Opinion/advice required on paint issue

[oobster]

Ladies & gents, your views and opinions are requested on the following:

As most of you know, I have fitted the front bumper "aero skirts" off an STi onto my car. These parts come from Subaru already painted, but they only come in STi colours. Since you dont get a Red STI new-age, i got S&S to order me a white pair, which I then got a local bodyshop (nameless at the moment) to colour-code them for me.

Now yesterday (sunday) i gave the car a right good wash & noticed that the new bits are quite badly stone-chipped. The original white is showing through very clearly.The surrounding bumper is not stone-chipped at all.

I took the car along to the bodyshop that colour-coded them this morning & the manager has asked me to go back tomorrow morning when he will perform a tape test - basically involves attaching tape over the painted area and ripping it back off again - if paint comes off with the tape then this means the paint hasn't adhered properly when he done the job originally.

BUT he said if the tape test shows the paint is sticking fine onto the plastic, he isn't willing to re-do the work at his cost.

The fact that the surrounding bumper isn't stone-chipped leads me to believe that there can only be a proplem with the way these aero parts were painted. Am i right to come to this conclusion?

If, after the tape test, he refuses to re-paint them properly, can anyone recommend a place local to me that can do the work properly, and fairly quickly too (i.e. this week if poss). I can remove them off the car within about 20 mins if neccessary.

All opinions & advice appreciated

Thanks

Andy

[chrissy]

IMHO if the paint on the rest of the bumper is fine then they bodyshop aint painted it correctly ie, sanding the origional paint away, priming and re-painting in red, although if you had just asked for them to be painted over the white paint then it was just a matter of time before the chipping happened, hope that helps a wee bit n y not try a tape test yourself to see if it does take paint off, saves ya a journey if it doesnt.

chrissy

[gus the bus]

Andy,

Responded to your PM!

Gus

[jcscoob]

Andy if the tape test fails, and he tells you to bog off !!

Rally the troops, and give him a good old magic circle !!

Ps, good luck

[oobster]

cheers folks.

The thing is, the bloke i deal with is the bodyshop manager. And i always pay him cash - i assume he gives me a good price for cash, and i also assume he pockets it.

Now that doesn't mean I dont want a proper job done, a thing I have had clear to him a couple of times in the past.

If he does the tape test and it's fine, then tells me to walk I won't be going back, i'll need to search around for another local bodyshop.

Thats what makes me so mad - i'm doing him a favour paying cash. I could walk in & ask for a proper written quote, with the price including VAT etc then pay by credit card if i wanted to. That way i'd have a receipt to wave in someones face if things go t*ts up. But now all i can do is threaten to tell his gaffer (the bodyshop is part of a main-dealer chain, not subaru though) which I won't do as this will just result in an absolutely guaranteed bodge-job.

If he prefers cash then why won't he do a proper job!!!!

Rant mode off.

[wrxmania]

Tough Luck Andy - hope they live up to their reputation. A busy reputable body shop will sometimes rush a job, I've had a few - even one rush job done cheap by a family relative (who runs a big bodyshop chain some on here have used). NEVER found a bodyshop job which compares anywhere to factory really.

Hope you get it sorted - I can hear Dawn saying "You should have just left it Standard - that's the way it's supposed to be" - that's what most of us would get!!!

Brian

[oobster]

<<

Hope you get it sorted - I can hear Dawn saying "You should have just left it Standard - that's the way it's supposed to be" - that's what most of us would get!!!

Brian >>

I am fortunate in that Dawn is not known for her nagging - she let's me prattle on for ages, sighes, and continues what she's doing.

I doubt i'll have much luck the morra, but maybe the bodyshop manager might get his nazzles 2nite & he'll be in a good mood the morra!!!

[wrxmania]

Or tomorrow, a kick in the nazzles!

[oobster]

Indeed!

P.S. 103 views in 6 hours, and only 4 folk felt the need to respond? C'Mon folks!

[irish al]

theres so many stone chips on my car it just looks normal now.

dont know anything about painting so cant help.

Tell the guy to stick the sellotape up his arse and fix them, ill lend you some

tape that is so sticky it should definately bring it off if there is something wrong.

[john_robertson]

Andy,

Could be down to various things,

Improper prep, i.e. the new parts haven't been "keyed" properly thus the paint is coming off easily. The tape test will show this up if he uses decent tape, don't get fobbed off by normal masking tape.

Badly mixed paint, possibly not enough plasticiser

Paint not thick enough, painter has used just enough to cover the white and/or hasn't used a colour matched primer (doubtfull as this is only usually in really expensive jobs)

Lack of clear coat lacquer, or once again not thick enough, the lacquer is there for a reason

Hope this helps,

John.