Panel Shop 1, Revesby - Honda CRX Respray
After a small accident and on advice from several friends, I convinced my wife that this shop was the way to go for a re-spray on her CRX. We took the car in and negotiated to totally re-spray the car in factory white and colour-code the side skirts. Basic stuff. We were told it would be a four week turnaround and quoted $2000 plus the insurance claim payout. All good.
Four weeks later, the promises started. If I could get them on the phone, they would say “pick it up tomorrow” then cancel the next day. Same thing happened daily for the next week.
Finally we pick up the car a week late, after waiting around for half a day till they get it clean and ready. Then driving the car out reveals the plugs are full of water.
From there, it gets worse. We list a full page of imperfections from masking tape lines and dents to a misaligned bumper. Basically, points that should be picked up in the process of a respray.
Another two weeks of being stuffed around, we are told that it is finally ready. On picking it up, there are still two dents that haven’t been fixed.
Finally get the car back and still not happy. But at least there’s no chance I’ll ever deal with them again. Some compensation was offered but it was really too late in proceedings.
Panel Shop 2, Homebush - Skyline Aftermarket Front Bar Install
After the above mess, my wife says we are only going to a smaller outfit from now on. This place is not cheap and I had to accept that the premium cost quoted to paint and install would be worth it, based on my wife’s feelings about the company. Eerk!
So we dropped off my R34, with the front bar still in the original box. The owner, Joe, went through the options I had on installing the bumper and what he would be doing to it. All included in the original quote so there were no surprises.
A week later as promised, I headed to the shop, to be greeted by a clean-as-a-whistle R34 with fitted and painted Impul front bar. No bumps, imperfections, issues, or anything else to complain about. The finish is excellent and the colour-matching is flawless. The bumper was mounted to all the factory holes and Joe personally mounted the front number plate on the spot to my specification. The morals of the story are:
- you get what you pay for
- your mates are not always right
- just because places have a big name, they are not always the best
- and – most important of all — listen to you wife!
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