Well, just when I thought things got better... Richie's screwed up again!
Backstory is, I spoke to the owner about painting my restoration project (1988 Mustang GT) and he quoted a fair price and claimed it would take 3 weeks to complete. Granted, I wasn't immediately ready, so I got it to him about 4 months later. He still said it would be done quickly.
My car sat for 3+ months before they ever touched it, though he kept promising "Oh, we'll get to it next week" and so one. Finally! 7 months later, he says the car is done and come take a look.
I was disgusted by what I saw. There was dirt embedded in the paint on EVERY SINGLE panel. I am not talking about one fleck of dirt here and there. I am talking hundreds of flecks per panel -- like it was painted on the beach on a windy day. He said he'd have the guys wet-sand and buff it, though I had a feeling the dirt was in the basecoat and that wouldn't work. I let him try against my better judgement.
Well, 2 weeks later, (AFTER I texted him for an update, mind you) he said it was ready. So I head to his shop, and the car is parked outside, which is weird because you should always inspect new paint under artificial lighting, especially white paint. But, the owner's always been fairly straight with me, so I had no reason to think he would pull some shady stuff.
He points out one small flaw, which I was OK with because they gave me an amazing price. So I pay my $4,000 and have the car towed home. Once I get the car in my garage, OMG! There were defects EVERYWHERE. Not a single panel on the car was free from several defects.
There were indentations in the paint from where they wed-sanded out the dirt (the dirt was in the base coat, of course). Also, there are runs on virtually every panel, dry spots where they wet-sanded without buffing, fish-eyes everywhere, cracks in their bodywork, and they never properly sanded down the mold marks on my bumper, leaving a massive paint seam.
Other shops would need $5-6k just to fix the issues cause they basically have to take it down to metal because the all believe the dirt and indentations are actually in the primer -- not the base or clearcoats. Basically, it needs completely redone.
What really infuriated me was when the owner replied "To be fair, I didn't know you were planning on entering the car in shows." What does it matter? I can buff virtually any halfway decent paintjob into a show-like look thanks to my detailing background. What I can't fix is a paint job with dirt, divots, and runs in it. Whether it's a show car or not, runs and divots are not OK. I expected average not perfection. This isn't even close.
A silver lining, the owner has agreed to have it towed to his place, resand in, and respray the whole car. He offered part of my money back, which I refused. I know I got a great deal if the paint was average, so I will give them a third shot at getting it right and pay full price. I want to give these guys a shot cause the owner is very friendly and wants to help. I just hope they can get it right this time.
I reiterated I don't expect a concourse level paint job -- I know that's unreasonable. Just a clean job without dirt or runs that I can buff into a show finish.
He promises me they will get it right no matter what. I am really hoping I can turn this into a 5-star review after all this. I really like all the other work they did. The welding and rust repair they did for me before was top-notch.
Update (6/18/2025): They've now had my car in for the redo for about three weeks. I gave them a June 20th deadline; otherwise, I will demand a refund or take legal action. They managed to get it sanded back down within that time, and that's it. I was promised it would be in the booth for painting on Monday, and now it's Wednesday, and no paint yet. They have 2 days to complete it and have it to my liking before I take far more drastic measures.
This is getting comically bad at this point. They've now had my car for a grand total of 8 months and have yet to deliver even an average paint job on it. read more
