Expectations of body work
 

Hey guys,

My front end was recently destroyed after hitting a deer. My airbag deployed and hood, front bumper, headlight, DRL, fog light, radiator + support, serpentine belt and airbox were destroyed.

The shop used all OEM Subaru parts and my assumption was they would come pre-painted SWP from Subaru but it looks like the shop had to paint the parts. I got the car back on Friday and noticed a few things regarding the paint work and I'm not sure if this is the norm or if I should send it back to be corrected. I've only had to bring a car in for bodywork one other time in my life so I'm not sure what the normal expectation is regarding quality of bodywork. The shop is a preferred shop for my insurance company (also my employer) and the shop owner is my mothers neighbor and my mother also used to work for him so I had confidence going there.

• Drivers-side windshield pillar (IMG_20171028_120554) has a weird defect in the paint. This part was not damaged in the accident but I guess they painted it in an attempt to make the paint match. Passenger-side windshield pillar has what looks like over-spray but it's not as bad as the weirdness in the drivers side pillar.
• Hood has specs of dirt dried into the paint in multiple areas.
• In the opening of the front bumper, bottom side, the first 2cm or so the paint is not smooth (boxed in yellow in the pic). My concern is I plan to get PPF and I doubt it would stick to this.

I don't want to be a pain but going into this he knew the car was pampered by me & garage kept and I expected a higher level of quality.

That to me looks like very very low quality work. You have every right to be ticked off here

Trash bodywork for sure. You shouldn't be concerned when you bring up these obvious issues.

Lesson learned about "preferred" body shops. Most of them seem to just knock out the repair the fastest, cheapest way.

Body panels never come pre painted since they would stand out against the weathered panels like beacons. A good body shop will mix and blend the paint so you will never even see the difference.
That said, whoever did that prep and paint should never set foot in a body shop again. I had $200 Macco paint jobs that were a thousand times better than that.
Take that shit back since it is totally unacceptable.

Had the front end of my WRB '15 rebuilt over the summer. The work done was OK, but just. After a fair amount of back and forth with the insurance co/body guys (2 diff shops in dif states) it was finally done to my satisfaction.

One of the (few) good things about using a carrrier's "preferred" shop is, in my case at least, the repairs carry a lifetime warranty, and it gave me additional leverage with the carrier and the shop(s) to finally work the kinks out.

Body parts do not come painted, but have to be matched and blended by the shop. In your case, I'd say the shop missed the mark by a very wide margin. I would have no qualms about bringing all the issues you raised, as well as any others a fine tooth comb can unearth, to their attention with the polite insistence that the car be brought back to the condition it was in before it was damaged.

Your relationship to the ins carrier could be a blessing, or a curse, depending on your place in the corporate food chain. Wish you the very best of luck.

Thanks for your feedback guys, and I agree I do want to pursue this. The shop emphasizes that they do it 'the way it should be done' and the way the guys spoke with me the day I dropped it off made it seem like they output perfection so I'm just taken back by what I got from them. I am going to send an email to the owner with the pictures I attached and bring it back in.

Regarding my relationship with my insurance company, while they prefer claims to be settled without a fuss, I have an argument that it was not brought back to the way it was before. My pictures can justify my argument. The car was in perfect condition prior, no accidents and has never had any body work prior.

Sounds like a plan. Good luck - patience and resilience my friend.

But wait, there's more.

I just took another look to make sure I cover everything and found the orange peely hood paint and fender garnish gap difference. I hate to be a nit picky complainer but I was not expecting this at all.

This ain't pretty either:

This is on the undamaged/less damaged side. Hopefully this is just not seated correctly.

Geez, I don't know how you guys find these ripoff joints. Asheville is not the center of the world by any means (though we like to think so) but I expect perfection from a body shop, and there's more than one here that can provide it.

I would be ashamed to turn out work like that -- there's no excuse for it. And if that came from the insurance company's preferred list, they need to stand by you. Return the car to the place and don't take any excuses. If the ins co won't ream their ass for you, get a lawyer. I guess you only gave them $250 of your own money, but that doesn't count. This situation is bad news for everybody, and you have every right to go to your TV station and let them point a camera at your car while you describe how your insurance told you to go to that shop and you were robbed -- you had a beautiful car before, and now you don't. The works was done by gorillas with a big mallet and a garden hose.

Tell all this to their faces and don't feel the slightest bit shy about it. God, I'm so steamed about what they did to you, I wish you could send me to say it for you.

Courage, and good luck!

:paddle:

My panel gap between left and right sides is worse from the factory... But that's a different story.

Wow that is some atrocious body work.
I'm far from an expect but I've done better job in the past with rattle can paint on my beater.

Mine's been like that for about two years before anybody hit it. Smack it back in and it pops out before the day is over.

:iono:

I would ship my car out to North Carolina if you could guarantee a top notch job. Fuck I'd probably pay out of pocket for a complete rework and respray in color of my choice if I could afford it.

Out of all the "the car should have come like this from the factory!" I think at this point paint is the only one that's been truly disappointing.

Top 5 metro area and NOBODY knows a good body shop, they all blow.

It took three tries to get my rear bumper cover replaced by one shop to do an even passable job and you can still tell it wasn't right.

:suicide: