• FreeAdvice has a new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, effective May 25, 2018.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our Terms of Service and use of cookies.

Horrible Automotive Work. Options?

Accident - Bankruptcy - Criminal Law / DUI - Business - Consumer - Employment - Family - Immigration - Real Estate - Tax - Traffic - Wills   Please click a topic or scroll down for more.

kinkos

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? New Mexico

I wrecked my car and fixed it pretty well but I couldn't get the new front bumper, hood and fenders to line up correctly plus it needed a new paint job.

I took the car to this guy that does auto repair and painting because I've seen him do excellent work in the past on my friend's '67 Camaro. He completely restored this car so I assumed that he could line up the front of my car and paint it without much of a problem.

He quoted me $1200 in March of this year to make the car look like it had never been wrecked and to put a nice black paint job on it with a blue pearl in it. The front of the car doesn't look perfect but it doesn't look like it has been wrecked so he kept his word on that part of the deal. My problem lies in the paint job.

I shouldn't have paid him until I looked the car over very well first so I know that was a mistake. Anyway, I took the car home and I noticed a paint run on the spoiler. I then looked over the rest of the car and it has painting errors all over it. Some of them include over sprays, orange peel, paint runs, spray patterns "too-thick-too-thin" in most areas, and excessive dust specs that look like bubbles in the paint. Needless to say, this is a very poor quality paint job and I probably could have done better with a can of spray paint. :mad:

If you're unfamiliar with "orange peel", here are a couple links to show that it is an error on the painter's part and not an unavoidable occurance.

http://www.sherwin-automotive.com/reference/troubleshooting_guide/orange_peel/index.cfm

http://www.performancecoatings.dupont.com/dpc/en/us/html/color/daf/doc/orange_peel.html

He told me that the paint job looks great and that I'm too picky but all of my friends and family have told me to take the car back to him because it looks like a kid spray painted it. His landlord is trying to go after him for not paying his rent on his shop so I doubt he'll just give me some money back. Anyway, how much of that $1200 should I ask to get back from him? I know I'll win in court the second the judge sees the car and throws up :p but how do I enforce the judgement? Please give me some advice on how to handle this.
 


racer72

Senior Member
It sounds like you receive about $1200 worth of body work and paint. A decent paint job costs about 2 to 4 times what you paid for yours. You can sue the guy but from what you say, collecting a judgment could be difficult at best. And he does have a pretty good argument that you got what you paid for.
 

kinkos

Junior Member
I don't think I got what I paid for because I took my other car to Maaco and had a $400 job done on it and it looks worlds better than the $600+ paint job on this car. Well, at least he said $600 for just the paint so I assume that to be better than my $400 paint job including labor.
 

Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

Fast, Free, and Confidential
data-ad-format="auto">
Top