Went to the body shop to get my nismo v2 installed. I bought a replica and it came in decent condition. It had a little crack in the corner where it meets the headlight, some pin holes, and rough edges. The body shop quoted me for 5 hours of prep time to get the crack fixed, pinholes filled and rough edges smoothed out. First I was thinking 5 hours? no way it takes 5 hours to do that but I let them continue. I came to pick up my car and it was dark outside so I couldnt inspect it thoroughly. Next day rolls around and now I can really see it. 5 hours of tech time my a**. The crack was still there, bubbling paint in the front, god knows what they did to the nissan emblem(the edges of the emblem are all roughed up), pin holes on my bumper, and they didnt bother to make the bumper and fender meet evenly. Am I being picky? I plan on taking this back to the body shop to get my money back and taking my business elsewhere. What do you guys think? Here are some pics.

Rough edges they were talking about fixing. What did they do to the Nissan emblem?



I still see a crack


Look at that fitment. I know some replicas have fitment problems but isn't that a body shop's job to make it fit? I mean I payed for it to be fitted... Its way off probably about 1/2 inch.


The pinholes they told me they were going to fill (there were about 6 or 7 of these)


If you look closely, near the middle of the picture you can see a line of paint that bubbled. Hmm....


Are they suppose to use wood screws to fit my underpanel to my bumper?


Here is a shot of the whole car

 

yah go back and complain and get them to fix that mess....thats just wrong and unprofessional.

and whats up with bad shop using woodscrews...seriously wtf are they thinking.

 

yes you should

 

This is a body shop that is recommended by many performance shops. I honestly just want them to give me the money to get it fixed and go to a different body shop.

 

wood screws, reminds me of that guy that had his total car ruined, I would go back and get them to re do it.

 

Which replica did you buy?

 

Shitty job..... How much did you get raped for?

 

Yes, go complain to them immediately. You paid good money for them to fit it, and they didn't do the job right. They need to either fit it properly or give you your money back so you can go elsewhere.

 

Yep ill go back to them for sure. Jay'Z im pretty sure you know of this shop. I hit a deer so Insurance took care of the bumper and installation but they tacked on a extra $200 just for prep work which came out of MY pocket. Prep work was suppose to include fixing the crack, filling in the pin hole, smoothing out the edges, primer. But hey guess what? They did none of the prep work they said they would just primer.

 

How much was it total?

 

I'm thinking that is a sheet metal screw, not a wood screw. Not that it really matters. As long as it gets the job done. As far as the other stuff goes, they did a lousy job.

 

Forgot how much it was total... ill have to take a look at the receipt when I get home.

 

Yes it does get the job done but when I try to take the underpanel off for an oil change its gonna be a pain to line up. Am I wrong here?

 

Sounds like it was "Hey this is an insurance job, he's not paying much out of pocket so just slap it on and get it out of here."

If you aren't happy then go back and have them make it right. If they don't make it right let all my350z members around you know what shop it is. Word of mouth is important to a successful business.

 

True. The pictures are a little too close up for me to get the big picture.

 

Definitely shoddy work from the body shop. If a kit requires lots of preparation to get it right, then the cost should be in the estimate.

The shop may complain that they cannot make a silk purse from a sows ear. Poor excuse. They could have rejected the job from the start.

 

They told me that they could make it fit perfectly and fix all the holes and the crack etc etc. I got my car back late friday so I cant take my car back till tomorrow because they are closed on the weekend.

 

it fixed or get your money back.

 

I have seen some replicas before and the nismo like this specifically. I can tell you 5 hrs is not enough time to cure the ills that these replicas come with. I don't know what they charged you, but by the prep quote and seeing what was 'left over' via the pics I would say you got what you paid for.

To get more specific:

As they say in the industry, from 10 feet away it doesn't look too bad.

 

man you and I are in the same boat, only yours is actually fitted better, and I think yours actually turned out a little better than mine. Everytime I wash my Z the paint just flakes off the bumper. As far as the wood screws being put in to hold the underpanel: As you can see in your picture it doesn't perfectly line up with the V2, so something other than the stock screws would have to be use, at least you would think so. The guy that painted mine just left the thing hanging there, and used nothing at all, not even a damn zip tie or something. So I made it about 100ft down the road from his shop and the wind sucked it down and it was dragging the street. Also, the price I was quoted in paint was for all prep and fitment work, and having the bumper blended with the front end, as well as the rock chips in my hood being fixed. Needless to say the front bumper was the only part of the car that was even touched, but now that I see the quality of work i'm glad that's the case because if he'd done what he said, i'd be having to have the whole front end repainted instead of just the front bumper.