Well, I go over to the body shop today. ONCE AGAIN to see how it's going with my wing and my front.

The front i found in a corner, on TOP of a pile of rubble and metal shards! it was sitting like this " /\ " on top of the shit! It looks like they never even did one god damn thing to the bumper since LAST SATURDAY!

The bumper is now bent horribly in the center where the bottom lip is...its now bent upwards as if someone took a pole under the center of the car and lifted up on it. he SAYS it can be bent back into place. he promises me that if it cant be bent back, then his employee will eat that $500 out of his check and he will either pay me for the bumper or replace it for me.

FUCKERS.

Now, as for the wing? I still have not seen it yet since last saturday. he CLAIMS that it was dropped off somewhere and it will be back, since they couldnt fix the cracks completely, it was still not smooth. WTF? He JUST told me last nite on the phone BOTH where done and ready to be sprayed with clear, that I could pick my shit up TODAY.


In conclusion? Nothing has been done. At all. I have been lied to 5 times now. Twice i have been told by the SAME guy that it was ready, its just drying.

I am stuck with these assholes cause he's fixing the wing for free...but this has gone on way too long!

yesterday he also told me the mesh was cut and they were putting it on the bumper to set in with the adheasive. Well what did i find today? My brand new sheet of mesh i bought at home depot, STILL flat and complete, not even touched...AND in the same spot i left it last saturday.

WHAT DO I DO? What do you suggest? They fucked that bumper up badly by just having it sit on some shit for soooo long evidently that it bent it into the state that its in now. I have never felt so pissed off and so helpless in my entire life.

I need help quick.

He claims it will be done by 5-6pm today. It's 2:45 pm central time rite now. wtf?

This has turned out to be the biggest nightmare i ever experienced in my life with this fucking car. For a bumper??????????????????? NOT worth it if you ask me.


BTW>... DONT EVER TAKE YOUR CAR OR BODY PARTS TO ADVANTAGE BODY SHOP OFF DUNVALE AND RICHMOND IN HOUSTON TX.

want me to come to houston so we can burn that bitch down


what i would do is get them to buy you a new stillen and refund the cash for the paint.

and take it somewhere else

mike, sorry all that shit is happenin w/u and your front bumpah...

i would keep a record of all the bullshit, so u dont forget about it. maybe call up the Better Business Bureau, but all u have is a time complaint. if they lie to u its one thing, but if they cheat, and steal its another.


sounds like they cheated u out of your $ in the first place, and now u have to put up with their shit...

good luck mayn,

I think evans got the right Idea.... Get ur wing back then make them get u a brand new bumper straight from stillen, and make them refund ur money and take the bumper to a shop that knows what the hell their doin.

Yes, the urethane can usually get back into it's normal shape once you get it flat and let it sit in the sun or apply heat. However, most wings cannot be fixed because once they crack, it's really hard to fix the inside of it. Also, take it somewhere else that knows what they are doing. Pay someone good money to do it right. You usually get what you pay for, so hopefully you can be referred by someone to a good shop that might cost more, but be worth it.

see, its like i been saying all along, fuck urethane bumpers. you wouldnt have had any of these problems had you gone with a fiberglas bumper, but of course, stillenman likes the stillen and its only urethane.

lindsey...i gotta say this man "your one of the biggest smart asses in the world" *shakes hand

hahahah man i have taught you well, my son. hahaha no im not mad at all, im actually laughing now cause lindsey is becoming quite the comedian in my form, haha.

:7


back to topic...i'm still waiting for more replies and advice, and let myself have some time to "meditate" and calm down so that i can make a rash desision. so far i like the idea of letting this smooth over just one more week, and then if nuthin doin i will just get everything back and ask them to replace the bumper if its not bent back to normal, and refund my money for painting it in the beginning. The only thing I dont like about this idea is that i will eat my wing and have to pay to get that fixed.


BUT IM STILL MADDD AS HELL tho.

so tell them your mad as hell, not us. dealing with body shops is not like dealing with your local grocer. they are not gonna go out of their way and help you out unless you scare them. they dont give a shit, body shops in most towns are always gonna have enough business coming in, they need to rely on word of mouth. personally, i would have them fixin that shit for free or id take it some place else, if it costs more so what. whoever said you get what you pay for up there is right.


-johnny

"Few people understand
the psychology of dealing
with a highway traffic cop.
Normal speeders will panic
and immidiately pull over to
the side. This is wrong. It
arouses content in the cop
heart. Make the bastard
chase you, he will follow..."

unfortunately, ur rite.

OK, all you houston 2gnt'ers. Show some support here. Everyone paint some damn signs up and picket that shop! Go back to that shop, say-get it done by whatever date, or I want that bumper replaced and my money back or we can take this to court.
Small claims court cost $30.00 here to file a claim and you don't need a lawyer. Maybe set up in Tex like this too.

yeah like they said mikey, threaten then. take pictures and if they ask say "this is for my record" or some $hit. act like you're gonna threaten them wif a lawsuit if they don't have everything done within a weeks time. get in dat a$$ like an enima!

kay, i took pictures....

Once again, nothing been done yet. I told him that i was taking pics as evidence and i am madd as hell, etc.. I told him the reason im mad is because he isnt being straight up with me, keeps lying, etc....blowing me off.

I said, look from now I want you to be straight with me, tell me the truth, and if you havent looked at it yet, TELL ME, etc...he said ok ok ok.

He proceeded to tell me the "truth" which I do kinda beleive him, but not much since he is not trustworthy so far. Well anyways, he said that the urethane primer is hard to get, very expensive, he ordered it and that is what he is waiting on now. He said it will either be there today or monday, but he cant spray it until tues or wed. he said he's sorry and he will let me know more whats going on now.


Joe last nite told me at dino's that he "gaurentees that body shop NEVER painted a urethane bumper before, etc" and I told the body shop owner that, he got quiet. cause he knows its true. He said its been taking so long since I "insisted that he use primer"


So now i feel a LIL better, but not much. So then he proceeded to show me a civic that he will be customizing and doing an engine swap with, etc...the owner didnt pay their bill so he owns it now as a lein and shit. i made small talk with him about honda engines and swaps, turbos and bullshited him telling him i got all these honda buddies and they do engine swaps etc and i could hook him up if he treats my ass right and gets this shit done.... so i left on "good terms" even tho i am still mad.


So....body shop experts... Is urethane primer really hard to order?

second, is it expensive?


I told him that if money was a factor that I would pay a lil more to make sure the job is done right, etc. (I KNOW I KNOW, but at this point i knew what he'd say....) his reply? "no, man, its not about the money at all, its fine, trust me, we'll get it done"


so hrrrrm? seems convicing but i dont know guys......what do you think?

Also, looks like the "bend" or "dent" in the center was stretched back out with the bumper sitting like that since last nite in the pics from what i can tell...duno tho

How can they have never painted a urethane bumper before? they are a body shop right? they have been around right? well aren't most stock bumpers urethane? well if they have ever painted a car or even just replaced a stock bumper from a rear end collision then they have painted a urethane bumper.... if u ask me somthing sounds fishy.... and urethane primer??? I never heard of that... if needed why wouldn't they just trough the flex agent into the primer so that it can flex just like the paint??? Im not sure if thats how it works, but I stand by my point that they have to have painted a urethane bumper before.

All stock bumpers are urthane no matter what car thats a bunch of shit... if I were you I would go talk to a lawyer ask his opinon on what you should do he prob will say take it somewhere else to get it done right and then take him to court

Ya I don't know what the shop is smoking. All stock bumpers are urethane, so if they actually fixed a car before, then they must have painted a urethane bumper. I don't even think it's much different to get primer for a urethane bumper. They should have it if they actually fix cars.

i'm not sure if it's the paint or the primer but they do have to add a "flex agent" that allows the paint to be flexable and not crack. shouldn't mitsubishi do that?

THe flex agent isn't essential if they use good paint. Both me and Ian didn't use any, and our bumpers have been fine. They must be prepping the surface wrong for it to just chip off so easily. The flex agent only prevents small spider web cracks (not the whole paint chipping off like that).

guys ur missing the big picture.

"Not the fact that is a urethane bumper, but that is sooo much more flimsy than a normal urethane bumper. they are using a ton of flex, but they didnt use any primer. hes telling me he had to order this special primer with some additive in it that will allow it to stick to the urethane surface, then sand it and paint it with the paint/flex mix and then finally clear coat it over."


Is this right? Or is he still bullshitting?

I don't know since I never felt a stillen bumper. How does it feel compared to your stock bumper? Maybe it is really too flimsy - in that case, it's stillen's fault and I would try to return that bumper and make them pay for the paint etc. But since other people here have stillen bumpers with no probs, I don't think it's the bumper itself. Maybe whoever prepped it forgot to properly prep the surface, sand it etc.

he is bullshittin... the paint you have on there now... wetsand dat shit 220 grit and get some fucken primer and primer dat shit, then get that shit that lets you see the little cracks n shit almost like graphite, then wetsand that with 600 grit then take it to them get it painted he is being a cock and prob doesnt have enough experience helping this guy out for a while really taught me alot of shit... i wanna see what eclipse804 says bout this :D

Yeah mikey stock bumpers are really flimsy too. what I really think the issue is, They just didn't prep it right. Cause thats what will happen when u don't prep it right, The paint will chip off. I am not just talking about primer either.... Imean preping it in everysence of the word. Did they sand it? primer? then sand it? and then wet sand that? then spray? then clear? then sand it again? plus if he is useing cheap materials then that could be the cause. Or you hear a lot of companys say that u have to use all of their products or this will happen.... I think that its BS but if hes using cheap material then that could be the reason.

Ya he needs to use good products. For 125 to paint it, he probably isn't using really all good products. He needs to use PPG primer, PPG base, and PPG clear. All one brand. A lot of shops will only use the PPG clear or the paint, and use cheap products on the rest (a cheap brand can be a lot cheaper than name brand).

The shop doesn't sound like they know what they're doing. If I were them, I would return the 125 to you, and just call it a loss, and send you elsewhere to get the work done. I'm sure by now they want to get this over with just as bad as you do.

that was the problem, they didnt prep it. he just sprayed it over the rubber i think.

THey use PPG paint, I saw it myself. So at least I know he's using the rite paint...however, he said he's going to strip off all the paint with a air hose compressor and scrub it off and then prime it...or so he says. I will give him till the end of next week. Then that is it. i'm getting my shit back. i guess I will just have to get the wing repaired out of mypocket i guess....if I ever knew where it was tho. :( It's at a "shop" somewhere rite now apparently.

The other thing is that most fiberglass wings are not repairable. They will just crack again. We never repair any wings because the way they are made, it's nearly impossible to repair properly. I guess it depends on what was damaged, but if there are huge fiberglass cracks, I don't know how they would repair it properly since you can't go onto the inside. Sounds like that shop is bad luck. Hope it all works out for you - even if they have good intentions and make things right, I think they are also incompetent so you should take future work elsewhere.

Hey heres a Idea "better bussness bureu" they will flip out if you tell them or just go and report them

i talked to a reputable body shop out here to paint my new side skirts,well used side skirts anyway, and they said they have to use a special primer, but its not a typical primer, its like a base coat they have to do to it, before the paint, or the paint wont stick. So i dont think your guy was bs-ing you, there is a certain base coat they have to do before they spray the paint. What that base coat is called, i forget, but its like a primer for urathane..

now that sounds about right.... he said it was "like" a primer, but it has all this additives and shit in it, very hard to find or order, he found a guy and it should have been there by saturday or monday, then he could start working on it tues or wed...so like i said...this mofo got until fri then i am going to try and figure out somthin.

but my point is special additives or primer or base coat or whatever the hell it is..... they should still have it cause they are a body shop and they work on urethane everyday, unless they only work on cars with kits....... and also since sooooo many cars have urethane bumpers and so many cars get worked on that have urethane bumpers that stuff should be easy as hell to get a hold of. I mean if you think of the # of cars that go to a shop for fiberglass work as opposed to urethane work the fiberglass % is much much lower. so stuff for fiberglass should be harder to get a hold of since there really isn't a lot of fiberglass work done. but the urethane products should be found in excess.

jeff's got a point!

Personally id bitch smack this guy and im not joking.. let some shop try and pull something like that on me.. I guarentte they won't think about it again.

Better get something in writing man!

OMG that was funny... Owned! haha

Anyway, What's the word, Mike? Any news?

Well mike maybe this will be helpful since nothing else I have said has been helpful..... YOUR GETTING SCREWED!!!!! Get yo shit and get yo money back. go somewhere else where they know how to do body work. some place where they are honest and already know what they need to do, not some place that needs your help to get their job done.

Get one of your friends to call the shop, posting as your lawyer. Have your friend as "your lawyer" give them an ulimatum. Either fix everything as you request to a certain date, or give you your money back and pay for a new bumper.

If you don't hear from them until that date, have your friend go there with you (in a nice suit or slacks and dress shirt) to pick up your parts and your reimbursement check.

If they don't work with you still, tell them you will have "your lawyer" call them with a court date. If that doesn't help... get a real lawyer :)

_________________________________________________________
Jen & Cody - http://dsmxtsi.freehomepage.com
-1995 Eagle Talon ESi
-1990 Eagle Talon TSi AWD
-1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder GS-T
-1991 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX
-1991 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX

>>Get one of your friends to call the shop, posting as your lawyer. Have your friend as "your lawyer" give them an ulimatum.
>>

Hehe, we did that one time. We were having trouble with my parents truck that broke down and it had to do with something Midas had fixed a while ago, but they denied being at fault. My sister let her boss know about it and the guy put on his best suit and tie, got a briefcase and headed over to Midas. Needless to say, Midas called us a few hours later and decided to fix everything free of charge. :)