engine and drivetrain I am in a deep hole

[khaledejaz]

Boy, I am in a big rut here. I finally sent my car to the Maaco in Palo Alto after debating whether I should after hearing some bad rumors about Maaco in general. I saw many of their samples they have done and was quite pleased.

It has been over 2 weeks now since the car has been gone and I have been to the shop everyday 2 days. The car was supposed to be stripped down since the paint was cracked and then repainted. They were suppose to do some body work. A week ago we went back and was told the car was ready. We found that it was never stripped. We could see the cracks right through the fresh paint. Worse, there were extra paint drips all over the car!!! The owner told us he would fix it. And that he would personally make sure the car was stripped and repainted as per we talked about within one week! But for the past one week the car has sat there OUTSIDE. They have scraped off paint in half of the hood area leaving metal exposed! Now there is surface rust from all that rain. We went back many times and last Friday was told "This is nothing major, just surface rust!" Now he says he will get it done by this Wednesday. I even told him (the owner Rich) that this was my baby and I want them to do a good job. My wife finally told me that I should just bring back the car tomorrow no matter what.

Folks, I need your help. Pls advice some good bodyshop around here that can strip and paint my car under $2K. There is no rust in the car. I am not looking at a full strip down but the body area only (no engine bay or trunk areas). All trims have been taken off. I heard of Dubois' auto body and would like to get in touch with him to see if he can help me out.

jetbody, You said there was a Miracle in Berkley but I couldn't find one listed on their site. Did you mean in Alameda?

My car was my daily driver to work. My wife and I have been sharing a car for 2 weeks now and its getting really hard since we both have totally odd hours of work.

Thanks for all your help.

Khaled

[Ryann]

get your car the hell away from that crazy bastard NOW and worry about where to take it later!

[AirCooledRules]

sucks to say it but thats what happens when you try to save a little, it ends up costing more in the end.

I hope everything works out great. and post pictures of the fresh paint when you get the car back.

[jerry]

i once paid to have an old truck painted by Miracle Auto in San Rafael.

at the time of the sale i was given verbal assurances that 'this and that' would be done and of course the shop would take special care on my truck, as it was my father's and he had just passed away at the time.

anyhow, as i recall, a week or so later i got a cheapo paintjob with none of the promises kept.

Lesson I learned:

GET EVERYTHING IN WRITING. in minute, boring detail. specify everything you expect and assume nothing.

having your car stripped and painted for $2000 is wishful thinking.

[bmw1602.com]

I was about to do what you did......after all it was to be a race car....

i did it myself.....

about $600 and it came out waayy better than if I ever payed someone to do it even though it was my first time!

do be afraid people it just work and sweat......

or deal with SHADY body shops for months and months of agravation.....

and I agree having the car stripped and painted at a shop for $2000 in completely unrealistic.

If find someone do it for that much I can almost guarentee you that you will be frustrated and left with a medicre job that you will have to redo and some point in the near future......

[Mike Self]

as good as the owner. Conventional wisdom from the board and experience is to use a shop like MAACO for a decent/semi-decent paint job to cover bodywork, mismatched panels, primer etc, not for show. Defninitely not for show.

Most folks who've had success with MAACO and the like first talk with the owner and tell him/her just what you want, what you're gonna do and what they're gonna do. Then they take their cars already stripped (or sanded), trim removed and even partially masked off.

Find out who the painter is and promise him a case of his favorite beverage and or some $$ if it really turns out nice.

Again, the quality varies from store to store, so talk to people who've used the particular store you're considering--see what their experience has been. The above is what I plan to do when I take my peeling '87 E30 winter driver off for some fresh paint this spring...

mike

[khaledejaz]

So I have been dealing with the owner. He is the biggest scumbag roaming this land. Anyway, when I went to his for an estimate thats what he gave me. He even showed me a few cars he did. The irony is I would have given him more $$ if he had asked for it.

No I wasn't looking for a show quality paintjob. Something that is decent. That things that are listed on the quote be done to it. Thats all.

After searching Maaco on this forum i was actually brave enough to try it.

About the inexpensive paint part, for some of us its hard to spit out $5k on a paint job. I have talked to an independent guy in Oakland who is willing to do the bodywork/primer of the car. He is willing to take off all the layers until the original paint and see if it was still cracked. I might try that and then get the car painted at Miracle this time. There is one right by my house. Actually, from the beginning my wife wanted me to take it to them rather than Maaco since she liked there work better.

[ibjettin]

Sorry to hear that things didn't work out. I went over the the Macco here in San jose and left as quickly as I got there. I knew it wasn't the place for my car and the guy answering my questions was an idiot. If I couldn't get a straight answer then I knew I'd be screwed once they had my car.

Like Pedro, I decided to get some help and paint it myself - at this point I've done everything on this car and would be pissed to have all my hard work tainted by someone that had no idea of the amount of work already put into it.

good luck - it really is sad that he promised work and tried to get away with not doing it. I'm a man of my word and a handshake means more than paper... Old school I know, but I haven't been burned yet.

[SteveJ]

I'd talk to the owner and let him know that it is he that is in a deep hole.

He has only a couple of choices. One is to spend the additional time and effort to make it right and have a happy customer. The other is to return the car to a previous condition (so you can take your car elsewhere) and let you out of the contract free and clear. Either way, the owner is the one that will loose out as the job was not done correctly.

Work with the owner. Tell him exactly what your expectations are. You were not looking for a concours finish, but does he want his name all over the crappy job that you got right now? If he has pride and any business sense he will try to make you happy.

If the owner does come through and you are happy with the end product , then you both win.

As the customer, you have LOTS of recourse. How passionate do you want to get and how much time do you want to spend? Letters to the editor, parking out front of his business with signs, calling up the TV stations (on slow news days), Better Business Beareu, paid with a credit card? Reverse payment, etc...

[Benz02]

if it comes down to it, inform him that you've got a great lawyer who happens to be into cars, and that said lawyer is not cheap. Does he really want to go down that road?

[khaledejaz]

I am about to go pick up the car. I think its worthless talking to him. Last friday my wife told him that its not good to allow the car to rust out like that . More so the fact that he has screwed up the paint but just shooting over the cracked paint. All he says is we will take care of it. If you hear him, you will think he is sincere. So far, he hasn't done a single thing he promised one after the other.

I am looking at BBB as well as CA auto body association (something like that). This place is a dump! Everyone there is out to scam people. Once I was waiting in line and I hear this poor guy getting ripped off over paint. It was sad. I wanted to say something but I didn't want my car to be peed on.

Its hard for me to imagine that a large business like that can survive doing this kind of things. Coming from a different country I always used to think all business here has code of ethics. But this one really shattered my views.

Pray that I get my car back in one piece today. And not I am not giving them a dime. In fact they should pay back amount for the "surface" rust they have put all over my hood by letting it sit in the rain.

[newbie]

Like Pedro, I decided to get some help and paint it myself - at this point I've done everything on this car and would be pissed to have all my hard work tainted by someone that had no idea of the amount of work already put into it.

Hi ibjettin,

My 73tii needs paint. I'm considering doing it myself and it sounds like that's what you did. I've done a fair amount of research on what it takes, still it's hard to get a good idea of the scope of it all.

I'm in Palo Alto - would you mind getting together some weekend for a bit and discussing what a DIY paint project entails? I'll buy you lunch...

Thanks!

Andrew

[ibjettin]

Andrew,

we haven't painted yet - we just finished the body work and sprayed the first prime coat. We will be block sanding and doing a skim coat where needed.

I never painted a car before and my cousin is actually the one helping me (or I should say I'm helping him)

I don't know how much help I'd be able to provide since I'm more or less just learning myself. Shoot me an email and I can see what I can do.