I have a 1990 Firebird that I am beginning to restore. It is the maroon/burgundy color. I don't know much about body work, especially painting, so any advice would be greatly appreciated. I had the car in to reseal the transmission, and the shop owner told me that he knew a place he could send it to to get it stripped down and repainted (taking all the panels off the car). This was a $5-6,000 job. When I got it back, I noticed hundreds, if not thousands, of dirt/grit marks in the paint. Obviously, a paint booth wasn't used, or if one was, the filters were dirty or something happened. The shop owner told me the car had to be buffed and wet sanded, and this would solve the problem (although I was skeptical since the grit seemed deep in the paint). 2 1/2 months later, he told me the car was done. It looks horrible. The grit marks are smoothed out, but they are still visible throughout the entire finish. It seems to me that the only solution would be to sand it back down and start from scratch. No exaggeration, there are at least 1,000 marks in the paint. Am I being unreasonable or too picky? Also, the paint in some areas has become milky--maybe a result to sanding it too much???

Of concern as well is the paint that was used. I told him I wanted factory paint despite him telling me he could add some metal to it. I noticed white specks in the paint. Is this normal in my Firebird? I've owned the car for 10 years and had panels repainted periodically, but I never noticed faint white specks before. Maybe I never paid attention before? He told me they used Dupont paint (although I do not know if this is true), but it does not seem to have the deep luster that other paint jobs have had in the past.

Also, my passenger ground effect was loose. The front metal bracket had rusted away, and they glued the ground effect back on. It doesn't look too good and glue is seeping out of the top of the ground effect. They told me that the part (hinge on the front fender) isn't produced anymore, and this is the only way to secure it. Is this true?

This was my first car and I wanted to begin restoring it for shows in the future. This is an area I know little about. He promised me that the car would look showroom, but it doesn't. Any guidance would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

post some pics of the car so we can see whats wrong with it.

 

I'll try to get some pics on when I return home on Monday. The grit can be hard to photograph since the marks are the size of an ink pen dot, but I'll see what I can do.

 

If you paid a large amount of money to get the car painted than dont take no for an answer until you are happy with it. If they said it would be painted in a booth and it doesnt look like they did than question that. Its your car not theirs and if your unhappy with the job THEY did on YOUR car than dont stop till its fixed to your approval. My two cents.

 

From what your describing, they did a 5-600 dollar paint job for 5-6000 dollars. I'd take it back, and first show your concern and ask how they are planning on fixing it. If they give you the run around then start being more stern. Just stick to your guns. I know a guy who went through this restoring a 65 mustang and they finally took it back and redid it and it turned out the way it should have in the first place. It's their fault they will lose money on you if they have to sand it all down, not yours.

 

Yeah... take it back and then pick a better footbal team.

Seriously, for that money I would expect nothing short of perfection.

 

5000 to 6000 dollars and it turned out like this? Take that thing back and make them redo it until your satisfied. For that kind of money anything less than showroom quality would be unexceptable.

 

Man that really sucks. For 5000$ the jobs should be ****ing perfect, perfectly straight with no trash or imperfections to be seen.

Trash does happen, and it does just need to be buffed out, but to have a lot of trash is uncommon and a sign of a poor work area. Having trash still in the paint when its delivered is unacceptable.

try and get them to redo it. If the paint is smooth they would just have to sand it and shoot it again, no need to strip it again. parts are impossible to find as well, if they broke something and cant fix it you'll have to find a used part.

 

It's also a sign the body shop charging the original amount outsourced the paint job to an Earl Schieb/Maaco/whatever place. My money is on this theory.

Call the local news station!

 

Sounds to me like they didn't prep it right, Used to corse of sand paper and you are seeing the sand scraches through the paint. Your whole deal sounds pretty raw. I agree with the other guys take it back and tell them to make it right or give you a refund. You paid for a professional job and you did not get one. I would consider taking him to small claims and the BBB if you can't get satisfaction.


Your not being to pickey for that price. I had a shop for 12 years doing body/paint, car stereo, etc. a paint booth is not needed to get a professional job. I painted for a shop that had a 50k bake booth before I started my own and still you get dust in a paint job the sand and buff takes that out and gives you that glass look we all love. They shouldn't need to keep your car that long either. I would have conserns with that too.

Good luck.

 

My buddy painted a quarter panel on his truck once and had the exact same problem you are describing. What happened was, he primed it and laid down the color base fine. After that, he sprayed the clear on nice and thick. I cant remember what happened, but little bubbles were coming up from the base coat and hardening in the clear. The actually popped up the surface of the clear like they were grit.

We ended up sanding the thing back down to primer/metal, then re-priming and blocking the area out. Then, he sprayed it again with a new batch of clear (from a diferent can), and also changed the time interval between base and clear. Came out perfect.

 

Something similar happened to the rear end of my camaro. I was spraying the front end, and some idiot opened the large booth doors where you pull cars in. I yelled at him to close it but it was too late, and some dust had blown in on my camaro. Some wetsanding did take care of most of them tho, and now theres only 3 or 4 specs of dust in the paint.

 

For future reference, always try to pay for body and paint work with a Visa card. I had the same problems as you and made a mistake by paying cash. If I had paid by Visa, my bank would have refused payment to the body/paint shop until it was correct. I used this feature on my credit card for a junk carb I bought for my sisters Honda. The carb rebuild shop I bought it from promised me all the usual garbage about how great this part was. When it turned out to be junk, they refused to take it back or do any repairs on it. I called my bank, disputed the payment and they never got paid. They knew the carb was junk, they never asked for it back.

 

i agree with cadillac i would not accept the car back till its done to my satisfaction for 5-6000 dollars i think the paint should be perfect

again i agree with cadillac call the loacl news station

 

Sounds like my Maaco $900 paint job came out a lot better than yours. Over $5000 you should be able to walk into any GM dealership and ask him to point to a new car that has a similar or worse paint job. I have "nibs" in my paint, but I've only found few.

It does sound like they didn't take it down to a 300-400 grit before painting. Even the best shops get new guys in or have a bad day. Sorry, man.

 

In response to your ground F/X issue, I just had all mine off for a repaint as well and found the same issue. If they can't find replacement brackets, it is not that hard to make up a metal strip and weld/bond on threaded rods in place of the crappy factory nut/stud mounting tabs they have there to mount it back on properly. You should not have to silicone them back on. It looks crappy, it is not factory, and is unnecessary.

I hope that the paint was not $5000-$6000, and that that was typo for $500-$600 job. Otherwise, it is totally unacceptable and needs to be brought back and fixed correctly or take him to court. I just had my paint job done in a booth where I think the filters were coming apart though and I have all these filter specs in the paint. So now I have to wet sand and buff/polish too. So either, they used a poor maintained booth or rolled the car out of the booth too early and sand/grit/crap blew all over the car before it cured/hardened enough to do so. Either way, be stern in making them fix it. Even if you did only spend $500-$600...if that was not the job agreed upon at the beginning, do not accept it until it is right.

 

Guys, never ever pick up a car that is messed up. I left a car at Maaco for 2 weeks before I picked it up. Just say thats unacceptable, when will it be ready, dont say another word. I went to Best Buys the day before Xmas. They squezed my car in and shorted out my monsoon stereo. They told me my car was ready and electrical parts break down. Then they told me to move my car and they would talk to me. I blocked that bay for 4 hours, until I got the answer I wanted.