54Roadster

The missus pranged the wheelarch of my 05 shape sti on the garage door, just cracked the wheelarch extension and barely scratched the laquer paint under the plastic and grazed the laquer on the door. My previous experience of bodyshops was telling me to just get a new arch extension colour keyed, and do it myself, but OOHHH NNOO.. I think better of it and take it to my main dealer. who have "blended the arch and door in"

basically, I went to collect it, and found:

masking lines round the arch extenion / body join.
overspray all over the spoiler, masking lines on the spoiler
scuffs on the boot that looks like they have polished the clearcote with wire wool
Orange peel on the rear wing where it meets the boot
various patches of overspray all over the car.

Needless to say, I told the guy on the desk that I am leaving the car, and will be back tomorrow when the bodyshop is open again

I am tempted to go to a non subaru bodyshop that I have used before, and get him to have a look at the car tomorrow for advice on what it will take to fix it, then get them to pay him to do it. The only reason I didnt take it to him anyway, was that I thought with the paint warranty I needed to use a subaru garage for repairs.

As you can imagine I am not best pleased, the car I have only owned for a matter of weeks from new is mess and to be honest I don't want it back. Not sure if any paint experts read this site, but from experience, is a car ever the same once you start painting over paint, repairing orangepeel etc.

I wouldn't even trust them to re paint the whole car.


any words of advice much appreciated.

chris mcat

from my experience of such matters (working for vw) i would ask them to carry out the reapir, and try and get it right this time! vw have a 10 ear paint waranty so i would avoid going to a non genuine place, as if u were to have a paint defect in years to come and the repiar has been done by a non genuine garage they will not ofer help in any way. i would let them do the repair again and get the dealer pricipal involved, as u have just brought a new car they would rather keep u quiet then return the car causing all sorts of headaches for the dealership. Good luck!!

sparky d

By all means go elseware and get a second opinion but in my experience ( approx 3 months ago ) i was very unhappy with the work carried out and therefore sent my car back to them three times untill they got it right and i was happy with the job ,


you are wihtin your rights to refuse a bad job and any decent bodyshop should be happy to make good there mistakes untill you are happy ,

Good luck , hope you get it all sorted soon

ukdave

If you know a good bodyshop i`d go elsewhere very few main dealers are any good bodyshop wise-theyre ok but errr just ok. bought a pug 106gti brand new a few yr ago went to pick it up-chip in top of wing and bottom of bumper scratched either on a kerb or transporter-said theyd sort for me told them i didnt want the wing spraying as theyd never match it (pearlescent mauritius blue)went bk they`d sprayed wing-darker than rest of car and left arch moulding on, hence pool of laquer around the edge of the arch-just looked like the arch had been glued on i were well happy for a car that had just cost me £12500-to cut a long story short went f--king mad got no sense out of dealer or customer relations at coventry said f-ck it in the end and got it done by a bloke round here with his own place who restores classic cars.Strangely enough car were perfect after.

StickyMicky

i hate body shops TBH

the one i normally use has good days and bad days, they have done loads of paint for me over the years and painted the red bits on my car, decent enough price, they also done my mates front spoiler and side-skirts, and never removed them from the car

totally depends on how much work they have on TBH
i normally get a good result, as they know i am an arsehole but it took them 3 attempts to do the white blade on my spoiler

i think to many people just accept crappy paintwork, so a bodyshop generally gets away with murder, there supposed to be ****en professionals, i swear i can paint better with a proper matched aerosol then half the "pro`s" with all the gear

i dented my front wing in a slight drifting accident

rang a few places, told the price of a wing plus paint (which i knew would never match) local dent man would not touch it, to close to the seam or some other bollocks "scrap that wing" etc etc

figured i would sort it myself, made a few tools to push it back out (near the sidelight) then spent a few hours per night when i was on late shift at the carwash, just skimming and filling with some finish filler putty stuff, i then had a proper aerosol knocked up at a paint factors for my shade and feathered the thing in myself, with fantastic results, i then dented the bloody wing in a different place while doing another job, so i covered the lot in red stickers PMSL