Like a month ago a car hit the driver side of my truck. For the last two weeks I have been fighting with the dealership over there painting abilities. The whole driverside had to be repainted, on the extended cab door and at the front of the bed there is trash in the paint or in the clear coat. I showed it to the paint guy this morning and he took the truck back to the paint shop. I get a call around 4:30 saying that it is ready (this is the 4th time I've been told this) and he also says the ins. is cancelling my rental today. I'm just asking should I expect the body shop painting abilities to be as good as factory? Does anyone know if ins. can cancel like that if its not done yet? Sorry for being long winded this whole situation is driving me crazy.

 

I would expect it to be as good. Last December i hit a Camry doing about 40-45 mph (he pulled in front of me) the hood and both fenders had to be fixed and or replaced and painted. The paint job was just as good as factory, i could not tell the difference. (i took it to a body shop called "Fix auto") not a dealer though.

 

Unfortunately for me, I have spent a lot of time in the body shop over the last 6 months. Expecting it to look the same is reasonable. Body shops pay for and advertise the paint matching and drying and all the other new toys to make it as close to factory as possible...

My toreador red 04 F150 got clipped in the front, new bumper upper and lower, cannot tell it was touched.

My 04 Elantra had a tree fall on it, they beat out the dent, and then painted/blended it to silver... cannot tell it was touched.

My 97 Red Saturn got front ended big time. This was the problem car... the paint is 8 years old... anything that got new clear came out a different color. However, the body shop is going to clear the whole car to make it look right, and I dont have to pay.

And... if the body shop keeps screwing up your truck... at some point the insurance is going to wash their hands of the situation. They paid to get it fixed, and it got fixed, but the shop screwed it up. It becomes your problem with the body shop. I got lucky and mine stepped up. You will need to get the shop to pay the rental. If it is a dealership, the will probably have warranty... if you are not happy 100% satisfied, we will do what it takes, etc. etc. etc.... If they are not going to fix it... take pictures and make them sign something saying that factory fresh cannot be expected, then pay with your american express, dispute the charge, and get someone to fix it proper.

 

With a good body shop, you shouldn't be able to tell the difference. If you chose the body shop, the problem is between you and the shop and you should expect them to furnish you a car or pay the rental until it is done properly. However, if the insurance company sent you to the shop through one of their preferred shop programs, the problem is between the insurance company and the body shop and they need to work it out and keep you riding until it is properly repaired. Remember-the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

 

I've never had anything like that done, but I had my bedcover painted to match the factory color, and you can't tell the difference

 

To answer your question....yes, some CAN paint it as good as the factory (in some cases better since the factory paint is not always THAT good), but the problem is is that most just care about painting it good enough to please the general population. The people that think of a car or truck just as a means of getting from point A to point B. Most people probably would not have even noticed the flaws you found and the body shop would have been paid and all would have been fine. This certainly is the best way to do business but I think most body shops fall into this mind set. When I had to have my fender painted I specificaly told them to "do it right or you will have to re-do it"....well sure enough the first time they did it they taped up the fender flair instead of removing it. This left a tape line and I was not going to have that on a 3 month old truck....so they got to do it again. The next time they did it right and turned out a spectacular job, but what pissed me off was they could have done it that way the first time.

As for the rental car...my insurance has a max amount they will pay for a rental. For example I could rent a Focus for say 3 weeks or a truck for 1 week, they dont care how long it is just how much it costs. But when that amount is spent thats it. That is if your insurance is paying for it...if someone hit you they have to pay for the whole time yours is in the shop.

 

I work in the same building as a large body shop (read almost 40,000 sq foot bodyshop working on 20-30 cars at a time) and they do great work.

My moms van got side swiped over the winter so I let those guys I know do it. I saw them working on it, so I know where every weld, filler spot, primer and blend is, because I saw them. BUT now that its painted, even I can not tell where it was blended because they do GREAT work.

Fight till its right.

 

It is only if they're insured. When the lady pulled out in front of me on the hwy, she had no insurance and no drivers license. My policy covers me for $20 bucks a day for a maximun of 30 days. My rental car was costing me almost $26 a day and I got to eat that charge.