# Body shop advice please!



## Jonathan W (Nov 23, 2010)

Long time lurker here! :wave: :buffer:

A few weeks ago I had a stone chip hit my car's bonnet 3 times down to the primer paint (each hit was half a centimetre wide). I took my car to its dealer's body shop for an inspection/price estimate and they gave me 2 options:

1. Respray the middle column of the bonnet where the stone chips were and blend into the side columns of the bonnet
2. Respray the whole bonnet and blend into the wings

Afterwards, I decided to visit one of the most reputable body shops in my region as recommended by my brother and a professional detailer who is also a member on here. The inspector had a look at my car's bonnet and took a few photos of it for their records. He mentioned that they do not follow the dealer's body shop techniques as they do not blend and they were confident with their colour matching. After being impressed by their customer services, facilities and word of mouth recommendations, I decided to go with this body shop.

Upon collecting my car, I noticed straightaway that the bonnet was a shade darker than the wings in direct sunlight. The person who gave me my car keys told me to give it a few days and see what I thought. I parked the car outside my garage and noticed that the match looked perfect under the trees and thought I could live with it. Unfortunately, after parking the car in the garage, the mismatch was much more noticeable inside and I also noticed the following:

1. Powdery stuff on the bonnet's rubber strip (easily removed with APC)
2. Lots of tape residue under the bonnet (removed with APC)
3. Dimples in the new paint (at first, I thought they were the stone chips indents the bonnet had previously)
4. Murky white stuff on the edges of the bonnet (I thought this was buffer residue at first as I couldn't get it off with IPA then I used my DAS-6 Pro with a few passes using Sonus SFX1/SFX2 pads and ZAIO which removed them slightly)
5. Patchy/spotty paintwork in comparison to the factory paint which looks much more even/smooth throughout

I decided to call the body shop the next day to tell them I was not happy with the job which I paid £360 for. I spoke to the guy who give me my car keys and he said it was my fault for not choosing to blend even though they were confident enough to do it without blending. I asked him to try respraying the bonnet again to get a better match. He replied insisting that they cannot to do it free of charge and can only do it at discounted price providing that I pay the full price of blending on top which is £150! I'm now wishing I hadn't got the car's bonnet resprayed and just lived with the stone chips or went with the dealer body shop's 2nd option 

1. Can anyone please recommend what I should do from here?
2. Is it really hard to match metallic silver as I had colour coded plastic protective strips installed on my car at 3 years old (as part of the deal when I bought it) and they match perfectly with the metal and plastic panels?
3. Is blending absolutely essential for matching metallic silver as I'm not keen on the idea of having a number of different paint layers in different places on body panels that has good paint condition?

I apologise for my first post being this long and I must admit that I am not an argumentative person since I'm usually quiet hence why I haven't visited the body shop in person yet


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## Steve valentine (Aug 7, 2010)

Silver is supposed to be a bugger to match, I've had a couple of silver cars and whenever I've had any work done it was always blended.


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## bofh (Apr 14, 2009)

Bonnet's are not good for SMART repairs especially if they have metallic in. That's not to say it can't be done but it takes someone with lots of experience, you should have a look on the SMART repair forum and ask their advice.

Pictures will also help. The majority if not all body shops will only paint a bonnet if they can blend into the wings. A good SMART tech might be able to do it but it sounds a little too big for a repair, especially if its already been messed up.

You'll probably have to get the bonnet and wings re-done. Don't worry, your not alone, I started doing SMART repairs on my Jag last summer, 5 times I painted a chip on the bonnet and I still can't get the flip right with the metallic.


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## Ninja59 (Feb 17, 2009)

tbh i would always blend it stops colour mismatch i have had my wing, door and a rear 3/4 done because of a key scratch but that is blended to a degree, the stupidest thing to advice is not to blend it was always going to happen you never should not blend bonnets into wings because the mismatch can be completely obvious tbh i think the bodyshop should be given another attempt but not at a discount should be free as you followed their advice!


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## robtech (Jan 17, 2011)

get trading standards involved and seek a lawer,dont let the body shop away with it,theres far to many rip off places like this these days.


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## cotter (Aug 31, 2008)

I'm no painter, but have a silver car which has been painted several times on various panels due to the bodyshop mucking up, and I'd say blending is essential with silver.


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## SAL73R (Jan 12, 2011)

I am a painter and I have yet to meet anyone who would NOT blend a silver. They ate notoriously hard to match and the prep work has to be perfect too.


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## BAXRY (Aug 11, 2009)

As already said speak to trading standards, its the same if you bought a dvd from hmv and weren't completely happy with it your consumer right state you have X amount of days to return for a full refund its the same for this they will either have to give you a full refund or redo the work until you are satisfied.


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## Kaz (Apr 19, 2006)

Did you pay £360 just for the bonnet? If so, that's pretty expensive, I'd be wanting a spot on job for that money.

I would go down and have a chat with them, point out that bits you're not happy and try and negotiate with them.


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## ak07 (Dec 4, 2010)

360 seems like big money for a bonnet, considering the unprofessionalism, of the bodyshop


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## gally (May 25, 2008)

As an assessor £360 is quite expensive depending on the hourly rate.

The problem you have is you can no longer get the colour match right, the bodyshop can paint that bonnet a million more times and it'll still be the wrong shade, on silver if they base coat is going anywhere near edge to edge you would always blend.

Maybe these guys have had success in the past but on Silver it's very rare to not blend the adjacent panel, even blending door you can end up with patchiness in the basecoat. Just Silver for you.

I'd go back and ask them to blow in the tops of the wings and lacqer them. It should then match the bonnets colour. See what they say. 

At the end of the day they did say it wouldn't need blended (it does). Different if you had said i'll take the risk.


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## Andyb0127 (Jan 16, 2011)

I'm a car sprayer and have always blended silver no matter what, it will never match edge to edge (ie the wings).

Just trying to local the areas with silver and laquer it will not work, sounds like that's what they have done, or smart repairs I've yet to see any decent smart repairs.

The price you paid is a bit high, but sounds like yeh bonnet and wings need doin to get it right, your option would be to get an independant accessor to look at it or a paint tech guy to do a report on it, also they should have sprayout cards of the colour get them to show you the shade they used check the other ones to see if there's a closer match.


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## M4hood (Sep 21, 2010)

Wings always blend on a silver total must do never ever ever getting away without doing it


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## Jonathan W (Nov 23, 2010)

Thanks for all your replies and I really appreciate them! :driver:


Kaz said:


> Did you pay £360 just for the bonnet? If so, that's pretty expensive, I'd be wanting a spot on job for that money.
> 
> I would go down and have a chat with them, point out that bits you're not happy and try and negotiate with them.





ak07 said:


> 360 seems like big money for a bonnet, considering the unprofessionalism, of the bodyshop


I did pay £360 just for the bonnet respray alone 

To clarify for my first post regarding respraying again, the body shop said to do it again they would discount the original price I paid (e.g. down to £180 from £360) and pay the full price (£150) of blending on top which totals to £320 :wall:



gally said:


> As an assessor £360 is quite expensive depending on the hourly rate.
> 
> The problem you have is you can no longer get the colour match right, the bodyshop can paint that bonnet a million more times and it'll still be the wrong shade, on silver if they base coat is going anywhere near edge to edge you would always blend.
> 
> ...


I took the car in on Monday morning and was told by a member of staff that the car could potentially be collected on Tuesday afternoon. I call on Tuesday afternoon to enquire about collecting the car but they said it wasn't ready yet and to call the next morning. I did so and was told to call later in the afternoon and eventually the car was ready which lead me to thinking they had problems with the job 

I forgot to mention that I did ask about blending into the wings alone however, they insisted that they would have to respray the bonnet again and blend into the wings 



Andyb0127 said:


> I'm a car sprayer and have always blended silver no matter what, it will never match edge to edge (ie the wings).
> 
> Just trying to local the areas with silver and laquer it will not work, sounds like that's what they have done, or smart repairs I've yet to see any decent smart repairs.
> 
> The price you paid is a bit high, but sounds like yeh bonnet and wings need doin to get it right, your option would be to get an independant accessor to look at it or a paint tech guy to do a report on it, also they should have sprayout cards of the colour get them to show you the shade they used check the other ones to see if there's a closer match.


It looks like blending is the way forward but I'm confused as to how the plastic protective strips I had put the car at a later date which matches perfectly with the metal panels? :wall:

It looks like I will be visiting the body shop on Saturday to try and recover as much of my money as possible and book an appointment with the dealer body shop to have it done their way as I no longer trust them anymore :wave:

I have attached 2 pictures showing the mismatch and the strange white murky stuff on the edges of the bonnet. These pictures were taken after washing the car and applying a coat of Zaino Z8. I was told by a friend of mine who has been a member on here for several years that Z8 can become cloudy if not applied in ideal conditions. I have never experienced any problems with Z8 in the past and it couldn't be Z8's fault if IPA could not remove the white murky stuff?


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## Arborist (Apr 9, 2008)

Trading standards mate, id speak to them before you go back to the garage. 
The bonet sticks out like a sore thumb and im colour blind.


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## Andyb0127 (Jan 16, 2011)

Reason the plastic protective strips you had fitted were probably already painted by the manufacturer.

Just looked at pics that sticks out like a sore thumb, if it was me id be taking it back tell them it's now goin to another bodyshop to be put right and I'll be sending you the bill for it as I no longer trust you to do any work on my car, you've messed it up once so you'll only get it wrong again.

People wonder why bodyshops get a bad name/reputation with people turning out work like that.

The bodyshop I'm at that wouldn't even get past quality control they would be sending back to be re-done, what others have said silver isn't an easy colour to paint plus all the prep work has to be spot on or any marks defects will o ly show up in the basecoat.


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## bofh (Apr 14, 2009)

Just to point out if you didn't already know but you really should avoid applying anything for a few weeks or a month after paint.

I think they might have tried to fade the edges of the bonnet by over spraying the original paint and hoping the two would blend in. That does look a little like a halo to me bad water based technique?

What do you think Andy?

To put that mess right I'd think the whole bonnet needs a re paint in the proper colour to match the wings and it needs to be properly blended, at least the tops of the wings.

To be honest any painter should be able to do that properly, it gets much harder when you try to spot repair a small area. Most painters just wont entertain it as they know how tricky it can be, they will always blend into the wings on a job of that size.

Lucky for you (sort of) the natural line of your wings should be easier to blend down to the first swage line.

SMART techs like to do the sides of cars because of the angle you look from, it tends to hide the repair. When your looking straight down at the paint on a bonnet its much harder to hide the repair, hence why a body shop just wont mess about with it and risk a come back, they just paint the lot :thumb:


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## Andyb0127 (Jan 16, 2011)

bofh said:


> Just to point out if you didn't already know but you really should avoid applying anything for a few weeks or a month after paint.
> 
> I think they might have tried to fade the edges of the bonnet by over spraying the original paint and hoping the two would blend in. That does look a little like a halo to me bad water based technique?
> 
> ...


Couldn't agree more mate just amazes me how they thinks that's acceptable, spot on what your saying any decent painter should be able to paint silver, but should also make them aware that it should be blended.:wave:


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## S5HSV (Aug 27, 2009)

Jonathan W - where are you based mate??


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## Jonathan W (Nov 23, 2010)

Thanks again for your replies! :buffer:


bofh said:


> Just to point out if you didn't already know but you really should avoid applying anything for a few weeks or a month after paint.


I knew this was the case before I brought my car into the body shop and I also asked them their opinion after collection. They said since the bonnet was taken off and put in the oven for 40 minutes (not sure if I heard this right as it seems a bit short?) therefore it was fine to put anything on. I thought might as well try applying some Z8 for any improvement as the bonnet will be getting respray again anyway 



Andyb0127 said:


> Couldn't agree more mate just amazes me how they thinks that's acceptable, spot on what your saying any decent painter should be able to paint silver, but should also make them aware that it should be blended.:wave:


I wished they had insisted on blending the wings but at the same time I consider myself lucky that they haven't. The body shop could have done another poor job of blending into the wings and resulting in the wings needing to be completely resprayed and even blended into the doors! :wall:



S5HSV said:


> Jonathan W - where are you based mate??


I'm based in the North East :thumb:


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## S5HSV (Aug 27, 2009)

Bugger, if you were down my way I would have taken a look for you.


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