After a few delays, I finally got to pick up my car at the body shop last night. It went in for minor storm damage from a tree branch, but I was able to parlay that into a full paint job for <$500 more by the time I was done haggling with the shop and (mostly) the insurance company. When I got to the shop they were glazing it with 3M IHG and I saw them a couple of times pull the rotary with wool pad back out to work on the hood a little more. Yeah, I was nervous, but tried to just bide my time. Once I started imspecting the car I found one minor door ding they missed and he promised to have either have a PDR guy fix it or he'd redo it with a conventional repair. Unfortunately, it's on the rear quater panel, so if he has to paint it would mean a blend on the rear sail (the C-pillar).
Here's a couple other things I found once I got home. When I picked up my wife from work after leaving the shop, when she opened her door she noticed this raised paint edge on the leading edge of the RR door. Looks like they must have masked a line here and pulled up the paint when they yanked off the tape. I'll definitely be addressing this problem with the shop.
I also found a couple of fisheyes on one front fender. This one spot is the only place I've found any on the car so far. I haven't decided whether I'll make a fuss with the shop over these. You can really only see one of them clearly in this shot, but it's more like a painted-over chip that left a depression in the paint than what I understand a true fisheye to look like.
And now for the heartbreaker. By the time I got out of the shop, it was time to go straight to pick up my wife from work about 12-15 miles away. I had a few minutes to look things over before she came out and I found a good-sized rock chip on the hood from my very first outing on the road. :hairpull I never saw or heard anything hit the car, but it was fast, fairly heavy traffic on the highway and there was no way to keep any sizable distance from the cars in front of me.
I did get a little left over paint from the shop so if I try a touch-up I should have a pretty good match. Talk about being bummed out. :sadpace: I'm sure I'll try to do something with the damage, but I can't blame this one on the shop, I know it wasn't there when I picked it up.
And yeah, they left some rotary holograms and swirls from compounding the paint, but I'll just deal with that myself. When I mentioned them at the shop he said they could take care of it with glaze, but obviously I don't want them just hidden and I'm not betting on them to have the skill to do the job right. My wife eyeballed the car with a critical eye a couple of times when we were out last night. After looking it over a couple of times she said, "I guess really no one else polishes the car as well as you do." It made me feel like she has more appreciation for what I've been able to accomplish with the car since I joined Autopia than even she realized until she saw the difference. Most people would think the car looks great as it is. She and I can both see I've got some work to do.
One more thing. I did get a kick out of this Impala at the shop that looked like it had 4-wheel steering. I'm not sure how they managed to do this to the rear wheel with zero body damage.
Here's a couple other things I found once I got home. When I picked up my wife from work after leaving the shop, when she opened her door she noticed this raised paint edge on the leading edge of the RR door. Looks like they must have masked a line here and pulled up the paint when they yanked off the tape. I'll definitely be addressing this problem with the shop.
I also found a couple of fisheyes on one front fender. This one spot is the only place I've found any on the car so far. I haven't decided whether I'll make a fuss with the shop over these. You can really only see one of them clearly in this shot, but it's more like a painted-over chip that left a depression in the paint than what I understand a true fisheye to look like.
And now for the heartbreaker. By the time I got out of the shop, it was time to go straight to pick up my wife from work about 12-15 miles away. I had a few minutes to look things over before she came out and I found a good-sized rock chip on the hood from my very first outing on the road. :hairpull I never saw or heard anything hit the car, but it was fast, fairly heavy traffic on the highway and there was no way to keep any sizable distance from the cars in front of me.
I did get a little left over paint from the shop so if I try a touch-up I should have a pretty good match. Talk about being bummed out. :sadpace: I'm sure I'll try to do something with the damage, but I can't blame this one on the shop, I know it wasn't there when I picked it up.
And yeah, they left some rotary holograms and swirls from compounding the paint, but I'll just deal with that myself. When I mentioned them at the shop he said they could take care of it with glaze, but obviously I don't want them just hidden and I'm not betting on them to have the skill to do the job right. My wife eyeballed the car with a critical eye a couple of times when we were out last night. After looking it over a couple of times she said, "I guess really no one else polishes the car as well as you do." It made me feel like she has more appreciation for what I've been able to accomplish with the car since I joined Autopia than even she realized until she saw the difference. Most people would think the car looks great as it is. She and I can both see I've got some work to do.
One more thing. I did get a kick out of this Impala at the shop that looked like it had 4-wheel steering. I'm not sure how they managed to do this to the rear wheel with zero body damage.
