When white just isn't white and other smash repair issues

[David See Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close David See]

Re: When white just isn't white and other smash repair issues

After three emails listing each problem (and there are about a dozen, all up) and receiving no reply, I rang the insurance company. Within an hour I had the phone call from the repairer.

"Bring it in on Monday - we should only need it for the day."

Need it for the day? They are going to fix the rough weld job on the firewall and match the front of the car's paint to the back, fix a crack in the dashboard, etc etc all in ONE day?

Not sure I am liking the sound of this.....

[David See Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close David See]

Re: When white just isn't white and other smash repair issues

Mate,

My wife has a fascination with reversing into things..........so far she has managed it with every vehicle we have owned together :evil: :evil:

When in Sydney, she tried to move a pole that unfortunately was not movable......rear bar destroyed

Yes, my wife managed to reverse into one of those 6-foot-high security poles at a shopping centre. They don't move, either.

I couldn't see any damage to the car until I looked behind the spare wheel...the wheel had been pushed into the back door, creasing the edge of the indentation where the wheel fits, plus bending the edge of the door near the number plate holder.

Ouch.

[BAZPRADO Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BAZPRADO]

Re: When white just isn't white and other smash repair issues

If they had reused the scratched fog lights on a complete repair, that would be fraud, they might have billed the insurance company for new units, so yes, call up the insurance company. Not sure what the time limitation on these types of repairs are, and it also depends if you had signed the dotted line. Good luck.

[David See Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close David See]

Re: When white just isn't white and other smash repair issues

Ok, here is the latest.

After not hearing from the repairer after two emails and one phone-call, I rang insurance company. Instant returned call from repairer.

Monday we took the car in. It was booked in to be looked at and repaired if needed. As it so happens the assessor drove in just after us - perfect timing.

No one questioned the poor under-bonnet workmanship. As a result, the firewall and dodgy repair has been satisfactorily fixed. The guard bolts have still not been brush-touched, however.

So what about the obvious paint mis-match on the doors? Well, the excuses why they couldn't match the paint were flying thick and fast. Even the assessor stood back and umm'ed and ahh'd about the paint. To me, the mis-match stood out like dog's you-know-whats, two different whites. But to all-and-sundry there, there were a thousand reasons why they just couldn't match the paint.

"The rear door has been repaired before so the front is always going to be different to the back"

"It's an illusion caused by new paint being next to older paint"

"The car could have been in a smash before"

"If we try to fix it the problem could be worse after the repair is done"

"Sometimes we start on one side of the car, get around the other side of a car and realise it is a different shade to the side we started on...then we have to paint the whole car". Something they obviously didn't want to do, of course.

And so on and so forth.

All persons there were hell-bent on the fact that rear door just MUST have been repaired before. "look at the rear 1/4 panel - it is the same colour as the door we just painted - so the rear door is darker than both the front door just painted and the rear panel" they said. I didn't think the rear door was ANY different to the rear panel. I thought they were identical. Funny how they could pick that difference (that wasn't a difference to me) and yet could really see what I was complaining about.

"Well, why don't you just paint the rear door for me as you have with the front door and all paint should then match up" I asked, thinking that was the obvious conclusion/solution considering they said the odd panel out was just the rear door. Just paint the rear door, if you think it is the culprit.

"We can't do that, because if we do that, we might find that the rear panel is then a different colour to the door after we paint it" which kind of contradicted their argument about the front door being the same colour as the rear panel. My argument was that if it is indeed the same colour, there won't be a problem.

And the outcome has proved it:

We left the car with them on Monday. They were going to blow some paint into the rear door to soften the difference.

We picked it up tonight.

What they have done is painted the whole rear door so now it matches the front door. But my argument stands...they are using the wrong shade of white because now - although the difference is not AS noticeable, the rear door - although now the same colour as the front door - is now a different colour to the rear 1/4 panel. My opinion of this whole debacle is that they started around the passenger's side with a near match with the white, and after a few pots of paint, the paint had changed by the time they got to the driver's side.

Man, the way they are going, they are going to be painting the whole car to get it right!!

My question is, though: If the paint is so obviously different that a non-pro can see the difference, and especially already after one complaint, why don't they "blow" some paint into the next panel, just so I can't see the difference in the panels?

Ultra-slack as far as I am concerned.

[MUMSRIG Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close MUMSRIG]

Re: When white just isn't white and other smash repair issues

We got MUMSRIG back today, all is well and it was washed and they sorted out some touch ups whilst it was there.. Very happy with ours all in all.

I suppose what you have to remember in all of this is that the insurer will only pay 'book' value for the repair and the repairer has to do the work within that timeframe to make their money. The insurer won't pay them any more if it takes then longer because thay might have missed something or stuffed something up, so....they are going to continually duck and weave to try and get out of it as it will be costing them not the insurer.

You need to actively involve your insurer now and MAKE THEM do the work for you as that is what they are there for.. Put the ownace on them as that's what you pay your premiums for.

Mitch

[David See Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close David See]

Re: When white just isn't white and other smash repair issues

Hey Mitch,

The fact is the car needs to come back looking like it HASN'T been in a smash. My opinion is that they have stuffed the paint match up and gone too far with the paint work before realising it. I thought all these problems weren't possible now with all the paint technology and colour matching techniques. I can't fault the finish...the job is really good...except for the colour match.

It was sent back in with a detailed list of the problems and after four days in the shop, all that has been done are the two main things we spoke about with the assessor. Paint match on the door (and even then the problem has just been shifted) and the firewall has been cleaned up. The bolts that hold the guards on in the engine bay STILL have not been brush-touched. And that was on the list.

I just put the Prado away for the night and had a look at it under the fluros in the garage, and no matter how hard I try, I just can't get past the fact that they have moved the problem from one panel to the next. The problem that was between the two doors, is now between the door and the rear quarter panel.

I know I am looking at it because I know it is there, but it is pretty darned obvious - especially on the wheel arch flare.

Don't they see it and think that perhaps I am not going to accept it AGAIN? Why not just get it right in the first place or at least the second time it comes back.Or do they just think that I am silly enough not to look beyond the original point of interest?

I know this must sound like I am a bit too pedantic, but this is costing us time and money and a lot of stuffing around and the job is still not right.

[MUMSRIG Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close MUMSRIG]

Re: When white just isn't white and other smash repair issues

I know this must sound like I am a bit too pedantic, but this is costing us time and money and a lot of stuffing around and the job is still not right.

NO, not pedantic at all. You just want your car back the way it was when it went in.

Become a pain in the arse for the Insurer. They are the ones that need to get it sorted on your behalf. I understand it's a pain in the but, no doubting that and I wouldn't like to be in your shoes and have this fight, but it does sound like you have a fight on your hands...

I would forward and email to the senior assesor and maybe the insurance GM to address the issues if you are still unhappy.

They always say you need to give the original repairer first option of repair (if they muff it up), well you've done that and are still unhappy. Time to go to the next level maybe??

Good luck.

[pajames2 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close pajames2]

Re: When white just isn't white and other smash repair issues

I am going through the same thing at the moment, someone ran into the back of our white GXL a week or so ago. Only about $2000 damage to ours but it needed a new rear bumper. The mrs picked it up yesterday and as soon as i got home i picked that the colour of the new bumper didn't match the rest of the car. Took it straight back and the repairer tried to tell me that the rest of the paint on the car was 'beginning to fade' (prado is only 11 months old) and then that the paint on the bumpers is always different to the metal (news to me, it's always looked the same to me). He then tried to polish the adjoining flare guard to match it in to the bumper, needless to say that didn't work. Anyway it's going back again for another day's work to get it right.

[David See Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close David See]

Re: When white just isn't white and other smash repair issues

It's funny isn't it? And I have had the same response:

"But the plastics will always look different to the metal bits"...

Yes, I understand this point, but my newly painted plastic was not the same white as the OLD PLASTIC - not talking about comparing the plastic to the metal bits...

So what is their argument when the PLASTICS don't match?

[Bushbasher Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Bushbasher]

Re: When white just isn't white and other smash repair issues

They are just too lazy to blend the new paint into the adjoining panel. The slackers would rather paint just the one affected panel - it's quicker and obviously cheaper. MOST people won't even notice but for those of us who do CARE about the presentation and finish on our vehicles it's just not acceptable.

I got some paint mixed for my '98 (which is the champagne/gold colour - they call it beige). They had 3 goes at getting the shade right because there was around 6 different versions of the same colour. Some had more of a silvery tint and others had more of a gold tint and until you went outside with a proper paint swatch you would never get it right. And this was even after providing the paint code from the compliance/build id plate.