Click & Cry - Body Shop Hack Job

Tachyon

Tachyon

New member
So my wife was backing out of a parking space in her Cadillac SRX and was hit by a dude in a beater pick-up truck (no driver's license, no insurance, no English - he fled the scene).



The passenger-side rear quarter panel was crunched badly, the tailgate was slightly crumpled, and of course the right rear tail lamp smashed to bits. So $10,000 in repairs (thank you Travelers Insurance) and 5 weeks later, she finally gets her car back today from the Cadillac dealer's body shop.



You won't be shocked to see that the quality of their work is, errrm, not good. The paint job isn't too bad, but their buffing skills are Neanderthal.



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I can't wait to have at this mess ... but I'm leaving tomorrow for a 3-day trip and won't be able to get to it until early next week.



Sorry to tease you with only the Before pics, but stay tuned ...
 
oh dear goodness... someone needs to slap an NC-17 / NSFW tag on this thread



please please please help the poor caddy
 
My buddy just had his burgundy '07 Ford Focus repaired and the body shop burned the hell out of it, too. Sickening...
 
Tachyon said:
So $10,000 in repairs (thank you Travelers Insurance) and 5 weeks later, she finally gets her car back today from the Cadillac dealer's body shop.



You won't be shocked to see that the quality of their work is, errrm, not good. The paint job isn't too bad, but their buffing skills are Neanderthal.



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Click to expand...



Dude - that's the understatement of the century! The RT 1/4 is a totally different shade of black than the right rear door.



How did Travelers treat you? Is the Caddy dealer one of their DRP shops?
 
:think: what is with all of these body shops lately. a few of my customers had similar problems this past week alone. I would definitely look into why the paint is not matched.
 
Perhaps it's a new art form...? Never worked for a dealership so I can't say I know first hand on what the expectations are but vehicles should never leave the shop looking like that.
 
First Rule: You should always pick the repair shop; it's your vehicle and you are the one that has to live with it.

I spent over 25 years in the Insurance Claims industry and rarely found an owner who carefully picked the bodyshop for repairs. People took their vehicles to shops who gave nice courtesy cars, or because some ******* at work who drove a beater recommended them. You do have the right to choose the shop.

Also a lot of dealerships run bodyshops as a sideline so you get crappy repairs.
 
David Fermani said:
Dude - that's the understatement of the century! The RT 1/4 is a totally different shade of black than the right rear door.



How did Travelers treat you? Is the Caddy dealer one of their DRP shops?
Click to expand...





For $10,000 they should have blended that door. Take it back.
 
The color may be off just because of the severe buffer hazing.



But, yeah, it does look "off" right now.



Look forward to seeing the "afters"!!
 
Tachyon said:
(no driver's license, no insurance, no English - he fled the scene).
Click to expand...



What does the "no English" part have anything to do w/the no ins. or no lic. part...:think: If he spoke English would you be happier about it?
 
You are complaining to the dealer right? Can't tell for sure if the paint isn't matched properly due to the swirls and what appears to be different levels of cleanliness between panels but at the very least you should confront them about the buffer swirls. If every single customer would b!tch out dealerships and body shops when they leave buffer swirls maybe they'd get with the program and properly train their people.
 
xspwrstang said:
What does the "no English" part have anything to do w/the no ins. or no lic. part...:think: If he spoke English would you be happier about it?
Click to expand...



Well, Since 99% of this countries road signs are in English, I would feel safer knowing that they at least knew english to read the signs.



I was a witness to a hit and run 3 months ago, a Toyota Sienna fled the scene and ran a stop sign in order to go hide in the Bart parking garage - She didn't make it because She T-boned a Honda civic & of course she was trying to pull the 'I no speak english' with the police.



The mustang that crashed into the Sienna in the First place (and both cars fled) lost it's license plate, it fell off in the middle of the street, the police went to his house to find a wrecked car.



In California, it's not even called insurance - it's called "Financial Responsibility".
 
OK, I finally had a chance this morning to get to this mess.



I worked the rear passanger door first (which was not part of the body shop work - it was already trashed) with some new Megs 105 on an orange pad using my rotary. Nice stuff - works easy and bites just right.



Then I worked on the recently repaired rear quarter panel and the rear passenger door together with Megs 205 on a blue pad using my random orbital. The buffer trails on the rear quarter panel disappeared in about 30 seconds - not problem at all for the M205.



I finished up with Zaino AIO for a last step cleaner and protectant - although, I have to say that the M205 finished up soooo nice that I didn't need to do this step ... except for the protecting part.



This is the first time I have used M105 & M205 and I am very very impressed with how easy they are to work with, how well they work, and how 205 finished off so cleanly. Great stuff.



So in the end the paint job looks just fine now. It's amazing how 'off' it looked until some decent polishing was applied.



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