You are freakin' kidding me.... I made a post this week about how I got a crack in my windshield. It started at the top, came down about 4-5" and then over the same.

I took it to the dealership and they said they'd cover it under warranty for me.

I thought that was pretty impressive and even posted so about it.

That was 4 days ago. I got my car back today and guess what???





I got my $%(#%*^! Mini back with a scratch in the paint, a scratch in the moulding and two cuts in the rubber on the mirror.

For those that don't know me, I own two bodyshops. EVERYTHING I have done for the last 14 years at my shops has been word of mouth and referall ONLY. No advertising, Not even in the phone books.

I AM EXTREMELY **** about paint.

And those stupid SOB's scratched my car and took 4 days to put a windshield in that I could have done in 30 minutes.

I'M SO PISSED....

Mark

PS. That's obviously a quarter and the pic doesn't really show how bad/deep (down to the bare metal) the scratches really are. When I painted my JCW kit and scoop, I can tell you that Laser blue is a BlTCH TO MATCH.

 

I hope someone shed blood after you found these...

That's f****d up, man.

 

Be sure to have a chat with Brian Porta about that damage.

 

Not nice, are they going to make it good? At least pay you to do the work in a professional manner.

 

Sorry guys, don't mean to sound like a whiny wuss but being in the bodyshop business for over 25 years, I'm really stupid **** about paint.

When I dropped it off, I even asked them, are they sure they don't want me to do it, I don't want to come back and have damage.

I realize mistakes are made but in order to fix this correctly, the door and hood will have to be painted. By the time you sand, putty and prime, you'll be so close to the edge that you will have to panel shoot the color... and I promise, that ain't gonna happen... it'll look like a zebra going down the road.

I called the SA and raised holy hell. She profusely apologized saying of all people (my analness proceeds me) she can't believe it happened to my car.

I realize it's not the end of the world, I'm just venting....

Mark

 

I fully understand how you feel. I have been following your various treads and I can feel your pain.

 

That sucks Dude you seem to be having bad luck with that car? Hope my wife's is better, she's 1 week into ordering her 09 Laser Blue MCS

 

I hear you, but man please relax. Scratches happen. Even dents You have a great car that you should drive, not a showpiece that you put behind glass.

Go for a nice fast drive, get dirty, and park it for the night. You'll feel better.

 

Hear hear!

Excellent advise

 

What ever your smokin...........I want some too

 

Now, there's a great idea....


Thanks ya'll.... like I said, I'm just venting. I've got 6 cars at the moment (not including my wife's jeep) and not one of them has a mark on them. (that includes several vehicles with over 100K miles on them)


Anyway, thanks for letting me rant... tomorrow's another day. Ya'll have a great night.

Mark

 

Damn Mark, sorry to hear that! I agree with ya on the matching! We use DuPont's Chromabase and they recently came out with a variant that's a bit closer. Even after taking a photo of the color they couldn't match it. When we did the Clubman's tail light surrounds. We even bought a pint of Speis-Hecker and it wasn't much better. The DuPont Variant isn't bad, but I'm probably as **** as you are, and it only closer. We're still tinting a test panel.

I still gotta get by and meet ya next time I'm in Charlotte. What kinda paint do you shoot.

BTW, I got about 5 years in the business on ya, So I understand exactly!

 

Dale,

Thanks bud. I knew another bodyguy would understand.

We're using BASF right now... it's better than average for matching. Like you, I've used it all... glasurit, Spies, Herbert Standox, PPG, Dupont, blah, blah, blah.

The ironic part is I get other bodyshops come to our shop for me to tint colors. Lately, blues have been kicking my azz. I sprayed over 70 sprayout cards tinting the color Nassau blue to panel shoot my corvette hood.


The mini wasn't as bad but Laser blue is (for BASF) almost impossible to panel shoot. It's too green, too blue, too red....

Anytime you get to Charlotte, look me up.

Mark

 

That sucks! I always get nervous when the service rep drives my car off to God knows where in the back and I dont get to see whats going on with it...

 

uh... I've never worked in a body shop or spray painted anything more complex then Krylon, but I would be just a p'd off as you Mark. I am so **** about my cars.

good luck!

 

I would be angry to but i think in these situations your reaction will dictate the response you get from them. A calm phone call explaining the situation will get better a better response than yelling off the bat. The old saying about catching more bees with honey. Now if the honey doesn't work you can scream!

I also just got my car back from the dealer. Some kid key'ed my car (2 panels!) but afaik it looks good as new.

 

I've been in the automotive business since I graduated high school. I stayed working in it even while getting an engr'ing degree. I believe in 99% of cases, you can get more done when being polite and "asking" rather than demanding.

However, I also know this particular automotive group works. We do 99% of the acura work and most of the lexus work for this same automotive group. If I go in with a calm, nice attitude, I'll get diddly.

My problem is I honestly don't know what to do. What I mean by that is even if I go to the dealership and Brian Porta says "Mark, we'll do whatever you want, what would you like?"

What do I want? The only cure is to replace the fender with a used one in that color.

Whether I do the work or they sent it to the bodyshop that does their minis (which I know and does great work) I don't want my DOOR, FENDER and HOOD painted.

THAT's the problem... Even if it matched perfectly, I don't want 3 panels of my car painted.

I guess I'll just end up living with it and brushtouching it. Just a battlescar I guess.

Like I said, there's not much I can do with it and I've got bigger things in life to worry about.

I posted this just as soon as I noticed it and was infuriated that they could be so incompetent when I could have done the same work in under an hour and not loose my car for 4 days and damage it.

Oh well....

 

Really sorry to hear about this, Mark. Another question - did they explain how the cuts in the rubber would have appeared? Seems odd.

 

I really hate hearing things like this. It makes me never want to have my car in the hands of a dealer (so far so good for me anyway). Seeing as how 3 different panels are dinged I assume they didn't have anything to do with the windshield job (didn't you have something done before that got broken?). Was it just careless bumping into your car that led to the paint scrapes? And if your laser blue color has no match how do they manage to paint other cars (that's one of the very popular Mini colors-there was a thread about all the blues)? Do they just do it as close as possible and hopo your eyes aren't too good?

 

Wow that stinks... See, as far as I'm concerned... Dents and dings happen (I nearly had a heart attack when I saw my first door ding) but it's not easy to handle. I pretty much know where all my little personality scratches have come from. I've got a couple from winter so it happens.
But considering that your damage was done at the dealership, a place you're supposed to be able to "trust" I'd be upset.

At least they're pretty small... Nothing can ever stay perfect. And hey, since you've got a few little dings, maybe you can make that MINI your rough-housing car...
Vroom vroom, Hehe

 

Just an update. Stopped at the dealership and showed them the damage. They profusely apologized and couldn't understand how it happened.

Nonetheless, they said they would do whatever I wanted to make it right. They were going to order a new mirror and moulding.

I told them I would fix my own scratch.


It is what it is...

Mark

PS. Oh, btw FlyinAce2000, I was nice about it.

 

IF it make you feel any better in june when i picked up my 08 MCS the night after i got it someone hit and ran it. They punched int he whole back hatch. I started to cry. i did just what someone did. i drove very fast after i saw it and it still drove like a beast so whatever. it's fixed and who cares. still sucks to here that happened at a dealership.

 

Sorry to hear that his happened! Glad to know that I'm not the only one who is **** about his paint.

I'm very reluctant to have any shop touch my car these days - seems like something like this happens to me quite often. People just need to pay attention to detail and just be more careful in general.

I hope you're able to get this resolved soon!

 

Is that correct... Windshield is covered by warranty? Or was your case unique?

 

It was a crack starting in roughly the middle of the windshield that looked like an "L".

It happened on my '08 MCS and my '09 JCW. Both windshields were replaced under warranty and I think for the first time, I didn't hear "really?? We've never seen that before"

Must be a common problem.


Mark