I tried to take pictures but the camera won't show what I can see.
I couldn't see these issues when I picked the car up because it was at night.

The car looks great for the most part, when I get some pictures up tomorrow it will like like cust84z or any other of the guys with nice black paintjobs.

There are a couple issues that are bothering me though, and I don't know if they are acceptable or if I should hit the guy up to
deal with them.

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Some back info: The car was painted on the side by a guy who is the manager of a chrylser dealer bodyshop. He did it in his garage. He pays a friend to do the wetsanding/buffing because he is alot better at it then him. He painted the car for 3200$
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Issue #1 The guy who wetsanded/buffed the car burned through on the rear bumper in a spot. The guy who painted the car said to bring it back in 2 weeks once the paint has cured and he will respray the spot and feather it back in. Is this acceptable or should he repaint the entire bumper?

Issue #2 My fiberglass cowl hood has "fisheseyes" for lack of a better term. My painter says they aren't "typical" fisheyes because the shape is different. None the less, there are 3 patches of "fisheyes" on the cowl of my big block hood that are extremely visible and deep, you can really feel them. He painted the hood twice, it still did the same thing the 2nd time around. He said he's never seen anything like this before on fiberglass. He said he will sand down the cowl and put down a layer of glaze then repaint again to try and get the "fisheyes" to not appear. I don't now if it is something in the fiberglass that is coming out or what. It's only on the cowl of the fiberglass BB hood, so I don't think it's his bodywork causing the problem. I saw a couple other cars he painted before I let him do my car and they looked great.

Issue #3 My driver door has some slight "waves" down the side. Nobody I know notices them. Only me and my buddy who is a gearhead can pick them up, and only because we are looking for them. Either way, the driver door has some slight wave in it. The passenger door is fine, I look down the entire side of the car and no waves on pass side. Should he repaint the door and get rid of the waves? I only see them because I am looking for any imperfections in the paint.

#4 The hatch decklid and spoiler have a weird imperfection. It is smooth as glass. however there are dime sized "spots" ALL over, like a hundred of them with 1 inch spacing. They are deepest in the center and curve up, like a contact lense. No other part of the car has these, I would think the hatch decklid would be the easier part to get smooth since it's a flat piece. They are only visible, you can't feel them.

I didnt' pay for a "perfect" paintjob, and I know I can't expect a show quality paintjob, and black is the worst color for showing any slight imperfection, and I'm looking for them. Should he repaint my door and decklid for free? The guy is a nice guy, and my mom is friends with his uncle. I didn't notice issues #3 and #4 until the next day. I'm going to stop by his house tomorrow and talk to him about the door and decklid. Should I insist he redo them or what? I'm talking about imperfections that the average joe will not see, the car looks amazing, he did 3 coats of base and 4 coats of clear.

The main thing bothering me is that when I first approached him I specifically said I didn't want to see waves down the side of the car and that the body had to be straight. He said no problem he had painted plenty of black cars. He knew I had a fiberglass hood and said that was no problem. He owned an 84 camaro that he added ground effects to and he, and I quote told me "I knew what I was getting myself into when I agreed to paint your car". Part of me doesn't know if I should be nagging him about imperfections 99% of the human population will not be able to see unless they are specifically looking for them. My buddy stared at a spot I was pointing at for a good 60 seconds before he could even see a slight wave I was trying to point out. The thing is my painter talked the talked before I agreed to let him paint the car, and I think he needs to step up tomorrow night when I show him the problems I've found. Am I expecting too much perfection from a 3200$ paintjob?

 

you already know my stand on this (you dont always get what you pay for, thats for sure)
if he will fix it have him fix it, i would

the problem i see with the situation is you had the guy paint it on the side? so what was the agreement? what happens if this paint flakes off in 6 months??

 

For $3200 I'd certainly be saying something. That is quite a bit of money to not be overly satisfied with the final product. Besides, I'm sure the painter wants you to be happy with his work.

 

Black is a &!7^!

It was your choice, but remember if it was not black you couldn't see the imperfections.

Just remember all the really small things your making a big deal of will go away once you get the paint job broken in. A bump with a bag, a few rocks on the nose....black is by far the most user unfriendly color ever lol.

I paid $1900 for a black paintjob on my impala a couple of years ago. Came out perfect, then after about a month it looked like crap from everyday stuff. Everything SHOWS.

I'm thinking of getting a dark red/gold flake paintjob, but the dark color is shying me away. Plus I would want the engine bay and door jabs to look perfect which I don't have the time or funds to get.

 

It's been raining for 2 days, the car is dirty, and there is no sun, but as you can see the pictures don't show what I can see.

 

$3200 should get you an exceptional paint job, and he made enough money that even if he resprays your whole car (which seems like the right thing to do) he's still not going to take a loss.

 

When I had my car painted black I paid $1200, a price that included painted white stripes. My painter also did 3 base and 4 clear. While I didn't have any major flaws in the paint I would still by no means consider it an absoluely perfect paintjob nor would I expect it to be. That said howerever, if I had paid $3200 and had your above mentioned flaws the painter and I would probably have issues. Whatever you deside to do the car still looks great. -Josh

 

That is the same fender pictured above. There were like 30 dings in the car, there are still 2 left in the driver door. So he was 28 of 30 as far as door dings. They are very minor, but I can still see them plus the ripples, driver side only. He shaved the antenna (1st picture above shows) he did a very nice job on that. As I said, the car looks great except for the hatch decklid and driver door. It seems the general agreement is pretty much everyone agrees that for what I paid the door/decklid should be redone.

 

Yeah... For 3200 on a sidejob... You should definitely get the decklid and door resprayed in their entirety AT LEAST.

That's alot of money he put into his pocket on that job... At least a couple grand. Probably more.

 

3200 bux for all those mistakes, thats definatelly not acceptable, i work at a body shop and i also am tyhe second painter for the shop, and for 3200, it shoulda came out perfect. no flaws, well maybe one or two minor ones like an edge burn, but thats it, no fisheyes or lifting, go slap him across his face.

 

He lines your hood up like ***.

 

Hes already said hes going to take care of the fisheye and rear bumper. Should I let him just repair the spot that got burned through or should I insist he repaint the whole bumper?

I'll talk to him about the door and decklid, I don't forsee any problems with getting him to take care of the problem areas.

 

$3200!!!!!! for that much money i would demand a PERFECT job
still,your car looks great anyways

 

I would have him repaint that rear bumper, and here is why:

Yes, you could get away with just doing a cheater blend, BUT, since that is a flat part of the car, it probably won't last more then a few years. NEVER do any cheater blends on roofs, hoods, trunks...and I wouldn't do it on the rear bumper either. It's more prone to heat, especailly being black, the blend just wouldn't last as long. I would get the bumper repainted...especially for the price you paid.

Also..you shouldn't have to wait 2 weeks to repaint (baseclear)....if someone burns through the clear...we scuff it all and re-shoot it the same day...wetsand, buff it...and it's out the door. Then again, we are using a heater paint booth..

 

Were do u all find shops that will do body work and paint a car for under 3200 bucks. Every one thats saying thats to much. I will say for that much there should not be to many flaws. Maybe little things here and there. But 3 grand for a paint job is not bad. We did a chevelle in the shop i work at it was over 6000. And i know shops that charge a hole hell of alot more money. Its kinda funny people will spend a ton of cash to get a car running and driveing right. But when it comes to paint and bodywork most people think that a few 100 bucks will get the job done. When most people don't even know how much work that goes into doing bodywork and paint.. I will not touch a black car for under 3 grand. But anyways back to the post i think the car looks good. and if he is going to fix most of the flaws i think u got a good deal. The spots in the hood and spoiler are dirt. Fiberglass parts are real hard to get all the dirt off of. (staic elec) When u wipe it off the dirt will stick to the edges and than when u spray the paint it blows it right into paint causes something that looks like a fish eye. PPG makes a pre clean wipe to clean FG parts. If u want i can get the number off the can.

 

i got my whole job done for 1800 and there was a lot of body work to be done. the car looks amazing now though. he gave me full warranty. he said that as long as i have the car and if there is something im not happy with, he'll fix it no questions asked. ive brought the car back twice because of some very small things i noticed like bird poop on the hood left a mark and he fixed it and some paint chipped off on the inside of the trunk because the hatch rubbed against it so he did it again and realigned the hatch. paint jobs and work arent expensive if u know where to look

 

The part # would be greatly appreciated jay.

Is the rear hatch decklid fiberglass?

The guy who painted my car was nothing but good to me, and he told me that he would take care of me reguarding the hood and rear bumper.

I want to get the issues that he should be responsible for done, at the sme time I don't want to push him too much, because I kinda though the same things jay just explained. The hood and bumper were issues he knew about and is going to take care of. The decklid and driver door were things I noticed after, and I am going to ask him to take care of them and see if something can be worked out. I will see if he will repaint the entire bumper and hood, and not just feather/blend in. I kind of do think he should take care of all those issues simply due to the fact that when I brought him the car to do an estimate that I told him I had an aftermarket fiberglass hood, and that I didn't want waves down my body panels, that the body needed to be straight. He told me he had painted plenty of black cars before and that it wasn't a problem.

The car does look great, but as I mentioned in my original post, I am really putting the screws to every inch of the car.

 

Thats cool that he is fixing everything. Like someone else said its hard to get every little ripple out of theses doors. And no the hatch is metal. I thought u said the spoiler. I had the same prob when i did kevs car.. Its called multi prep DX103.

 

those fisheyes could have also come for a contamination of Silicone..which is very very hard to get rid off. Just having Silcone products in a garage...or wherever you paint can cause fisheyes too.

 

Thanks Jay, I knew I wasn't watching this thread for naught...
Someone even said the guy POCKETED at least TWO GRAND for this paint job...
So all the guy's labor was supposed to be free??
I DO agree, If the guy rep'd it as a "close to show ready paint job", then it shoulda been close to perfect. He made the deal and should back it. But this backlash on the poor bastard that tried to do stealth a solid, and do a nice job...
I would wager that he just missed the small ping on the door. It happens. If he's decent he'll take care of it, give him a chance...
I don' know how many times I've done one that you pour and pour over and try to make nice, and you miss somethin' simple.
You just suck it up and take care of it.
Fisheyes on a fiberglass panel are almost a constant. The only thing you can do is baby it and use every precaution. DX440 by PPG is a great pre-cleaner also. Very strong. It works wonders on fiberglass.

 

He had the car for 25 days, and I probably stopped over 8 times between coming to take pictures and dropping off parts for him. Every time I was there he had 2 guys there helping him. He took both my doors off and rebuilt the hinges (both my doors shut perfectly now, no sag), he took the hatch glass off when he painted it, he fixed my passenger door motor and lock cylinder, he shaved the radio antenna off the fender, he took the ground effects off....the list goes on. He was up front about everything and always called me up when there was an issue.

I know I didn't pay for a show job and thats why I wasn't sure what I should and what I shouldn't consider acceptable. The first shop I went to wanted 7800$. They said they could do it for 4000$, but they wouldn't admit it was them because it wouldn't be up to their standard. Jay already said he won't even go near a black car for less than 3000$, the metal on my car was in pretty rough shape, dings everywhere. That driver door was WAVY as hell when I brought it to him. Probably 10 dings on that door alone.

I'm going to ask him about redoing door and rear decklid. I'm sure I can work something out with him even if I have to pay for materials or something. I know he put alot of work/hours into the car and he took the car apart and checked for rust which was important to me because I didn't want any rust eating my car from inside out (he did find some rust under the passenger ground effect)


I appreciate all the input especially from all the painters/body men here. I'll be sure to mention the fiberglass cleaner wipes to him.


EDIT: Oh yea, someone mentioned the hood being lined up poorly, it's actually lined up correctly, it's the latch mechanism thats mounted to the front of the car that is high, two 13mm bolts and slide the hood latch down a little will fix it. I think he's going to take the hood off the car to repaint it this week anyway though.