badly and thinking that they should only have to pay for a basic paint job when they screwed up a nice paint job like yours is total bullshit. it just shows how people have a severe lack of respect for their fellow man.