Just got my bug back from the shop

[Dave3d]

Just got my bug back from the body/paint shop.
I will never again take my car(s) into any body shop in Tooele.

First, the CST shop did a great job on my Ford Fuzion Hybrid, but 1 corner of the fender keeps coming off.

Now, I get my 1970 bug back from Pitts Auto body, and the body work was decent, but the paint job sucks butt. There are unsanded parts, and runs all over the place, and nicks and the whole thing is orange peeled.

If I didnt pay, I couldnt get my car back, so of course I paid.
Now, I have to finish what they started, which I should have done most of the paint stripping myself before I brought it to them, I realize now.

Oh well.
Time to start putting it back together.

Will post pics soon.

[admkrk]

i originally worked in bodyshops out of highschool. ime, 90% or more don't care about quality. 100% care about beating the time. if you pay one more per hr, they are more likely to spend more time on it given the same time estimate. it sounds like pitts was an appropriate name for where you took the bug.

i used to work in a shop that did dealer work for various dealers including ford/lincoln/mercury/mercedies/bmw and a couple others. it used to kill me to do shipping damage work and have to put a **** paint job on it to match the factory, mainly ford iirc. altho when my new('85) van got delivered from chevy i was tempted to send it back because of the orange peel, so i know where you're coming from.

it sounds like you were trying to do a lot of the work yourself and just have them spray it? that is never a good idea unless you have a good relation with the person doing the spraying at least. or you pay an inflated price.

[Snafu]

Would be nice to see some pics as your pulling it together.

It is hard to find good places. Seems like folks don't give a rat's behind unless they are small dedicated shops.

I finally got the suspension on my truck put in...rides like a dump truck

Exhaust pieces are coming in too. So this will be the major items taken care of

I like tooling but wish I had more time to do it.

[Dave3d]

Well, this shop WAS a small shop.
Only 3 people working there.
But, they are all young.
Very young.

And the owner kid lied to me from the get go, which I didnt find out until after I had given a 500 dollar deposit and he had my car, and until the paint/clear was applied.

[Dave3d]

[Dave3d]

[Dave3d]

I got the new door handles, inner locks, striker plates, and rod locks on last night.

Going to put the window track/crank assembly in tonight. Maybe.
Dont know if I need to finish the wing window/sashes/tracks before doing the track/crank assembly or not.

[Dave3d]

Door handle, lock, wing window (wing doesnt seem to fit right, I had to get a used one from the junkyard, as mine was all torn up).

[Snafu]

Nice. Love the colour too

[Dave3d]

Thanks.
It is supposed to be REALLY yellow, but for some reason comes out a bit yellow/orange in the pics (at least on my monitor it does).

Some more pics (I didnt get any pics of the 'trailer' quick disconnects I put in for the turn signals, but they are the 4-way trailer quick disconnects).

Rear passenger side ights and fender beading on:




Killed my back doing this though.
Sigh.
Herniated disks suck.

[Dave3d]

I can only work on the passenger side right now.
I still have to hammer out the right side door hinge screws, to loosen them up, to be able to shim them so the door actually closes.

And, I hate to do it, but the headliner DEFINITELY has to be replaced now.
They got primer and yellow paint on it, and it just looks aweful.
I am hoping someplace around here will be able to do it, as I tried once and failed very very hard at it.

I shouldnt even have done the fender yet either, as the windows still need to go in, and would be much better (less scratches) without the back fenders on.

I am just so excited to have it back, and able to work on it again, that I just cant stop myself, even when I know better.

Sigh.

[Snafu]

It comes out as a bright yellow (not orangish-yellow) on my monitor. I love the colour though. My truck is solar yellow (nissan) and I know everyone in the club is jealous of the colour

[admkrk]

looks kinda greenish to me.

why did you have them clear coat a bright solid color like that?

paints, i'm sure have changed since i last laid any on but...

we used to get a nitrocellulose lacquer for the mercedes' and for solid colors it was some of the best looking paint i ever used.

if it was me doing this, i'd have only painted things like the door jams and dash at this point. plus just edging in everything else that needs to be put back together. then paint the body once it's back together. leave things like door handles off, but have the interior done before the final paint at the least.

[Dave3d]

Ummmmm, I am not a paint guy.
Clear coat is nice, right?
Shiny = good.

[admkrk]

there's nothing wrong with clear coat. it was a fairly mew proses when i was doing bodywork.

imo, it greatly improves the efficiency of color matching in repair work since it basically eliminates flow lines or the need to keep tinting to get a perfect match. in the case of metallics/flip-flops and that sort of thing, it increases the depth of the effect. for solid colors, there isn't that kind of benefit. only metallics where factory clear coated originally.

with solid colors, a better way to increase the intensity is to use more pigments. find an older corvette that's yellow and you'll see how much more it "glows" than a similar colored pretty much anything. that's the one exception to something costing more just because it's for a corvette. it's the heavy pigment and mirror smooth finish.

the nitrocellulose lacquer i mentioned before we used on mercedes' is a good example. i don't know if it's even being made anymore, but it did have the problem of not being chip resistant. imeron(sp?) is a more modern alternative with the same color quality and chip resistance. i'm sure there are other alternatives that have come out in the last 25 years or so i've never heard of also.

but bottom line is, for solid colors, you get a deeper color with heavy pigment instead of a "fake" shine with clear coat. pigments are expensive tho and that's why that corvette yellow is so much more expensive.

again, this is all imho and 25 years out of date.