-*- Repost for the morning crowd in case any of you have bodywork experience and can offer your thoughts! -*-
Warning, this will be long.
Remember when I had my rust repaired back in June (picked the car up from them on June 26th)...? It was $951 to get some minor rust on the right-rear wheel well and the rear hatch fixed. I have no idea how much of that was the hatch and how much was the wheel well, but that was the total. For the record, the repair on the rear hatch is still 100% fine.
Remember how the wheel well then rusted out in the exact same spot 2.5 months later (I noticed it Sept. 9th)...?
...and how I have been repeatedly contacting him through Facebook, phone calls and texts SINCE THEN to get him to take it back in and fix it after he told me he ‘stood behind his work’...?
Well, on Sunday he FINALLY told me to drop it off to get the rust repaired (and also give it rustproofing for the winter which I added to the appointment). He called me tonight to come pick it back up, and told me the bill would be $400 ($100 of which was the rustproofing).
...EXCUSE ME? I’m sorry, WHAT? Let’s assume the split for the work in June was 50/50. That means that I would’ve paid $475 for the wheel well rust repair. He thought it was surface rust back then, and repaired it as such, which means he didn’t even cut any metal out, he just sanded it back and painted. It rusted out less than a quarter of a year later and you want me to pay $300 more to fix the thing I asked you to fix right the first time in June...? How is that standing behind your work??? He claims he didn’t know there was rust in behind, but...wasn’t that his job to check? Also, the rust wouldn’t have been as bad to repair now if he’d actually booked me in back in September early when I first noticed it rather than an additional almost THREE MONTHS later???
OK, OK...rant ending, but I am pissed. Long story short, I now have my car back from him...it is repaired again (how long before it rusts out this time?), and he came down from the $400 total (including the undercoating) to $250 total. Pissed I am still paying to fix a thing that should’ve been fixed right the first time, but at least it is all said and done. BUT, it doesn’t end there!
The rustproofing...I had specifically asked if he drills into the door jambs, rockers, etc for his. He had told me he did, else I wouldn’t have told him to do the rustproofing. In my frustration as I left, I never looked at anything as I could see the rustproofing in the wheel wells and underneath. When I got home, I had calmed down and looked....I don’t see any drill plugs anywhere. I don’t think he drilled to spray in the rustproofing in the body at all.
Also, when I looked closely at the repaired wheel arch, there is a whacking great gob of body putty back there...I’m no bodywork guy, but does this look proper/standard practice? Is that shiny white I am seeing uncovered bare metal (because it seems to be ‘shining’ in the exact same place in every photo I took)...? Pardon my ugly face.
Also, there is no rustproofing anywhere near the edge of the fender, so he didn’t even directly spray the thing he just fixed!!! The black ‘wet’ spot you see in the above pics is the undercoating, and there is none anywhere in the inside top of the wheel well or along that lip!
The repair does looks fine from the outside....?
How shoddy of a job did he just do? :(
Update - Some research last night tells me that if that gray stuff is, indeed seam sealer, it should’ve been painted over. I have no idea if the metal under it was painted before the sealer was put on or not...