project chargum....epic fail!

[greenking]

been a long discouraging weekend! heres the story.....

I wasn't going to say much about this before the unveiling, but i gotta spill it. I called my regular paint supply rep to order the paint for the exterior of the car. Flat black.....its a KILLER color flat black, that ive used on a couple other projects in the last year. Turns out my regular guy was out of the required hardener and wouldn't have any until the middle of this coming week. With springfest fast upon us, i wanted it faster than that.

I called another local supplier of ppg products, and they said they had a newer version of the same flat black, that was more chip-fade-scratch resistant. I verified with them a dozen times in the 20 minute phone call with the sales rep that it WAS the SAME as the other paint in all characteristics, both visual AND how it applied. When I was satisfied with what he was telling me (and the info I found online about this newer product number agreed with what he said) I ordered him to mix it, said it would be done by 9:00am the following morning (thursday morning, last week)

Heres where the story gets good.

I show up at 12:30pm to get it (45 minute drive BTW) Not only is it not mixed, but the ONLY guy there competent enough to mix it had just left for lunch, so we were stuck 45 miles from home for 1.25 hours with nothing to do. They told us to go to lunch and they would cover it. So we did. Came back at 2:00, guy was just getting there. 45 minutes later came out with the paint. Waited 30 minutes for the ONLY guy competent enough to run the register to get off the phone and ring me up, only to realize that they had not given me any hardeners for it. Took them 30 minutes to find the hardener, and then ANOTHER 30 to get rang up again.

During all this waiting, I asked them how much flattener they put in the mix, in case I wanted to come back for more later for another project im working on, and he told me he put in so much it could never get any flatter lol.

Total time spent at paint store, 3 hours 45 minutes. VERY irritating.

spent thursday and friday sanding, cleaning, and prepping the car for paint. Saturday, spent all day cleaning again, and finally sprayed saturday evening. Turned the heat to 85, and left for 6 hours.

heres the REAL kick in the pants.

when I came back, it was STILL AS SHINY AS WHEN FIRST SPRAYED! normally, this shit looks WET when sprayed, and then starts to flash off and turn flat as it dries. within 2 hours, it should have been completely flat. 6 hours at 85 later, it hadn't changed a bit. Came back next morning (today) and no change.

So, what Im left with is a car covered in shiny black paint, which is WAY far off from what I wanted. It keeps getting better. The kind of paint im using (polyurethane enamal) is a continual hardening paint up to 4 days. I can't even sand this stuff to recoat (with the RIGHT material) for another couple days.

Im leaving for springfest exactly 2 WEEKS from yesterday, and my cars in 300 pieces. The rate this is going, im going to have to rent a pt cruiser and limp all the way to cali!

Tomorrow morning im getting an estimate on having a local body shop sand and repaint all this, so I can take that to the paint distributor and demand that they cover all the expenses of having this car repainted. I don't know how well that is going to go over, Im pretty sure they won't like that much haha. But, I verified with them 20-some times that it WAS a FLAT paint, even down to their mix ratio of flattener, and they mixed it wrong. Not much they can argue about.

Tomorrows going to be ugly, the next couple weeks are going to be LONG!

[JRZ SRT]

Damn thats one hell of a mess up. I'd be so pissed. Well guess you just have to do what you have to and make them cover it for puttin you thru this mess. Hope things turn out better for ya

[srteen8]

Wow! i woulda flipped a B***h!! lol

[Goatme]

Damn that is a crazy story. Hopefully you can get it straight.

[CHARGERTOM1122]

Damn sorry to hear about the issues but that really sux. Go demand they cover your expenses.

[CrazyManInCincy]

Ouch!!!!! That just sucks!!!!!!

[hawkeye4077]

Dang Ross that really sux. Hopefully you can get her done in time. If I can help out let me know and I 'd be happy too bro.

[345 HEMI]

You have every right to be madder than hell. Thanks for sharing your story. I hope you get it all worked in time for the fest.

[srboricua1]

wow i was planning on gettin my car flat black now im scared.. lol

[greenking]

Alright so I just got home from my "visit" to the paint store. This place by the way, is Keystone Automotive. They were recently bought out by LKQ mid-america. Needless to say the sales rep said "tough cookies, not our fault. Never promised it would be flat black." When I reminded him of several statements that both he AND the guy that mixed it (who was also there) made to the effect of "it will NEVER be any flatter than this" he stuttered a few times, then said again "tough cookies not our problem, you should have known better" I asked for the manager.

Manager comes out, seems like he wants to help the situation, offers to provide me with another gallon of product. I tell him that won't even begin to cover my expenses for thier screw up, and his tune changed instantly to "not our problem, you must have messed it up"

I argued the point for over an hour with the guy, keeping a level head for the most part. The ENTIRE time I was in the store we (manager and I) were standing directly behind the front counter where all the walk in customers could see us. He flat out told me that because im not a production shop who spends an assload of money with them, that they will NOT warranty the paint. I thought that was CRAP.

Heres where i said something i PROBABLY shouldn't have lol. A minute after he just got done telling me ^im not important enough to warranty the paint, a walk in customer started asking what the company offered. The manager started his sales pitch about "we well car parts, and car paint" and i told the customer that the paint was not warrantied lol. the manager tried to kick me out of his store at that point. I then reminded him that he said the same exact thing to me a minute ago in front of the same customer, so he dropped it and we kept talking.

Ended up leaving with a full setup of another product, and a bunch of masking and sanding materials. Im nowhere near satisfied, and will not be using any of this material until I have discussed this with upper management of the new parent company (who coincidentally I have done THOUSANDS of dollars of business with in the last couple years.) Well see how it goes!


on a side not, while i was there no less than 10 freaking customers walked in to that store with something that needed returned. 4 of them were there because the paint they recieved was wrong color, a few of them had been given the wrong mirrors or taillights (like the left one when they needed the right one). one customer even put 50 cents into the soda machine and pushed the dr. pepper button and got a pepsi. i mean, WTF!!!