Body Shop Advice (Los Angeles)

[enjoy_m3]

That's definitely not normal. I mean if you paid a fair price for the job, you should definitely take it back. I'm no paint expert so my opinion may not help much other than that's definitely not orange peel and definitely not normal. If I had to guess, it almost looks like they short-cut the wetsanding process. They didn't wet sand the areas enough so when it got buffed, those streaks are showing. I hope it's not what chas3n is saying, that seems like a bigger redo job. Definitely take it back and show them. Good luck!

[Nate047]

Mannnnnnnn you hate to see it. I don't know exactly what would cause that. But it's definitely not normal, and it's definitely something they should warranty for you no questions asked.

I'm gonna go dig out the diffuser they painted or me and see if anything has changed in the months since I took it home.

[ATB88]

Thanks a lot for the input so far. I'll reach out to them about it tomorrow!

[Maxima SE]

In the LA scene (and likely every major metropolitan city for that matter) unless you have a personal connection to the shop via a friend or family member or have 10K+ followers on IG and the shop owner happens to know you or follow you - you will be treated like a peasant and be told to be grateful for the work they are willing to do for you.


It will take longer than you think. It will cost more than you estimated. The finished product will likely fall short of your expectations and you will wonder what the outcome would have been if you had tried someone else from the list. You will try somewhere else from the list with a similar outcome. Rinse and repeat.

Body shops make way too much money running up the tab on insurance work to give a shit about our CSL trunks and EU bumpers. The bar is too high for our expectations vs their reality.

Lol this is so fucking true. I had this exact experience recently with like 5 shops in a row trying to get them to paint a used hood from LSB to PY. I literally had shops straight up tell me they only do insurance work, or they don't paint "panels only".. also had other shops tell me I had to wait in line for 4 months to respray a hood which would would cost me $3,000-$4,000. You literally have to beg them for their time like they are selling cure for cancer or something. Bunch of crooks who are to busy scamming insurance for way more profit. No respect or common courtesy for another human being at all, straight up savages and scums. My god, just tell me you don't want to do business instead of feeding me BS about 4 month wait time and $4,000 to paint a damn hood. MOFOs

You have to find a small mom and pop shop and in the end more than likely they will do a shitty job as fast as possible and onto the next. No one cares about quality or customer satisfaction.

[BOOSTED]

Star City Auto Body in Whittier is great, they do the best work in my opinion, honestly haven't seen better work anywhere else other then custom paint shops that change 30k + for paint work. The owners is a high school friend so I get some special treatment but their work is amazing.

There is some picture of some of the work they have done on my M3 in the forced induction section, color change is almost done and will post more pictures when complete.

[cornerbalanced]

Whelp, I just dropped the car off at ABS for a front end respray to address the rock chips from all the track and canyon abuse. I'll report back on my experience this time when I get it back.

Wish me luck guys:

Kevin showed me your car when I dropped off my car. Looks great.

For everyone’s future reference—I have nothing but good things to say about ABS. They may take a while, but they’re reasonably priced, and do good work. I’ll report back on my most recent experience as well once I get my car back.

I dropped it off last Monday, and should be getting it back tomorrow … 8 days (over a major holiday) for a bumper shave/re-spray/refit really isn’t horrible all things considered.

[M Coupe]

Lol this is so fucking true. I had this exact experience recently with like 5 shops in a row trying to get them to paint a used hood from LSB to PY. I literally had shops straight up tell me they only do insurance work, or they don't paint "panels only".. also had other shops tell me I had to wait in line for 4 months to respray a hood which would would cost me $3,000-$4,000. You literally have to beg them for their time like they are selling cure for cancer or something. Bunch of crooks who are to busy scamming insurance for way more profit. No respect or common courtesy for another human being at all, straight up savages and scums. My god, just tell me you don't want to do business instead of feeding me BS about 4 month wait time and $4,000 to paint a damn hood. MOFOs

You have to find a small mom and pop shop and in the end more than likely they will do a shitty job as fast as possible and onto the next. No one cares about quality or customer satisfaction.

You're absolutely right. Most people are unaware that even the best bodyshops and paint techs simply cannot replicate multi million dollar robotic factory spray systems. In all the bodywork I have seen, only a handful have perfectly matched the orange peel as how the paint came from the factory.

It's a dirty industry full of sleaze balls, but what isn't these days? They all say they can do it and it will look great, blah blah as they simply just want your money. They'll deal with the repercussions later and even if you're a disgruntled customer they still have plenty of insurance work and new suckers coming in. Few shops will tell you they simply can't match factory paint. They all should have this disclaimer.

Oh as a side note, this is why I always recommend buying factory painted take-off panels (i.e. from a wrecked vehicle) as opposed to taking your car to a shop. Obviously this is more work and nigh on impossible if you have a rare individual color or it was your rear quarter that got damaged. This is doubly true if you have a metallic paint as they are definitely harder to match than standard "uni" paints.

[Gearhead55]

Kevin showed me your car when I dropped off my car. Looks great.

For everyone’s future reference—I have nothing but good things to say about ABS. They may take a while, but they’re reasonably priced, and do good work. I’ll report back on my most recent experience as well once I get my car back.

I dropped it off last Monday, and should be getting it back tomorrow … 8 days (over a major holiday) for a bumper shave/re-spray/refit really isn’t horrible all things considered.

Glad to hear it's looking good. Thanks!

Good luck with your work

[Nate047]

Normalize bodyshop shaming. I just looked at those pictures again and I would be so mad. You paid those guys six fucking grand and your car looks like it has brush strokes on it. I'm so tired of body shops passing off terrible work and hoping you don't notice.

[Slideways]

Those are definitely significant defects that they need to fix. My guess is that there was poor prep before paint or the top coat is too thick. It almost looks like crazing. I imagine that will get worse over time.

OP, can you feel those marks when running your hand across the panel? There is a small chance that they will be able to wet sand those marks out; otherwise, they will need to repaint those areas.

[Avedis]

Reading through all the paint threads makes me incredibly nervous getting any sort of paint work done on my car in the future. Even the “good” shops have mixed reviews.

The only shop in the area I have heard nothing but good things about (on multiple BMW forums) is C&C collision.

[ATB88]

Those are definitely significant defects that they need to fix. My guess is that there was poor prep before paint or the top coat is too thick. It almost looks like crazing. I imagine that will get worse over time.

OP, can you feel those marks when running your hand across the panel? There is a small chance that they will be able to wet sand those marks out; otherwise, they will need to repaint those areas.

Yes, I can feel the texture, although it is faint. I e-mailed the shop owner this morning with photos and video, hope to hear back soon.

[oceansize]

Okay, results time, and I need help.

I got my car back a few weeks ago (Nov 6ish), but have had a nearly constant travel schedule since then and the car has been sitting in my driveway. I'm finally back for a week, got the car handwashed today to inspect the work.

I have mixed-to-negative feelings about it, and I wanted to get community input before going back to the shop with it. First so that I'm informed on what the issue I'm seeing is, whether or not it's "normal", and second so that I'm not unreasonable in any request I make to them for any possible fix. I also want to emphasize that I'm not making this post to antagonize or badmouth the shop that did the work, but rather just figure out whether or not I have reasonable cause to bring the car back to them.

Basically, I'm finding that there are some areas where there what looks like long "grooves" or "wrinkle lines" in the paint that go along each other and criss cross. In some places it almost looks like brush strokes. The grooves/lines range from ~1 to several inches in length. They aren't visible in all lighting conditions, but when visible I think they look pretty bad. There are some spots on top of the trunk lid, but there are way more along the rear quarter panel, especially on the rear fender flare, extending all the way up to the passenger door. This problem exists on the passenger door too, but to a much lesser extent than the fender and trunk. I don't seem to see this on the bumpers, front fender, or hood that were also painted. Also, I didn't see any of this during my original inspection the first time they tried to have me pick up the car. But I guess maybe I missed it due to lighting conditions?

PICS AND VIDEOS:

Here are photos of the quarter panel and trunk areas that show examples of the issue: https://imgur.com/a/McNp7fj

Here are a few videos that might give a better sense of what this looks like IRL, but it's hard to completely capture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xNH...FWQAou&index=1

QUESTIONS:

1. Is this kind of artifact/defect in the paint normal/expected in a paint job from a reputable shop? I've read a lot about "orange peel" and that it can be expected as long as it isn't too egregious.. but this seems like a different thing?

2. Is this fixable without repainting these areas? The detailers who washed my car this morning suggested that wet sanding could do it, but it would be a pretty big expensive job considering the extent of it. Any other thoughts?

3. In your opinion / if it was your car, would you expect the shop that did the work to correct this?

I really appreciate everyone's thoughts on this!!

I worked in a body shop for years. That is, bar none, some of the worst bullshit I've ever seen. I can't express harshly enough how bad that truly is. That shop, its crew, its owner, and everyone even tangentially involved is a horse's ass.

[ATB88]

Thanks for the continued unfiltered impressions and advice. They e-mailed me back asking me to bring it in, which I'll be doing tomorrow morning.

[Chas3n]

Reading through all the paint threads makes me incredibly nervous getting any sort of paint work done on my car in the future. Even the “good” shops have mixed reviews.

The only shop in the area I have heard nothing but good things about (on multiple BMW forums) is C&C collision.

C&C has done great work many years ago, but get ready to pay.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro