Accident - round 2

[Darigaaz]

So someone hit me and ran again a few weeks ago and in what can only be described as the stupidest thing I have ever done in my life I chased the person in the middle of the night to a dark and secluded parking lot. Luckily no guns were drawn, no one got beat, the damage seemed relatively minor, and he confessed his fault in the accident to our mutual insurance company.

Two weeks ago I dropped the car off at a local shop and enjoyed driving an almost new car for a week while it was fixed. They ended up replacing the right turn signal, the header panel, the grille, panting all of it, and painting the front bumper cover. It looked pretty good though they painted the entire grille Silver Birch.

The problems are glaring. The header panel doesn't fit well with the fenders to the point that it rubbed paint off the fenders. The header panel doesn't even seem to be well made and has several imperfections. The grille doesn't fit well with the header panel and has a sharp seem on the top. The turn signal's blacked out portion is too glossy and the black portions don't match the OEM signal on the other side. The paint has several imperfections that will eventually peel in addition to having a heavy orange peel look to it. They were also supposed to do an alignment since the wheel was hit and the rim damaged (they paid out for this part since OEM would be too difficult to find for them) but instead gave me the car with 10 PSI left in the tire.

When I showed these things to them a lot was blamed on non-OEM parts but I was also idiot-splained that even the OEM parts wouldn't fit right (No efforts were made to sand rough edges, they literally just rammed the bolts through and left the debris in all over the place). I know the insurance companies don't like using OEM parts unless they have to but the non-OEM parts were obviously sub-par so they should have brought it up. The paint issues were downplayed (that'll buff out) and quite frankly I feel like they weren't taking me seriously, either that or they didn't understand that I was telling them that their work was downright terrible. They also left my car dirty with greasy hand prints on my driver's door, muddy foot prints on the mats, mud on the rear fenders.

I noticed these things because I freaking love my car and if they treat a rare car like the Marauder this way then how many little old ladies in KIA Sorentos have they screwed over? :mad2:

Will get better pictures once it stops raining like crazy.

[RubberCtyRauder]

Sorry to hear, did you pick the body shop? If not, you should have abd should have gotten 3 estimates. Never let another insurance run the repair with their recommended shop

[justbob]

Sorry to hear. I have trust in nobody and learned years ago that no matter what it is, it won't be good enough and I'll have to finish it myself. I'm not even all that finicky, I just normally get the lazies in life that skate by with minimum standards. Or less.

As for being stupid about chasing him. I guess I'm not very bright either as you can bet your ass I would have done the same thing.


Builder Of Badassery

[chief455]

Sorry, these accident stories suck to hear.
My issues are with the header panel and side lights.
Same header issues you have, but not as extreme. My usually casual body guy got frazzled when I asked about getting the fender gaps right - "I can get 5 more repop panels and hope one fits, or get a nice used one!"
He said it's a bad area to try and remove material along the fender gap, or he would have done it.
The repop light has a hard, wrinkled rubber gasket that is just shaped wrong.
I since bought a nice used one.
I got lucky on my grill - myrodr had made me a badgeless from a black repo, and my body guy taped off the bars and painted just the surround. It fits the header nicely.
So, you're not alone.
It does sound like a cheesey shop though, letting poor paint work get out the door also.
Good luck however you decide to resolve it.

[Big Black Beast]

That sucks. I know the feeling. My car has been hit 3 times.

[RF Overlord]

So sorry to hear of your misfortune...

None of the work done was that difficult or specialised...heck, I replaced the header panel on The Blackbird myself, and I'm brain-dead when it comes to body work.

Take it back and tell them it's unacceptable.

[Darigaaz]

I managed to snag my broken OEM grille, just the clips are broken so I figured I could have someone make me a badgeless grille down the line or sell it. I'm mostly concerned with stuff that is just obvious since I know even cars right off the line can have gap issues but these are just using poor replacement parts that have obvious defects such as pitting, gouges, and some edges coming to a crease while others are rounded. The painting thing pisses me off the most because it's just so obvious! I'm having a talk with my insurance rep tomorrow to discuss all this malarkey.

Me and the guy who hit me both had the same insurance company, I went with this shop because it was recommended by my insurance and a few friends. I'll make a note to never trust my friends with body shop or beer recommendations.

[CoreyM75]

That's too bad, I'm sorry that your body shop failed to do the right thing. When my Marauder was hit, I made sure that they only used Oem parts, as there isn't a good replacement for almost any of the Marauder front end parts. I hope that it gets fixed for you, and the way that you want it.

[8UWITH6]

Take it back and if they cannot resolve the issue get insurance back involved. They have to put the car back to pre-accident condition, not make it look worse. I will not even begin to tell you my absolutely ridiculous fight when my car got smacked last December. Do NOT settle if you are not happy. Good luck.

[Mr. Man]

Last I checked fenders, header panels were still available from Ford. Corner lites on pass side are obsolete but the Depo brand lites are supposed to be pretty good. As far as the grill that's a toughy as the OEM ones are all gone. Could try a Marquis grille and paint it. The charcoal bars have no paint code. Body shop painter needs to approximate the color.

[J-MAN]

Contact your insurance and tell them your displeasure with the body shop that they recommended. Be the squeaky wheel!!!

[Darigaaz]

The adjuster assigned to my case told the body shop to do whatever is necessary to make me happy so the shop is redoing the whole thing with OEM parts and repainting everything including the fenders and hood.

[RubberCtyRauder]

Good news!!!!!!

[chief455]

Good news!!!!!!
should be mint this time!

[1Marauder]

Great job. Too bad a person HAS TO COMPLAIN to get it done right, but from the pictures, it is pretty hard to argue the other way. No one should have painted over those (untill they were fixed).

[RF Overlord]

WTG

...and tell them to paint the grille CORRECTLY this time.

Fun Fact: Steve Babcock once told us that the reason for leaving the centre section of the grille black on the SBs was that painting the whole thing body colour made the car look like a raccoon. His words... :)

[gdsqdcr]

Glad to hear they are making it right.

When I hit a deer a couple of years ago, the bodyshop put on aftermarket parts. They took a look and called the insurance company and said it was a no go. They were not willing to stand behind that work. Once the insurance company okay'd the OEM, they were all in, even as to ordering the nuts/bolts from Ford.

I would not have believed they did it till they showed me the pictures and the insurance company called me. I was impressed ... wish all shops were that commendable.

[lifespeed]

The ALWAYS try to foist aftermarket parts on you. Stand your ground.

[Darigaaz]

I'm making them paint the grille the right color for sure and they now know I'm not some sucker who will not hesitate to dial up the corporate overlords.

[8UWITH6]

I had to write a letter to the insurance commissioner in Kansas to get the other persons insurance to pay to repair my car correctly. Funny how smoothly things went after that.

[Darigaaz]

Well.... they finally got the parts in so I took it in on the 9th and picked it up on the 13th. All I can say is that I've never been as close as to punching a proprietor in my life. They put the same misshapen grille back and painted the inside black only the lines where not even close to straight and the paint was smudged. The header panel paint was already bubbling and had scratches. There was polishing compound all over places including the bumper, all the lights, in between the header panel, fenders, and grille (dried from a few days of sitting). There were some weird white stains (owner said water but they were solid white. Wax? odd body fluids?) on the grille and inside the header panel. The bumper still had terrible texture to the paint. Tires were covered in dirt, grille had sand all over it, driver's side door had dirty hand prints on the leather, rear passenger quarter panel had a smeared muddy hand print, fog light wiring was just hanging all over.

It was just a mess. I brought this up and instead of owning up to the obvious malarkey the owner made excuses and tried to blame me for the grille. I straight up told him he did a crap job and this was an act of disrespect to me. I'm meeting with the regional appraiser to show him my car and the pictures of what condition it was in when I picked it up. The only tiny good thing to come from it is that I got to drive an ecoboost Mustang for a week.

[Curless]

I've got news for you, this would be perfectly fine on a daily driver car. If you wanted a custom paint job you should have mandated that the car be repaired at a high end shop. I am not saying that your complaints are not legit by any means.... but to get the average shop to do above average work is not going to happen. Painters all get paid by the job, they don't care if its a Marauder or a pick up truck, they get x number of hours to refinish a panel and that's it... So in order to get the job you want you need to find a shop that pays based on quality and actual workmanship not book hour.... insurance companys DO NOT PAY this way.

[justbob]

I've got news for you, this would be perfectly fine on a daily driver car. If you wanted a custom paint job you should have mandated that the car be repaired at a high end shop. I am not saying that your complaints are not legit by any means.... but to get the average shop to do above average work is not going to happen. Painters all get paid by the job, they don't care if its a Marauder or a pick up truck, they get x number of hours to refinish a panel and that's it... So in order to get the job you want you need to find a shop that pays based on quality and actual workmanship not book hour.... insurance companys DO NOT PAY this way.


I just didn't want to be the guy having to say this. ^

Besides, to trust anyone around your car isn't exactly wise. You'll get through life easier just knowing no matter the service, it will be a let down and to always know your the one that will have to address it.


Builder Of Badassery

[NXSBOB]

It a waste of time talking to body shop. Contact/complain to your insurance company.

[03blackvegas]

It a waste of time talking to body shop. Contact/complain to your insurance company.

Actually it's not a waist of time to talk to the body shop, what might be a waist of time, is if your car was taken to the wrong body shop. I'll explain, if the customer points out areas that are not to their satisfaction, the right body shop will address these areas to rectify the situation. The general manager, production manager, and paint shop manager must all be responsible for this to happen. Your insurance company has no skin in the game at this point, a body shop does work a certain way, and every now and then their standards fall short for a customer, a redo is necessary in this instance. A little communication goes long way.

[Mr. Man]

I just didn't want to be the guy having to say this. ^

Besides, to trust anyone around your car isn't exactly wise. You'll get through life easier just knowing no matter the service, it will be a let down and to always know your the one that will have to address it.


Builder Of Badassery
What Bob is trying to say is "Nothing works, and nobody cares" :depress:

[akr619]

I guess the moral of this story is to get 2 marauders. one beater and one garage queen

(im jk but I do feel sorry for the hassle they are giving you)

[lifespeed]

What Bob is trying to say is "Nothing works, and nobody cares" :depress:


No doubt Bob has been through it enough and been burned a few times. You get cycnical. It has happened to me, too. I have bought and built new motors and transmissions to replace new motors and transmissions that failed. And a few other projects gone wrong. It is technical stuff with little margin for error, things go wrong.

I think the best advice for the OP is to (nicely) work with the shop and/or insurance company for a redo, or worst case a new (carefully researched as has been pointed out !) shop. I wouldn't cry about dirt on the tires and grill, but scratched paint and bubbling isn't OK.

[Darigaaz]

Actually it's not a waist of time to talk to the body shop, what might be a waist of time, is if your car was taken to the wrong body shop. I'll explain, if the customer points out areas that are not to their satisfaction, the right body shop will address these areas to rectify the situation. The general manager, production manager, and paint shop manager must all be responsible for this to happen. Your insurance company has no skin in the game at this point, a body shop does work a certain way, and every now and then their standards fall short for a customer, a redo is necessary in this instance. A little communication goes long way.

This is exactly why I got so upset at the general manager. These were obvious things that were wrong so he should have caught them knowing this was the second time the vehicle had been in his shop. You're right about getting the right body shop and at least the insurance company has paid out for premium rentals every time it went in.

[8UWITH6]

This is why I took my car to the absolute hands down best body shop in town. When I got my car back I think there where 2 or 3 very small things that bugged me. But overall the car was actually restored to better than pre-accident condition. Therefore I did not complain or take it back.

Looking at the OP's pictures I would say that if they would have just taken some time to clean up the compound that splattered everywhere I think you might have been a lot happier. It is clear they where rushing through it a second time to move on to the next vehicle. Maybe your approach to the shop now is for them to take their time and make it right.

I guess maybe I missed it but can you explain the repairs? Header panel? Grill? Bumper? Blend fenders or hood?

Good luck.

[Darigaaz]

Sorry for the delay, just finished up my thesis approval while all this is stuff is going on. The hit was a side swipe on the front, passenger's side. It needed paint on the bumper and replace the header panel, corner marker, and grille. I met with a supervisor for my insurance company and I'm taking it to another shop. I did get a service manager from the shop I took it to originally to clean up the stuff they left on the car, he didn't understand why it was released in such condition but he was new.