HORRIBLE body shop experience - details inside. 350z ruined.

[xp350z]

dude man thats just horrible...i used to work at a body shop and if we ever did some crazy sh!t like that we would get sued....that looks like he did it in like 30 min...sry dude..but its phucked now

[jray8]

that looks horrible, there are not many kits that actually increase the aestethics of the Z anyways

[xp350z]

Originally Posted by jray8

that looks horrible, there are not many kits that actually increase the aestethics of the Z anyways

yeh but thats just F**ed up! who cares what kit it is

[haeshik]

holy sheit they facked up your brand new ride. sue!!!

[MrM3]

Originally Posted by marques1

Most shops have very shady people working their or actually own the business.

I think that is quite an over generalization. I agree there, unfortunately, are shops out there that take advantage of people and do poor quality work. But it is not fair to lump "most" shops together. There bad part is these bad shops give a bad name to all of us in the industry. I manage a bodyshop and none of my employees are "shady" nor do we do "shady" repairs. Don't get me wrong I know those type of people are out there but it is unfair to call most as shady. I agree that the work done on the car is terrible and I would be ashamed to have my name attached to it. I hope all works out for you OP.

[Brrcats]

dear god, I truely feel for you man. This seriously is the most horrendous thing I've ever seen. The door sills, I will have nightmares of those door sills. I hope you get everything you need to get the car back to normal

[JROCK 2003]

Damn bro, my sincere condolences. Unbelievable how people can do this to someones car without caring. Your poor car has been raped. Goodluck with everything, I hope you shut this guy down and get your cash to fix it.

[Fluid1]

While that's literally the worst body work I've ever seen in my life, there's a few things you shold think about.

The quality of a POS replica kit in urethane.
A $250 install AND painting quote? lol Yeah, it's 2008 man, you can't get a McDonald's hamburger for a nickel.

[Skyline-GTR]

My heart sank as I went thru your pics. Using dry wall screws into the body and everywhere else. The complete shock that came over me was this person needs a good beating.

Your only recourse is to take him to court and sue him. Have all reciepts and pictures as documentation of the shoddy job. If you can have your insurance company have an adjuster come out to verify and hopefully cover for the repairs to remove that garbage off your car, then you can add that ontu the bill in court.

Go to court, you will clearly win and if he doesn't pay, put a lien against the business.

[zerafian]

Lord in heaven..GL getting what you deserve after a job like that....be sure to show this every f*ckin' where...ruin his reputation.

IMO this si completely the body shops fault...things dont fit they should tell you....and not do the work...****in screws WTF

[cheshirecat79]

I have never seen such a terrible job, I would almost think this was a joke if the OP didn't describe it in detail... I'm blown away, this is beyond compare.

[m0nkie]

Poor Z...

The shop is 10 minute from my house... I can recommend you a much better shop nearby if you like. Just PM me

[badkarma85]

omfg, they messed up BIG time. Please bring them to court.

Best wishes.

[gismo]

man, that is really messed up. but at the same time you get what you paid for. most shop would charge you close to a $1k. i am glad that i know someone at monterey park auto body that does a great job on my kit. he will make sure that i am satisfied with the work before i pay him. if you need you to get it fixed, i would suggest to go to that place. his name is johnson. if you want his address PM me and i will give you his address. you should bring the car to him and get a quote on it.

[SSZVirginia]

Has anyone heard from the shop owner? Does he still stand behind this level of work as acceptable?

[TheOtherRob]

Wow, what a great way to **** up a brand new 350z. I hope you get enough money out of that body shop to have everything done the right way.

On a side not OP, what wheels are those, they look pretty good in the pics that I can see of them.

Good luck, make those ****ers pay!

[CrimsonRockett]

Originally Posted by Zivman

here are my thoughts....

Mistake #1
you bought a replica kit... and in urethane. How did you expect it to fit? It is clear from the pics that urethane kits are REALLY flexible and not easily painted.

Mistake #2
So now you take this poorly fitting, hard to paint replica to a shop that apparently you did not research properly. You live in cali, there are decent shops everywhere that have good reputations. Why not go to a shop recommended to you, from people on the board even?

Mistake #3
You get a quote of 250 bucks to fit and paint the kit? Right there would have been a HUGE red flag considering the material alone to paint and clear the pieces would have cost that much... and then he revises up to 730 bucks, which is still a shockingly low price... what kind of work did you expect? You get what you pay for

Mistake #4
You actually paid for this? I don't care if it was pitch black and he offered to respray and refit the entire kit. Once you opened the doors you had to have seen the multitude of randomly installed screws along the door sill. having had a hint of any issues, the car should have been pulled into a lighted bay and inspected properly, had everything documented and within a day or so, taken to another shop to be even more thoroughly inspected.

The work is horribly done, and even with the mistakes you made, it does not excuse what was done. With that said, it is buy beware, and you obviously lack due diligence in this situation. I really feel for you, but IMHO you have to thoroughly research, not only the shop you will use, but the items/parts you bring them. which IMHO, again, you did not.

To go further, I am surprised this could be fixed for under 5 grand. You are looking at new bumper covers, refitting the doors, at least a full buff job, possibly a respray of the car depending on the magnitude of overspray... and then you want to refit that kit? Sorry, if you plan on doing that, you haven't learned a thing. Even a good shop will struggle fitting a crap kit. Even worse now that this shop butchered it up.

My advise, is to scrap the kit, get the shop in question to pay the repair bill by a reputable shop (obviously legal action and some luck will be needed)... by repair I would consider getting you back to OEM status repaired. You eat the cost of that crappy replica and chalk it up to a lesson learned.

I totally agree with you.

I had seen Mike's GREAT work, and I had seen Mike's bad work. The good outweighed the bad, and from his previous mistakes, he had learned his lesson. Doing it right the first time is the only way to have the customer satisfied. I don't know what the hell he was thinking when he put together the Z, but we're stuck in this position now.

I know, the kit is a urethane knock off of the real deal, but we decided to give it a shot because, well, it's urethane. It'll at least last longer than fiberglass. I knew fitment wasn't going to be perfect, but if he would have let us know fitment was totally off on the sides, we would have returned the full kit and purchased the real deal.

The kit is garbage. It will be thrown out. The real deal will be purchased. We learned from our mistake the first time around.

Brian has already accepted the fact that it's going to be an expensive lesson learned, but yes, lesson learned.

2020 had quoted us $4,800 to go back to oem standards, have the new REAL Ings lip kit fitted, painted, and installed, but they said the only way they can give us a real quote is by removing the lips/sideskirts and viewing the damage that's hidden behind them.

Again, lesson has been learned.

Don't cheap out on parts, paint, and labor. In the end, you'll be in our situation.

[CrimsonRockett]

Originally Posted by silverstripes

Wow, what a great way to **** up a brand new 350z. I hope you get enough money out of that body shop to have everything done the right way.

On a side not OP, what wheels are those, they look pretty good in the pics that I can see of them.

Good luck, make those ****ers pay!

They're 5zigen SC3000's

Fitment alone isn't completely great(iirc, 19x8.5 +25, 19x9.5 +25), but the fronts have a 20mm spacer, and rear have a 25mm spacer.(Again, IIRC. I'll let Brian chime in on his fitment.)

Here's the car in a little photoshoot we had a few months ago before this whole mess happened.

(Spacers weren't installed back then)






I miss his unmolested Z.

[j3dz]

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!

Sorry to see what they did to your car man....those pics got my blood boiling!!

[vegaseric]

I'd take the car to yet another certified Nissan body shop and get another quote to repair the plethora of screwups from this install. The $4,800 quote seems a bit low. Then take Import Image/iDesign to court based upon the estimates to fix their work. This thread sickens me... good luck and keep us posted on your progress.