rpm wrote:
MustangSteve wrote:
I keep finding more and more screwups showing up in my paint. It is just depressing.
Steve, I don't think I've read why you don't do your own paint. You do know you're a pretty talented guy don't you? Curious minds...
It's a long story. I always did my own paint work in the past. I did my 66 a long time ago. It was my first metallic paint job. Turned out real noce and went 17 years without a scratch or problem. Was centerfold car in Mustang Monthly back in 2006.
In 2010, I had back surgery. During the recovery period, where I was OK'd by the doc to drive but not healed up enough to paint a car, a 17 year old girl in a Honda smacked into me at an intersection. She never put her cell phone down, even after the wreck.
This happened 8 months prior to the BASH in Kalispell. Montana, and I was determined the car would be at the bash. I was looking forward to driving that car from Texas to Yellowstone and Pikes Peak and to Montana and back. So, I contracted with, what I thought, was a local body shop that did alot of Ferraris, Healeys and other exotoc cars, as well as Mustangs, to fix the car. I bought all the parts and gave them $9,000 (mostly paid by the girl's insurance company) to redo the car. They kept it so long and screwed up everything they reassembled,and the bodywork they did ON PARTS OF THE CAR THAT WERE PERFECT WHEN THEY GOT IT was no longer straight. It was a mess. So, once I got the car back in June of 2011, I worked on ot for several weeks trying to get it back to a point where it could go to Kalispell without falling to pieces or stranding us along the way. Two weeks before the bash, I figured out they had put a bolt through the ac condenser, ruining it. At that point, I gave up o it making the trip.
Fast forward to 2015. The same shop owner came to my house one day and offered to redo the car for free,a nd he would personally oversee the job and guaranteed I would be happy with it. I relucatantly agreed, but only if they would get it done in one week and I would personally disassemble and reassemble anything that had to come apart (which was everything). I figured I was going to have to repaint it myself or pay somebody else to do it to get it right, so this might be worth a chance. The owner promised I would have final say on every area they worked on to be sure it was right before they painted it.
Eight weeks later, I got the car back.
At first, the car looked really good. They had corrected alot of issues that they had induced four years prior. The paint looked very good. Then,after the weather warmed up a bit and the paint began to cure, and after I had it 80% reassembled, major sanding scratches started to show up everywhere they had touched. You can tell these are in the primer and color, not just the clearcoat. The shop owner says to bring it by and they will cut and buff it again so the scratches do not show. I am skeptical.
So, I can be called a major dumbass for letting them work on it again, but I figured it might be worth a try. In my mind, the car's body lines are better than before, but there are scratches that are visible. There are a coupe of areas where the body lines are honked up, but more easily fixable than they were before. These did not show up until the primer they used started shrinking. They looked fine when I brought it home. I figured I can either block it out and redo it myself, or pay somebody else to do it over and take this risk all over again. The bottom line is I have to do it myself. And right now, I just do not have time.
So, I will get to drive a screwed up car for a few more years until I finally go to full time retirement. At that time, MAYBE I will repaint it, or maybe just get rid of it, or just park it for someone's future pleasure barn find.
Itis hard for me to believe that a shop with as much experience as they have could even come close to producing shoddy work like this. I expect they used non-catalyzed primer to save money since it was a freebie. I cannot imagine a catalyzed primer shrinking after a month like this.
Lesson to all: DO IT YOURSELF. If you don't think you know how, you can learn, and this forum can help teach you.
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