UPDATE at the end of this thread.

I had my MINI in to Crevier for service on the 13th of this month. All went well except for one thing - they scratched my car. It is a relatively small scratch - about an inch long, but all the way to the metal and right in the middle of my driver door. Now I am extremely particular about my MINI. It is a year old now and still looks showroom new (except for the scratch ). So I took it back to Crevier yesterday and they gave me a loaner - a BMW. I got a call on my cell phone last night - the independent body shop quoted seven to ten days for the repair. They want to repaint the entire side of the car so that it matches.

Edited for nicety.

 

Well the time frame is a little long as it should only take a week but I guess a week and a half is not too much out of the question.

Repainting the whole side could be a good idea for matching purposes in case there is any fade orslight difference in the color.

My suggestion would be to go to other body shops for other opinions. The dealership should allow you to make the final decision.

The body shop I have swore by over the past 15 years does an amazing job of blending if they don't paint an entire surface. I am not sure what I would do in your case as I am in the same boat as you being very particular about this car.... found a scratch on the bumper yesterday as well

Chris

 

Boy I hate when that happens! You didn't mention if you have a metallic paint or not - if so, the blending of many surfaces usually is the preferred method.

I am particular about my cars as you are. And I have experienced the same issue before. Here's a suggestion before you commit to having a resurface/blending done...

Since your scratch is about an inch long and deep, you can really fix it yourself! I have done this before and it works great every time - but - you must have patience and a few days of time.

First, go to www.langka.com and order up a Paint Chip Repair kit. Also grab a bottle of your touch up paint from the dealer. Then follow the instructions sent with the Langka. In a nutshell, what you will be doing is slowly filling in the scratch with the paint, methodically and evenly applying it, allowing it to dry, and applying more, until the scratch is slightly under filled with the paint build up. Make sure it's completely dry, then use your clear coat to build it up slightly higher than the surface. Then you use the Langka product to lightly rub the area until it is smooth with the surface. Finally, apply your wax and you will never know that the scratch existed.

This would be my own personal preference over sending the car out for 10 days for a repaint

 

i think grumpy's method is a better solution (i've done it this way myself). you are right in worrying about the quality you might get.

they will not want to compensate you, but at least try to get something in return for the damage, say the amount a very good shop would charge for a first class prep and repaint.

 

Rick,

My MINI is in that body shop right now having some front end damage repaired.

New front bumper cover

Small dent taken out of the bonnet

Replace upper grille and chrome strip

Replace broken radiator grill bracket (requires removal of A\C condenser and radiator)

Repaint and re-stripe the bonnet & bumper cover IB/White.

The time frame was 5-10 business days.

This shop is very busy right now after all the wrecks in the rain which probably accounts for the lengthy stay they quoted youe

I am supposed to get it back the end of this week and I will let you know how good a job they did.


Bill

 

Please do not pain the entire side of the car because of a small scratch. It will NEVER look that same. I would do what Grumpy suggested.

 

Edited - problem resolved

 

Rick,



To update on my previous post, I picked up the car from that body shop and they did a magnificent job. The paint is perfect and the car was spotless. The color ,IB is metallic and not an easy match, but they did a great job. The car actually looks better than the factory paint. My factory stripes originally had a little air bubble that never came out and the bonnet had a couple of rock chips. The new stripes are perfect and the paint on the bonnet is flawless which is more than I can say for a lot of the factory jobs.



I hope yours comes out as well as mine, good luck.



Bill

 

I just got a call from the service advisor. She told me that the body shop tried to deliver the MINI but she sent it back. Apparently, they painted the entire left side of the car and the color didn’t match at all. She said that it looked horrible. This does not instill confidence in their body shop. Even if they get the paint matched, who knows if it will fade the same as the rest of the car in a year or two. I am so angry and sick right now that I want to scream!

 

Rick, I hate to say it but this is why I will NEVER go back to Crevier EVER again. I had my car 3 days when I took it in to get the molding replaced on the windshield. They first broke the windshield, and then when I picked up the car they had scratched the clearcoat on the hood, and left black glue all over it. The service advisor tried to say it was the car wash guys fault. I then decided I would never again go back there. Bob Smith MINI in Calabassas gets all my business now.

Another reason it ticks me off there is no dealer rating system on the new NAM. MCO had it and it helped with the early warning of bad dealers.

 

Any chance to get a new door from the factory ???
This way there would be no doubt about the quality of the paint and all...
I know it may sounds crazy but after all, they messed up twice in a row now, so what gives !!

 

The problem at this point is that they painted the entire side of the car and got it wrong. I haven't seen it yet but the service advisor told me that it looked terrible.

 

Wow, Rick...that sounds like a freaking nightmare, and the grounds for a lawsuit if Crevier doesn't do the right thing. The fact that they just decided to paint half of your car without consulting you is BAD NEWS. Do you know anything about the bodyshop that they are using? I can infer that they can't be too great if they tried to turn your car in with unmatched paint.

Most bodyshops look for ways to cut corners, and are pretty tough to deal with. I have to deal with them on behalf of different clients all the time. If you know of a good shop, I would demand that they take your car to YOUR shop. No doubt, they are getting a discount from the current shop...but who wants a discount paint job?
There's a place called Marco's autobody in San Gabriel and one in Pasadena (they may have other locations)...they are probably the best shop I know. I believe the one in San Gabriel is the better one of the two Marco's.

 

Oh yeah....getting a new door from the factory wouldn't work either....there are paint variations, even from the factory. Not to mention the way the paint on your car changes color with sun, weather, waxing, etc...


The whole car needs to be painted.

 

For some reason I cannot find the original thread but here is what happened. I took my MINI in to Crevier for service and they scratched it - a little scratch but a scratch in my baby! So I took it back and they were going to repair it. I got a call from the service advisor - Lisa - at about 5:30 pm and she said that it would take seven to ten days and they were going to paint the entire side of the car. I left her a message to tell her to forget it but she never got my message. She called me a few days later and told me that they painted it but the paint didn't match, so she sent it back.

Well, I picked it up today and it looks fantastic. They did an excellent job on it and it appears to be perfect from what I can tell. Although this was a very frustrating situation for me, I have to give kudos to Lisa and Crevier because they did the right thing - they fixed it 100% and gave me a brand new zero-miles BMW station wagon to drive for a week and a half while my car was being fixed. I am actually considering buying a BMW wagon now!

 

Rick,

The original thread was in the SoCal forum. I merged your new post into that thread.

Dave

 

Glad to hear you got satisfactory resolution. Just make certain it really is to your satisfaction. One of my friends had her bumper repainted at Crevier after a minor accident. She thought it looked great until about 3 weeks later when several of us were looking at her car and noticed a funny shift in colors between the bonnet and the bumper. By then it was too late to have anything done. So just make sure in the sunlight it still looks good so you aren't regretting it later.

 

DiD, thanks for combining the threads.

Richard, that is what bugs me but I took it in the sun and the shade and every other environment I could think of and it looks pretty good so far. I am going to have it looked at by a few pros tomorrow, just to be sure. Somebody told me to use a wax with UV protection to make sure the paint doesn't fade. Have you ever heard of this?

 

I'm not personally familiar with UV protection in waxes, although there was a thread yesterday in regards to UV protection for interior products.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...t=30904&page=1

Bradb was talking about the problem with them is not knowing how much protection they offer since unlike skincare where protection is rated by spF, there isn't a standard for automotive paints.

I'll look into that and get back to you.

Richard

 

Ok, I just got off the phone with my buddy over at Meguiar's and what he had to say about the UV protection made sense to me. In essence, he said that the best protection is by taking care of and utilizing the built in UV protection in your clear coat. The amount of UV protection that's applied externally to your paint cannot be measured like in the same manner as that's measured for the human body and measured as SPF--although many wax companies do try to make those claims.

The way to protect your clear coat obviously is by polishing and waxing it and as long as you take care of the clear coat, you will have the best UV protection. Their chemists did some studies and determined that the amount of external UV protection is miniscule as compared to the amount that's already in the clear coat.

Hope that helps!

Richard

 

Rick,

I told you that body shop was pretty good.

They matched the Indi Blue perfectly & the paint quality was much better than the MINI factory paint which is often thin and soft.

I almost wish they had done the whole car.

Glad they did a good job for you also.

Bill

 

Well it turned out well but I am still afraid of it fading unevenly with the rest of the car.