SVX Paint Issues (Gilsons Autobody in Carson)
 

SVX Paint Issues
- Issues after paint job by Gilson's Autobody, March 2005

Paint Swirls:
- all panels of the car are covered w/ very noticeable swirls
http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20P...ues/swirls.jpg

Clear Coat/Paint Quality:
- There is simply *no* clear coat.
- Preparation was inadequate, the paint is already chipping/bubbling
http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20P...t_chipping.jpg
http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20P...nt_bubbles.jpg

Paint Color:
- Color does not match factory specs, looks purple/faded. Should be a pure "Barcelona Red".

Overcharged:
- Was quoted approx $2950 for paint job (covered by insurance), plus $400 for new grill (out of pocket)
- Was charged approx $4000... $3300 for paint (over estimate w/ no reason), +$700 additional for grill and "additional body work" (that in my opinion was not needed since the car was dent free)
- Was *not* contacted for authorization for additional work, additional work was not mentioned when I contacted them to check on the progress of the work
- Ended up having to pay approx $1100 out of pocket for a repair that should have been covered by insurance except for the new grill

Passenger Side Corner Lamp:
- Lamp not installed properly, bottom half of lamp is not connected, lamp is misaligned
http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20P...lamp_align.jpg
- Lamp weather-stripping is damaged/torn.
http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20P..._stripping.jpg

Driver Side Corner Lamp:
- Lamp not installed properly, bottom half of lamp is not connected, lamp is misaligned
http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20P...lamp_align.jpg
- Lamp weather-stripping is damaged/torn.
http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20P..._stripping.jpg

Passenger Side Mirror:
- Overspray on trip
- Damage to trim
http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20P...ass_mirror.jpg

Driver Side Over-quarter panel
- Installed improperly, part is loose
- Trim is damaged
- Overspray on trim
- SVX badge missing
Before:
http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20P...nel_before.jpg
After:
http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20P...iver_panel.jpg

Passenger Side Over-quarter panel:
- Installed improperly, part is loose
- Trim is damaged
- Overspray on trim
- SVX badge missing
http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20P...pass_panel.jpg

Trunk:
- Poor coverage, fiberglass showing through the paint
http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20P...sues/trunk.jpg
- Overspray on keyhole trim and rubber gasket
http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20P...nk_keyhole.jpg

Windshield:
- Overspray on trim
http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20P...windshield.jpg

Antenna:
- Not installed properly, antenna is loose
http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20P...es/antenna.jpg

Hood Emblem:
- Emblem not replaced, damaged emblem reused
http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20P...ues/emblem.jpg

Passenger Rocker Panel:
- missing attachment pin
http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20P..._panel_pin.jpg

Windshield Wiper:
- Driver side wiper arm paint chipped off
- Was in good condition before I dropped the car off for painting
http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20P.../wiper_arm.jpg



Please note: This thread is being posted for hosting/informational purposes only, if you'd like to comment on it, please start a new thread.

SVX Paint job?
 

Scott, saw that stickied post, dude. HOLY !@#$! You need to borrow any hardware?

Scott, Holy crap man...I didn't realize the low quality of that job was...I'm scared to have my car painted now!

Also, I noticed in the key hole picture, that the paint is really orange-peeled, which comes as a result of an unclean or greasy surface.

What a sham. Gilson's is completely off my list of reputable shops.

Yeah... if it was just one or two things, or if I hadn't been overcharged so much, I would probably have let it slide. But after I washed the car the other day and found more issues, I decided I can't live w/ it as bad as it is.

Well, I guess that knocks Gilsons off my list too.

The paint doesn't look too horrible, until you get close. All the little details add up to a paint job that'll be lucky to make it through next year.

People make mistakes (although quite a few in this situation). I would wait to see what can be done to fix these issues. Shops can screw up, but the good ones make everything right in the end. I hope it ends this way.

IMO this looks like a rush job, by a less experienced painter. I doesn't necessarily mean that all the work by the shop will be this flawed, however before a car is released to the owner, someone that is experienced should have inspected it and made sure it was up to snuff.

I know that Gilson's can do good work, since I've seen some of the cars they've painted and they look great. However, in this case, I feel like I was really short-changed.

If Gilson's is willing to re-prep and re-paint the car to correct all these issues, I will feel much better about their commitment to quality, and consider my issues just a fluke.

That's just sloppy prep work all over. Bad masking job, bad surface prep, and rushed work. And not getting new emblems is just wrong.

By all means I agree with you.

sorry your car had to be the one :(
that paint sucks!!!

Good Luck with getting it fixed. The thing always to remember is that the shops carry insurance also. don't let him control what the next step is, just start the steps. :)

exactly.. i mean you paid alot of $$ to get a quality paint job. I'd be pretty pissed and demand that they fix it or legal action will be taken.

Because the job is guarenteed by the Allstate, I am in the process of getting things squared away. Art's already contacted Gilson's and hopefully they will be cooperative w/ either correcting the situation or refunding me and Allstate for the botched job.

In fact, the reason I posted the pictures was so they'd be hosted for Gilson's to review, not really to start this discussion. I really don't want to bad-mouth Glison's, at least not without giving them the option to make good on the issues.

As I mentioned before, I hope they're willing to correct this situation in which case my opinion of them will be drastically different.

I think the pictures are a good documentary of a badly done paint job. I do hope it gets fixed without alot more hassle for you. I would trust that the Allstate guarantee will see to that.

But the other side of the problem, is that they did not notify you that the amount charged was going up as well.

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe the law is that a shop can't exceed a quote by more than 10% without customer approval.

10% of $3,300 is $330. They went over by about $700. That especially hurts when I was only expecting to pay about $400 out of pocket. According to my wallet that's exceeding the estimate by about 75%! I even asked if I could pay cash... imagine my surprise when the $400 I was expecting to pay became $1100 to get my car back!

That's craziness, man. There's no f'in way that's a $4k (or $1k) paintjob. At least Maaco only charges you $200 for a taped-over respray with no clear and minimal prep, and doesn't break your shit as well.

"break your shit as well" hahaha i like that.. flows..

Ya they did a horrible job on my parent's Outback. Paint was good, but we had to take it back 3 or 4 times for other shit and it was never fixed that well.

I'm no lawyer - but 20% is the way I read this one:

http://www.washoelegalservices.org/carrep.htm

Actually... from that article you posted:

So in my case, they're not allowed to exceed $40!! I'd say $700 is somewhat more than $40. :lol:

Thread has been merged and moved to the Member's Forum.

Gilson's will be looking at the car tomorrow. Apparently Gilbert wasn't too happy to see my car's issues posted on a public forum. And while I sympathetize w/ the unfairness of posting this stuff w/o giving him a chance to fix the issues, it was posted in a public forum that he does have access to if he'd like to post a rebuttal. Plus, his actions regarding these issues are his actions and if he wants to protect his good reputation, then he needs to ensure the quality of his work the first time, and not only after there are complaints. However, since he isn't happy with the post, it's been moved out of the public forums.

As far as my opinion of the shop... when I talked to Gil today, he seemed very eager to make things right, and upset that I was upset about the quality of the job on the SVX. Hopefully this is genuine concern on his part. Like I said before, I'm willing to give them a shot to make things right, and if they're willing and able to solve all my issues, my opinion of Gilson's will be much improved.

Ya well they still never fixed my parents car. In fact they seemed incapable of doing so.

In CA, they are not allowed to exceed the estimate by more than 10% without written authorization.

That totally sucks though. It is quite the sloppy job. Maybe they were too busy and just dropped the car off at Maaco!.

I looked up the actual law on the Nevada state website. A shop is not allowed to charge more than 20% or $100 over the estimate, whichever is less.

However, it's not really the money thing that's bothering me... if all that work really needed to be done, even if I wasn't properly notified, it wouldn't have been an issue if the car looked like it had a $4000 paint job. IMO the car looks like it *was* dropped of at Maaco.

Anyway, I dropped it off at Gilson's this morning. Gil was very enthusiastic about getting the issues I listed taken care of. They are going to repair all the trim and overspray issues, touch-up and color-sand all the chips, re-buff the car to removed the swirls, and get me a set of badges. They should be done on Friday. If the car comes back looking like it's got the $4000 paint job I paid for, then I won't have any problem. If not, well then I'll be contacting Allstate, and it will unfortuantely be their responsibility to deal w/ repairing the car at another location. And I will be calling my credit card company and disputing the charges if that's something that Allstate can't cover.

On a more personal note... I spent about 20 minutes chatting w/ Gil after we discussed the paint job. He's really a good person. He's a car guy just like all of us. It's my opinion that I got screwed because he wasn't able to personally oversee my car. It may not be a good excuse, but I don't think that Gil was intentionally trying to screw me. My problems seem to come more from having to deal w/ the office staff there being out of the loop with regards to my discussions directly w/ Gil. That, and what looks like a "new guy" that painted the car. So while I'll likely never return to that shop, as of now I'm not holding anything against Gil personally.

Scott's car looks eleventy-billion times better!

Pics?
So they took care of you, Scott?

Yeah, the car looks much better. I'm sure pics will come soon.

I hope it does look better... Thats just horrible quality!

I'm gonna wash it and wax it as soon as I'm don w/ all the new stereo stuff I just put into it. Then I'll take some pictures. :)

The car is *much* better... Gilbert was actually pretty cool about the whole deal. The only thing I'm missing are the SVX side badges... he said he'd order some and mail them to me, so we'll see how that works out. I may have to call him up and remind him.

Get them badges yet? Glad it looks better then before.

Scott, what's the status, I know we found all those inperfections still the other day, have you spoken with the insurance co again?

Actually, like Matt said...

I washed and waxed it last weekend, and found a ton more issues. :mad: Every panel is orange-peeled, and there are drips everywhere. The work they did last time was basically turd-polishing, which became aparent after I waxed the car.

I need to talk to you about my options. I've been told that I should be able to have the car professionally polished with a very high-grit compound which should remove the orange-peel, but then it might need to be re-clear coated afterwards. If that's not enough then it may need to be repainted. Also, I have not received the missing badges.

If I hadn't paid $1100 out of pocket on this, I wouldn't be so critical of the paint quality, but (including the insurance money) this is a $4000 paint job, and it doesn't look that way. For $4000 at Shaber, I'd have a show-car quality paint job. I certainly don't want to take the car back to Gilson's... even though I think Gil's a nice guy, I don't believe his shop is willing to fix the car to factory quality.

I should be picking up the WRX from Shaber this afternoon. I think I'll bring the SVX over there when I pick it up and see what he thinks about the quality of the job, and what can be done to fix it. Perhaps Allstate, Shaber and I can come up with a solution?

Swing by my work after you pick up the WRX, I want to see it.

10-4

When you bring it by Shabers, ask their opinion of the quality of work. That will help us using a second opinion. Then hit me up this afternoon and I will call our claims dept. and let them know of the situation. We'll get it handled.

Did you get your wrx back, and let them look at the svx?

I got the WRX back... it's *awesome*... looks better than it's ever looked!

Bruce also looked at the SVX. He said the paint doesn't look too bad. The problem is that w/ the current non-lead based polyurethane paints, they tend to have a "memory effect" that occured on repaint jobs. Basically, no matter how much buffing you do, it'll still come up with an orange-peel finish. The only way to fix it is to chemically strip all the paint and start over (which is what they did on my WRX's hood ;)).

However, Bruce pointed out a bunch of spots on the SVX where Gilson's never bothered to buff at all. Specifically the rear bumper/license plate area, the door handles, etc. He said getting it re-buffed again will probably help, but due to nature of the paint, I'll probably never be able to get the car glass smooth.

Art, I'm not sure how I want to handle this. Bringing it back to Gilson's for yet another buffing doesn't appeal to me, maybe if I were bringing it down there to have those badges installed they could buff it out once more.

I sense a major sand storm coming!

Buffing isn't a very long procedure, so when you bring it in to get the badges done, point the areas out to Gilson and have him buff it again. If it still looks like crap, then we will figure out a way to see if we can get it to shabers and have them redo the buffing.

:lol: That implies he's actually getting me the badges... as of yet I haven't heard anything. 'Course I also haven't had the time to call him and ask.