HORROR STORY

[ShelbyDogg]

Sorry to hear about your sad tale. Many of us got started doing our own body work due to running into high prices and other people's bad body work. If you do it yourself, there is no one to blame but yourself.

$4000 would have gotten me more cool body tools. 

[ChallengerHK]

Gunmetal:  Sorry to hear about your mess.  I'm in the same boat, trying to find someone to correct the worst of a crap paint job.  The hassle I've found is the good outfits that turn out beautiful paint are too busy doing insurance deer hits, and don't want to touch my car.

the guys that I talked to weren't too busy as much as they just didn't want to take the job. i got the impression that they knew that I'd be looking over every detail, whereas the deer collision folks just want to get their cars back in running order. I had at least two shops tell me that they wouldn't take work on classic cars.

[shadango]

Its not just body shops eiether that do shoddy work and see nothing wrong with it.

I experienced this with an exhaust shop last year (Meineke in McKeesport) and the first tranny shop I went to for a rebuild (AAMCO in West Mifflin).  In the case of the latter, they actuall ycharged me for parts they never installed.

I went after bot hand got refunds and had the work redone properly....exhaust at Meineke in North Huntington, PA (GREAT shop!) and tranny by a guy in North Versailles that I can definately say will get my future business.

I thank GOD my body work and paint were done and its decent when I got the car......I dont have the skills to do it myself and I am picky......

Sorry you had to go thru that baaaaad experience....I thin kwe can all relate and feel your pain.

FWIW, I would go after that SOB gunz blazing and get money back.  But I am stubborn and dont like getting screwed, even if its only $100.

[TRIPLE-GREEN]

Thank god I have never seen anything as bad as that. I feel for you man. We love our cars and care for them like children. This is one reason I have X customers that have had to leave the country because people are looking to collect after a botched job. One of which was the late Boyd Cottington. He had to leave the country 2 times because there was a hit out on him. (Knew him personally) He was such a crook. But he was good at getting people to like him. So in time even his worst offenses will vanish from the history books.
   One of which was a good friend of mine now, had a car in his shop and invested over 200K up front. His car had about 4000.00 of repair done and was left. He had to pull it out of the shop on the last day before they locked the door. He never got his money back and had to pay over 350K to another shop to complete the job. The law suite is still pending.
   One really has to know who he lets touch his car. If a shop doesn't let you see there body of work either threw a detailed portfolio or in current shop projects don't even consider them. It is to risky! I wish you all the luck I can man. That really sucks. To many shops take on project they shouldn't do. You really have to watch you butt.

[teslasbrain]

Sorry to hear about your sad tale. Many of us got started doing our own body work due to running into high prices and other people's bad body work. If you do it yourself, there is no one to blame but yourself.

$4000 would have gotten me more cool body tools.

Amen, brother! 

[tx9aarcuda]

I feel for you I never had the problem of the person doing crappy work but I got into the job costing twice as much as what was estimated and on the estimate it is stated that hidden damage is extra, which I understand but once they get the car stripped and can see the damage they should be able to tell you what the final cost is going to be. This shop eventually went out of business because just about everyone was getting screwed over, lured in by a decent price and ending up having to pay a lot more. I knew people that pulled their cars out and took them home rather then let this shop finish them. I was young and let them finish the work I didn't make the same mistake the next time.