350zWVU

iTrader: (1)

Well, here it goes, while driving between Harrisburg PA and Pittsburgh PA on the Turnpike, a golf ball construction stone comes skipping over from the other lane right accross my hood. While I have a geniune Nissan black "bra" on the car for long travel, it, of course, offered no protection for the hood. After getting to my destination, I have three scratches in the hood running diagonally accross. All were finger nail depth within about 6 inches of each other. (Sorry No pics, will get to that in a minute). The clear coat damage was no big deal with Scratch X working just fine. The other scratches, though, after alot of research and getting opinions from others, needed to be "professionally" fixed. While I found the scratches to be offensive, other said just keep them clean and use glaze, sealant and wax to protect them. Well, I thought that would be just too time consuming and tedious. So, I inquired long and far and.... I found "nirvana" (not the band).

Here is my horror story..... So, a friend of mine who as a 7 series BMW tells me that his dealer uses this fellow to fix scratches like mine. A mobile paint fellow with a satellite feed to his truck, PPG paint and he does miracle work. I get his card and we are in business to get these scratches fixed. He comes to my house, explains the process, and gives me a price. Wetsanding, reshooting of the area with matched paint, blending the paint in, and reshooting the clear coat and blending it in. All for $125.00. Figuring such a small area to do, DEAL!! Next, he comes to my house and sets up in the driveway. I tell him he can use the garage and all of my top end lighting. Paint guy says working outside is no big deal, does it everyday for BMW, Nissan, Ford and Toyota in the area. Wow, ok, you are the pro. just make it happen. He reassures me all is well. At that point, I leave to go the office and let him do his thing. Well, when I come back.... WTF!!!! I say to myself. It looks like he left a "football" on the hood (from a distance) but up close ok. I say to him, is it done? He says no, he needs to come back in 48 hours to sand the clear coat and polish. I say, ok, what about the haze I see and the "football" looking pattern. No response other than lets wait and see. 72 hours actually go by and he returns. He starts wetsanding the **** out of the whole area, about 1/3 of the hood. Then, he quickly dries and proceeds to rotary buff the area. Ok, ok, it looks good eventhough he left buffer trails. Well, now, after 4 weeks, the area looks horrible. The "football" is more pronounced and he is not returning my calls. Now, you do need to look for it, but once you set your eye on it, it is there. Also, the paint blend line seems to have set up and there is this shadow above where he blended the paint. Also, the areas where the clear coat was blended have what appears to be "fish eye".

This past Friday, took it to two places just to see if the "fish eye" can be wetsanded down, polished, and sealed. The first, a reputable professional detailer won't touch it. Says the work, while not that much is too tedious. The second place, a body shop True to Form, would not touch it either but offered to repaint the whole hood and fix the scratch mark area better than the roving paint guy. (Oh, didn't mention that, if you look hard enough, you can see the paint guys result of really sanding hard). They quoted me a $500.00. Doesn't sound bad, but I will need to meet with them to really nail this down. I want no evidence of a scratch or repaint. Want it looking sharp and am willing to pay.

Anyway, sorry for the ramble. Moral of the story.... if you get a scratch in the paint that is deep enough to be felt with your finger nails, and want the best fix, just take it to a reputable body shop and have them do their magic. Also, if you have a paint/scratch guy work on your car, do not pay them until you are completely satisfied. Also, before you allow them to work on your car, be prepared to have a body shop fix what they have done. Sometimes saving a little money is not worth it in the end.

PS: 2006 350z Silver Alloy (I know, I know, Silver is tough to match!!)

davidv

iTrader: (2)

davidc81

iTrader: (23)

that sucks! i will testify that true to form does great work. they did some paint work on my bmw previously and it was top notch. maybe you can get a cf hood? p.s. wvu alum are a bunch of inbreeds, go pitt!

Paul350Z

iTrader: (1)

If this guy trashed silver what in heaven's name would he have done to a black or dark blue car?

I have less than 3500 miles on my black Z, it sees nothing but microfiber cloth, sleeps under a special car cover inside the garage ... and scratches and dealer installed swirls look worse than my Xterra which has about 3500 miles of off road bush bashing and rock crawling - but because the Xterra is silver you can't see the scratches. They buff right out with the random orbital I bought to pamper the Z.

ocdetailing

Sorry to hear you had such a bad experience.

Hopefully the gentlemen will return your call and fix the issue.

In the future and hopefully you won't have to go through it again but just ask for a portfolio of pictures to go through and in some cases some professionals will have clients that you can contact to verify quality of work.

I hope things work out for you.

Cheers !