Hey Guys/Gals,

I had my car fixed after a fender bender and kinda got shafted on the fix.

The dealership said they just got a state of the art body and paint shop. So they took the car in, and when I got it back the hood was a significantly different color than the Platinum OEM paint.

So they took the car back fixed the hood color (not perfect) (minor tiny bubbles) and then I saw the fender which is way darker (the pictures below).

The manager told me that since the car has been in the sun and outdoors the paints are very hard to match due to natural wear, which is understandable, and that the paint will fade to the same color of the car (Really?!) but when I got home, Not only did I notice the difference, the girlfriend and neighbor even said something to me about the difference. Since the car was in the shop lights, and and a slight angle its no biggie, but when anyone looks at my car in the sun or pure daylight its 100% noticeable.





Tried calling Jaguar corporate since the guy gave me some attitude when i doubted his shop, all you can do is just talk and then you get the "Sir I'm so sorry Sir people". I gave up on the shop when they said give it some time to fade.

My question to you guys/gals is How much would it be ,ballpark figure, if I took off the fender myself and brought it to a noteable shop to have repainted? I know I could just go there, but I'd like to get a fair and honest opinion of a paint and body guy thats done the work before I get the "its a jaguar so it'll be more."

What do you think of this work?

Thanks before hand to all that respond and help me out.

- Dave

 

I've never been a painter, but I've been in the business awhile. As the old saying goes.. sh*t happens. But as a business providing a service to a customer, you make it right.

It's not unusual at all to not have new paint match the original. I'll say that silver is one of the most difficult colors to match. But this is fairly normal. What's not normal is the recourse the body shop took in the repair. What should have been done is blend the paint into the adjacent panels to minimize the appearance of mismatched paint. Even the best body shops out there do this. It costs more both in time and money, but it's realistically the best way to take care of this issue.

Just curious, but what insurance company paid for the repair, or what is an out-of-pocket deal? Some insurance companies are notoriously cheap, especially some of the fly-by-night companies.. they'll literally pay just enough to get the car back in one piece.

All that being said, removing the fender and taking it to a more reputable shop will likely give similar results - they'd probably ask you to bring the vehicle in, so they can blend into the adjacent panels. Because honestly, that's the right way to do it. You're likely looking at several hundred dollars considering the paint, materials, and time involved. Easily $400 in my area, if not more.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

 

Hey,

State Farm paid for, I just knew I should of taken it somewhere else, Its a Jag Dealer but the place was always empty or maybe 1 customer. Total ghost town.

$400-500 doesn't seem bad, I think i would get some other tiny ding work done so maybe I can get a good deal.

Went down a street here in chicago where for about a block long, theres nothing but paint and body guys, for a different little hole i got in my bumper a while ago, (woke up from a friends house w the car parked on the street and a audi went too far and made a indent of audi rings on my jag bumper. lol) Anyways one shop said $200 and another across the street said $550. With this kinda work not sure who's who if you know what I mean. Got kinda sidetracted and never went back.

Thanks Nalley for your input, much appreciated.

- Dave

 

Sorry for the late reply on this, I just saw this thread. After looking at the pics, all I can think is THAT'S F***ED UP! I think I could match the paint better with a box of 64 Crayola crayons. I don't care what the dealer is telling you, that's just a bad paint job. If the dealership is giving you the runaround, you need to drive the car down to the State Farm office and show them what a lousy job the dealership did. State Farm will make it right. They guarantee the work of the body shops. They may try to send you back to the same place to get it repainted, but just explain to State Farm that the dealership painted it and it was wrong, then they repainted it and it was still wrong. You'd like to go to a shop that will actually make it right.

 

I agree with Sam, I have State Farm, and they are fantastic at dealing with issues like this. Drive it by your agent, let them see it. They will gladly authorize another trip to the dealer, or you can request another shop to take it to. State Farm will act on your behalf when it comes to talking with the dealer as well with 'the shop', not that you care, but probably will reduce the payment to them for the poor final quality of the work.

The main point is they will pay the additional cost for you to get the car back to original appearance, period. Just talk to them.

 

The whole front of the car is far darker than the rest of the car. So I assume you have had all panels at the front repainted.

The whole point about bodyshops is that they are supposed to be able to match up to the existing colour even though it may be slightly faded. This is done by use of correcting toners and colour testing. However, metallics can be notorious to match, and yours is, or course, a metallic, and silver as well !!

A "state-of-the-art" shop should be able to compensate for fading to some degree. Normally this is done by fading out along the length of a panel, not finishing at a panel joint or line, which makes the repair obvious

 

Well, before reading any bid of the post, I did look at the pictures and could easily state the color difference.

I'm with the others on this, and I'd have State Farm try to take care of it. I cannot vouch for their quality, but they have had some of the more convincing commercials in the past.

 

prett much everyone gave you the correct answer. You should never PANEL paint, but blend adjacent panels. And the paint can be matched even when faded. But yes if they just took the paint color and mixed like it was new, this is what you get. I watch the mobil paint guys come onto our lot and perfectly match , blend, and repair right in the back parkinglot out of a van or truck bed with fast drying hardners. I really think they do a bteer job than many paintbooth repaints....but again it always always depends on the PERSON doing the work, not the shop

 

Brutal definately got it right, it is generally the "Person" doing the job. Painting is as much art as it is technical. This guy should have been able to tint the paint to come much closer to your current color. And as Butal and the others stated, this should have been blended with all adjacent surfaces.

 

I just had some paintwork done on my 2003 XJ6 (X350 model) to cure the notorious "Creeping Lurgy" these models can suffer from. And I can tell you that although it cost a lot of money, (I daren't let the missus know how much !!), the blend-in is so perfect it looks like no corrosion was ever present and no work ever done. However, the colour is Jaguar Racing Green metallic, which as a dark colour is probably easier to match up.

 

I am a paint and body man and the trouble many shops are facing in california is the adaptaion of waterbourne. This causes different flop on the color and the metalics are off too. You end up blending the panels further than you should have to and temerature for some shops not equipped with the right equipment makes the color look completely different.
I for one am a stickler and we spend the time to make the color look right in both sun and shade.

 

I just saw a 'street customs' episode where they switched to the waterborne paint. Makes sense...when did that occur, and is it only in CA or other states implementing the same regulations to reduce VOC emissions?

 

Time for a Bump. Heres The story:

I got one of those "Our Company has missed you!" mailings from the dealer that did that shotty job on the paint work. So I didn't want to recieve these anymore and called the dealer direct, and who answers?? The vice president of the dealership, long story short, he told me to swing by and when i did he immediately was appauled at the work done. He said he would take care of it, and wanted my business back. Seriously a stand up guy that took fault for this. He never was alerted, when the service manager was supposed to. Etc...etc.. So I brought it in to get it fixed and the pics are below, What do you guys think?

I noticed a run, and noticed that they didnt bother over the chips, I then asked why they couldn't fix the two chips as they were blending the entire fender. Service manager that I previously fought with, said they dont remove the clear coat to repaint and was using his fingers to chip more of the chips to see. I immediately told him to get his boss over that was on his way back from lunch. < Really? I'm not a pro, but to not remove the clear coat , meaning you paint over clear? I thought you had to remove it to do it the right way.... I will include pics of the said paint run, and chips, not a big deal to me, but with Chicago winters and salt later down the line it will be.

I mean the guy (vice president of dealership) is a decent person for admitting fault, but then said he got paid to blend it from state farm but they did not do so, they took panels off, painted them, then bolted them back on...Wow. Then he started to say hes doing me a favor... I signed off and just drove away.

 

I think it looks pretty good, luckily, the run hardly seems to be noticeable, same with the chips. It's considerably better than the original without the blending.

 

Man I feel your pain! Last year I hit a deer with my platinum gray metallic bmw 7 series causing about 8500 in damages to the front end. I too have state farm so I did a little research and decided like you to take it to a place with "new equipment" that worked on beemers. What a damn nightmare. After three weeks, they returned the car without replacing all the parts. Then like you say, they didn't match the paint. I complained to the manager who looked at the car and gave the I'm so sorry speech and promised to take care of the issue. 2 weeks later, got the car back, dirt in the paint, runs ect! I called state farm and complained again, and they sent an agent to look at the car. In disbelief, they told me to take it back. I refused to take it back to that shop and wanted to take it elsewhere. They agreed, allowing me to pick a specialty shop. Two weeks later, good as new, along with a 6500 bill that was deducted from the previous shops bill!! Call state farm and tell them you want to take it elsewhere!

 

BLEND(adjacent panels),one time i opened a can of basecoat and it just struck me as `too green' AKA`greener than' the shade on the car,,i prepped and blended the whole side,it matched(EDIT=my point here being although i was repairing a small dent on one door,i didn't have time to do it twice,i told the owner`don't tell anyone i painted the whole side of your 2 year old Lincoln Town Car for 250 dollars',but i did it ~one time~ and everybody was happy)

but several points i'll make>#1 if there's any doubt when i first see the (agitated) paint=i'm usually correct in my assesment of`match',often times adjusters will stipulate`nothing extra'(suplements) attempting to force a shop to `panel paint' or`butt match',,however MY assesment is you are not building a sound customer base by doing business(butt matching) nice vehicles.it can be done but i would have to start talking`alternate formulas' and i'm already typing a book here soooo>

sorry for bad or no editing i'm in a hurry,,30 years in the trade(read my intro)#1 contact your insurance agent and disclose your unhappyness,they are after all going to lose money when you go to a company that will take care of you.

looks like the hood/fender dosn't line up in front?,,

i could go on into todays color matching`technology' the paint manufacturers came along with and it is much better support than 30 years ago when they use the`sun fade' excuse(ever hear of an electrophotospecterometer?,the body shop that did your fender certainly has as well as`fan decks',do some research)so therefore there's no reason to send a nice car down the road with TWO colors on it,feel free to PM me if you feel the need i have to run and prime a dash on an old convertible,good luck and post up what happens ,i'm glad to help offer explanations,,Dennis

 

When you blend into an adjacent panel you do not remove the clearcoat. The entire panel is lightly scuffed with 1000 paper. The base color is blended but not applied to the whole panel. You have to stop the color somewhere before the next pane. Preferably on a bodyline or curve. On doors I like to stop near the mirror where a shadow is usually cast. Then the whole panel is clearcoated. At least that's how I been doing it since they came out with clear.

So no, you can't start fixing dents or chips that are close to the next adjacent panel or you will be back to a panel to panel mismatch. If you keep going to the next panel, the whole car will end up geting refinished. Keep in mind the insurance company is only responsible to restore the car to preloss condition. This doesn't mean fixing things not part of the accident.

Where this shop went wrong was trying to panel paint in the first place. I would never consider trying it on a difficult color like silver with a high end car like a Jag. Just plain stupid on their part. A PPG instructor once told me to always blend into the next panel. The agravation created by a likely mismatch is not worth the small savings of time & material.

This is a perfect example. If they had done the blending correctly in the first place, chances are that you never would have noticed any color variation since you wouldn't know where to look. Now they have an unhappy customer that is going to examine anything they do. Really dumb.

 

Thanks Guys for your input,

Bodyman, It seems on my window sill the paint looks "sprayed" and feels bumpy to the touch. If I sit in my car and roll down the window, and look in the driver's side view mirror, the paint looks like its sprayed over and dried. But Im not going to harp, it matches better than it did before and lets things drop. What you have taught me now will keep me from these kind of people in the future.

Thanks again guys.

 

ok one thing did come to mind after my long long post=if the same gun was used for base and clear and inadequatly cleaned before moving on to the clear;it will come out`wierd' usually darker(on a `high metallic'),had a neighbor show me a spot on a Toyota truck quarter panel,gold,cast was there,color was there,the effect was not due to aluminum(metallic being in the clear.

sad fact of life is in a downtown shop it's all based on hours,i used to argue with painters and add hours so the job would go out the way I wanted it(even buffing their work if they wouldn't,yep it sucked),that's why`i am what i am' an old `resto guy' well,maybe someone will do a small ding in a parking lot and you can find someone who truly cares about you and your car(and then blend the side on out for the match) good luck