Rant What do you think? Van vinyl

[brycesteiner]

A person came to us today very frustrated by a body shop close to me. They were supposed to remove old vinyl and apply new vinyl that was provided.
This is on a "classic" vehicle that has a pretty good body. The paint was black, you can see my reflection taking the picture.
The person comes to me just furious. The Body and Paint company that did this didn't mention one thing that they had problems.

It about made me puke.

I think this body and paint shop should redo the paint of the entire vehicle. What do you or have you recommend in this instance?

 

[Gino]

I'm going blind.... I can't see a thing................................................

 

[fresh]

did they remove the old decal with a razor? that is definitely their fault.

the paint coming up, idk, that happens with a bad paint job or if someone didn't wait for the paint to cure before installing new graphics.

so the body shop screwed up, but it just happened that they screwed up on a crap paint job and I think they should repaint the whole car.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

what is with the blue stripe?

what do you mean what do you recommend? recommend that they get it fixed.. you cant do anything about it.

 

[Gino]

That looks muighty awful. Like mentioned, I can make out what's going on, but it sure doesn't look good. Unless you do body work (and by the looks of that,,,,, you'll need a lotta experience) plus paint work, there's nothing you can really do, except console the guy. Why do you think he came to you ??

 

[petepaz]

a full pic to go along with that would give us a better visual.
if you are going to remove old graphics you need to let the customer know that it could pull up the paint. probably won't usually doesn't but i have had a few cases over the years where it was just old or like already mentioned bad original paint job. (wrong paint, wrong catalyst, installed graphics too quick after paint job.) and let them know you won't be responsible for that. with all that said they really butchered up that vehicle and should have to fix it

 

[2B]

so they scratched and damaged the paint during removal and then tried to cover it up with the new material?
What is your involvement with this?

he needs to go back and have them fix it all.
Hopefully, he has before and after photos of what happened

The paint is chipped off is because the paint being old or poorly done from the beginning
this is one of those issues with removal and IF they explained these points are not liable.

 

[unclebun]

There's not much to say except that the original paint came off with the vinyl, which comes from either a bad paint job or vinyl application too soon after painting. Neither you nor the person who scratched up the paint has anything to do with that. However, it might explain why they had to use a razor blade to take off the old vinyl stripe. The other thing that comes to mind is that whoever put the original stripe on may have cleared over it, which is another dumb move.

 

[brycesteiner]

The van is a 1999 Chevy custom Mark IV (maybe III) with original paint. There was no rust and pretty much in great condition other than the vinyl was 20 years old. The customer took the van and it quoted to remove the old vinyl and customer provided the new vinyl (not really new but seemed to be in reasonable condition that the shop agreed it would work) to be installed.

The reason the paint came off, was because the person literally dug under the vinyl like a spatula and right into the paint rather than using the proper tools and procedures. The razor had a big nick in it and they just used a paint scraper to get it off. In the process they just kept scraping the paint. In other sections of the van you can see they peeled up the vinyl with a razor but did not scrape it. They used a buffer tool of some sort to polish the rest of the vinyl off.

This tells me that they knew what they did was wrong. I just can't believe that a body and paint company would let this go out like this when they have the facilities right there to correct it. If there was a pint problem, why would they not tell the customer instead of just cover it up with vinyl?

My involvement came in because the customer came and ask me about it since they recently found out we install vinyl. She wanted to know our thoughts and how we would have done it.

 

[equippaint]

I don't think they are telling you the whole story. I highly doubt that a body shop scratched the paint all to hell like that. Pretty much everyone in there would know better. To me the paint doesn't look OEM. There seems to be much more orange peel than a factory finish and it looks really thick where it came off, much more paint than typical factory paint. GM had adhesion issues during this time frame too. Id drill down the story a bit more before condemning the last shop and also be careful yourself. They may be digging for something that you don't want to get caught up in.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

^^^^ This

What body shop in their even half right mind would do this? It makes absolutely no sense... You should see those guys when you bring a car in for repair, they see shit I couldn't find with a magnifying glass...

I'd let this "customer" go... red flags are being flown.

 

[sidcon]

Is this joke? That is.... I don't even know what to say lol . The body shop must be Julien's from the Trailer Park Boys

 

[brycesteiner]

I don't think they are telling you the whole story. I highly doubt that a body shop scratched the paint all to hell like that. Pretty much everyone in there would know better. To me the paint doesn't look OEM. There seems to be much more orange peel than a factory finish and it looks really thick where it came off, much more paint than typical factory paint. GM had adhesion issues during this time frame too. Id drill down the story a bit more before condemning the last shop and also be careful yourself. They may be digging for something that you don't want to get caught up in.

The body shop had the van for a full month.

I agree with you completely. Any competent body shop would not let this happen and if something did go wrong, wouldn't let it go out the door until it was fixed. Everyone there SHOULD know better.

Even if the vehicle was repainted, which I don't think it was, doesn't give an excuse for the scratches dug clear into the metal.

I have known this person for years which is another reason why they came to us. She thought she was going to a local, small town, reputable business.

I'll see if I can get a further picture from further back.

 

[GAC05]

Well, at least they didn't get any bubbles in the new vinyl when they laid it down.

 

[OhioSigns]

The van is a 1999 Chevy custom Mark IV (maybe III) with original paint. There was no rust and pretty much in great condition other than the vinyl was 20 years old. The customer took the van and it quoted to remove the old vinyl and customer provided the new vinyl (not really new but seemed to be in reasonable condition that the shop agreed it would work) to be installed.

The reason the paint came off, was because the person literally dug under the vinyl like a spatula and right into the paint rather than using the proper tools and procedures. The razor had a big nick in it and they just used a paint scraper to get it off. In the process they just kept scraping the paint. In other sections of the van you can see they peeled up the vinyl with a razor but did not scrape it. They used a buffer tool of some sort to polish the rest of the vinyl off.

This tells me that they knew what they did was wrong. I just can't believe that a body and paint company would let this go out like this when they have the facilities right there to correct it. If there was a pint problem, why would they not tell the customer instead of just cover it up with vinyl?

My involvement came in because the customer came and ask me about it since they recently found out we install vinyl. She wanted to know our thoughts and how we would have done it.

First flag here would have been taking on a job knowing the vinyl to be installed was not new. If it had any age to it I wouldn't want to touch it. I think there's more to this story and I wouldn't want to get involved in it. I would tell them once they get their paint issue fixed to bring it back for new graphics and install. I would not install any graphics they supply if they have any age to them at all. Vinyl has a shelf life for a reason...... and most end users have no idea of this.

 

[TimToad]

I don't think they are telling you the whole story. I highly doubt that a body shop scratched the paint all to hell like that. Pretty much everyone in there would know better. To me the paint doesn't look OEM. There seems to be much more orange peel than a factory finish and it looks really thick where it came off, much more paint than typical factory paint. GM had adhesion issues during this time frame too. Id drill down the story a bit more before condemning the last shop and also be careful yourself. They may be digging for something that you don't want to get caught up in.

Yeah, like digging for an "expert paint and wrap witness" for their small claims suit.