How long should professional colour coding last?
 

Hi All,

My colour coding has started to flake away in places after only a year :cry: It was done professionally. The car is lightly used, no track days or silly wheel-spinning stunts and is immaculately cared for with Autoglym products.

I like the company I'm dealing with very much and want to make sure I'm not being unreasonable in complaining that I'd expect it to last longer.I'm not an expert on paintwork.

Should colour colding wear as well as the paint on the rest of the car or am I being unreasonable?

Regards,

NS04

P.S. Please don't ask me to name the company. I've not intention of bitching about them on here before 1) I've ascertained that I have good grounds for a complaint and 2) they've had a chance to respond properly.

Hello your paint should,nt be flacking of at all if it was done properly, to colourcode plastics properly plastic primer should have been used this type of primer bonds the colour coat to the panel thus ensuring a good bond this allows the paint to flex with out flaking off, ive painted many many diffrent plastic materials over the years using this process and haven,t had any problems, hope this helps

Thanks ScoobyJay. I thought as much. I know for a fact that this company does indeed used a primer as a matter of proceedure. Perhaps it was just an oversight....

Any other opinions -even if they are only to re-inforce what ScoobyJay has said- would be appreciated.

Cheers,

NS04

Thought I would just pipe up

Well done for not jumping in and "Naming and Shaming" without getting the facts and giving the company a chance to respond

To me it sounds perhaps a dodgy batch of primer or similar I am sure they will re do for you

I agree, and if its under one year, then it should be covered under warranty.

If its longer than one year and out of warranty, then you still have a claim. Under the Sales of Goods Act goods have to be of satifactory quality, and last a reasonable amount of time.

If they play up with you, and you want to enforce that they do it, then take advice. If they refuse to do the repair, you can also take the car to someone else, get them to do it, and then bill the original company.

Again, seek advice from the Citizens Advice Bureau as to how to go about it. You have to be reasonable to the firm in order to claim costs.

Hiya,

Thanks for the advice mate. I've every intention of being reasonable with the company in question. I wouldn't want any unpleasantries with them: the finish of the job itself was great and they are a very nice bunch... seems as if there was something wrong with the primer, which has lead to a durability issue. One of those things. I hate laying the law down on people too; being nice and reasonable often gets you so much further in life.

I just felt it was important to make sure that my ignorance of paintwork wasn't leading me to make an unreasonable complaint.

I say complaint, but to be honest, I've not even worded my E-mail to them in a finger pointing fashion. I've simply stated that I've had this problem which has arisen from no fault of my own as far as I can ascertain and would they be prepared to help me sort it. From my experience of this company a softly softly approach should be more than adequate: if they feel that something at their end was a fault, I would anticipate them being the kind of chaps to offer to sort it.

I'll keep you posted.

Regards,

NS04

BTW just checked the receipt, it's about a month shy of a year.

Most car manufacturers offer a standard 6 year paint warranty on new cars - I guess it's too much to expect a professional paint company to offer the same level of warranty?

Worth double checking.

I think paint these days is just not as good full stop with all these EEC regulations. I remember when you could have parts painted whether plastic or metal drive up the arse of gritters and normal road use and you'd not get stone chips or paint flaking off.

Having had many bits and pieces painted in the past the quality of painters' work in general doesn't seem as good as it used to be.

If you manage to find a good painter then I'd hang on to them for dear life!

Take it back and I think they should repaint it for nothing, like other posters have said get advice from the Citizens Advic Bureau or trading standards. To be forewarned is to be forearmed :-)

Another thing worth considering is how the area was prepped, if there was any silicon from cleaners " e.g. Back to Black " this can make it a nightmare for the paint to stick to, the area really needs to be well cleaned down with thinners etc prior to painting.

John.

Have they added a 'plasticiser' to the paint? No amount of correct primer will prevent paint that doesnt have the necessary additive from flaking.


Simon

When enquiring about colour coding my sill trims I was told by a friend who owns our local bodyshop that if a car is over three months old then they wont touch plastic trims, he explained that this is to do with the fact that once a car has been cleaned and either polish or silicon spray of all types has come into contact with the plastic it is almost impossible to 'draw out' these chemicals from inside the plastic, even with the use of a heat gun. And after time these molecules work to the surface of the plastic and then the paint starts to detach.
Whever of not there is any truth to this i dont know (any molecular scientists on scoobynet!) but he is a genuine bloke who tends not to turn work away.


QUOTE=New To Scoob]Another thing worth considering is how the area was prepped, if there was any silicon from cleaners " e.g. Back to Black " this can make it a nightmare for the paint to stick to, the area really needs to be well cleaned down with thinners etc prior to painting.

John.[/QUOTE]

If it took the guy 1 day to do then it hasnt been done properly, they should have the car for 3 days, primer, paint, laqueur, thats how long it took when someone scraped my last scoobs bumper, they even explained why they needed it that long, said if it wasnt done properly it would just peel off.

Tony

A lot of problems with flaking paint on plastics has a lot to do with the type of primer used and the quality, as for not painting plastics that are over a few months old is utter rubbish ,90% of plastics can be overpainted as long as they are treated right, ie cleaned and prepped in the correct manner, when i colour code plastics they get a good coat of 2k plastic primer, then one to two coats of 2k primer dependinding on the grain of the plastics your painting , flatted with 800 wet and dry then coloured coded using this method gives u a fantastic finish, as said in previous the process to do mouldings and bumpers takes two to three days depending on the amount to do, Ive just done a vauxhall zafira mouldings and bumper trims on a 51 plate with no problems at all

-Update-

Been in touch with the company concerned and provided some pictures. Politely voiced concerns that paint durability was not up to expected standard.

Result.

Polite series of E-mails back asking to see the offending trim and then assurance that the work was covered by a warranty and would be done at no cost to me and at my convenience. They even offered to take steps (at cost to them) to minimise my waiting time.

Conclusion:

If you have a problem with some work done on your Scooby, don't come on here a slag the company off straight away, take it up with them directly AND BE POLITE AND REASONABLE. Use the forum for opinions as to whether you've grounds for a complaint, but give the company a chance to respond first and remember, if you go in with an attitude, chances are you'll be met with one.

NS04

Good result :thumb:

Just wanna say, good on ya NS04 :) . I work for a main dealer of a prestige brand facing customers all day long, i have to say some people's attitude towards me and my colleagues is fcukin disgusting. You have to be a special kind of person not to get the arse with pricks who can't be reasonable or treat you with some courtesy.

As the old saying goes, treat others as you wish to be treated.

Good result , I had a problem a few years ago with an insurance repair on an old celica I owned , the repair was two years old and the paint was blistering off of the front plastic bumper,called them up and they checked and told me they had had a bad batch of primer (or might have been panel wipe ) around the time of my repair and took the car back and sorted it out no problem , perhaps your garage has had a similar problem (or got the YTS boy to do the prep work :) )

Dave

Ta, :thumb: I always find that being nice gets the best results. I detest it when people treat others like crap on the basis that, "they're the customer etc"... We've all been on the receiving end of someone like this at some point in our lives and you just think to yourself: " How does this p*ick get through life".

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying people shouldn't be assertive and firm if required -and lets face it- sometimes it is, but in the first instance a friendly, reasonable nudge is all that is often required.

Also there is a big difference between being firm and being a rude, aggressive, obnoxious t*at.

I see threads on here from peeps who have slated a company and then when you ask if they've taken the matter up with company directly, it transpires they haven't. This does no-one any favours. A lot of the companies on here are run by people who are -above all else- car nuts and they'll most likely be dissapointed if things have gone wrong at their end and only to willing to put things right if approached nicely.

NS04