Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Branches New England Ah, the good old days. Share your story!!!!!

Ok, i'm sure a few of you have heard me whining about my car getting wrecked the day before I left to come out to Spring Zing. Turned out to be the biggest night mare in the world for me and the car still isn't fixed right.

I remember the day, it was a tuesday. I got up at like 5AM so I could wash and wax the car, so I didn't have to do it after work and I had more time to pack, I was leaving early weds. morning. So, 40 degrees (more like 35) I'm standing outside washing and waxing my car, getting it completely spotless, and then off I went to work. Parked the car, it was looking sharp as hell. First off, it started to rain later that day. But then, I'm in the office and one of the girls is like, Hey Chris, some lady is leaving a note on your car (she was looking out the window as she was leaving the office.) I thought nothing of it, on occasion friends have left notes on my car in the past, but something was saying go outside and check it. So I did...And I would see it as I was coming down the block, the reflection off the door wasn't perfect. I got close and my drivers door was wrecked!!!! I was out of it I didn't know what to do, so my friend went up to the car and got the note. There was some BS story this stupid beotch wrote to me trying to explain what happened. Something to the tune of how she was backing out of the parking lot for the bagel shop (which isn't even on the block, it's around the corner), and she was chasing a stray dog, and somehow managed to not see my car and backed right into it! Ok, so why were you driving around the block, in reverse, and chasing a dog? She left her number luckily, so I called her and it sounded like animal house, children screaming, dogs barking...jeez...So I get to talking to her, and she starts babbling a different story, how the kids were acting up, etc. I was like, I don't care, I dont' wanna hear it at all lady. She's like, I'm sorry, the car looked clean. I made a sound like someone kicked me in the gut. She called her insurance company and long story short I got a check for $1017.

Fair enough I suppose. So, we had this new guy at work, an Italian kid. We hit it off pretty good so I trusted him, and he recommended I take it to a body shop of a friend of the family. Ok, made the appointment for the day after I got back from SZ and that was that. I brought the car to him, he looked at it and said, don't worry we'll fix it perfect. I left the car there, he had the adjuster come down and look at it and they settled on the above price. Cool. While it was in we agreed he'd fix a little crack in my rear bumper that was bothering me. He calls me a week later and tells me the car is done. great, I couldn't wait to get out of the suzuki rental I had. I go to pick it up, car is in the back lot in the shade. I open the door and immediately point out a spot where the door had crumpled on the inside from th impact, I was worried it would hit something inside when I closed the door...he said, that's the natural contour of the door - I shot him a look like are you freakingi kidding me? The car was also dirty. Nobody washed it. So, he hands me a ticket for the carwash down the block. Ok, I had to go to work so I took the car, got it washed, and went to work. I park the car and inspect everything and my heart sank again. The door, didn't match the rest of the car, in color or in shape. It looked terrible...and there were spots in the paint where the metallic bits were kinda clumped together, so it made a shiny looking spot. Then, they sanded off the chip guard, and negelected to put it back when they painted the door. I go around to the rear and the crack I had in the bumper was still there, they just put some bondo in it and it sank in, and, they scuffed up the black fascia!!! I got steaming mad...so I went right back and explained everything to the guy and he was real nice about it and said they would redo everything. Ok, so he had it another week or so. When I went to pick it up, the rear bumper was perfect, the inside of the door that was crumpled was fixed, but, the door itself was still not perfect. The chip guard was applied, but they put it on too fast after painting the door, so when they peeled off the backing it raised some of the paint! GAH! And on top of that, the contour of the door does not match the rest of the car. you can't see it by just glancing at it, but when you look at the part where they did the body work, it looks like there's a smudge on my car. It drives me insane. I went to point this out to him and he finally came out and was like, look kid, it's never going to be perfect. I wanted to turn around and backhand the guy but I didn't. I took it as incentive to get my car out of there before they did any more damage to it. After that I found garbage in my spare tire well, which I promptly returned to him, he was all apologetic...yeah, right. He said to me before I left, if anything ever happens with any of the work, bring it back and I'll take care of it. I said in my mind...he'll never touch my car again as long as I live.

I gave him the check as soon as I got it, I thought I could trust the guy because of my friend. In the end he did everythihng he said he wouldn't do, that being take my money and give me a $200 job. I should have never paid the man. He should have replaced the door skin instead of repairing it. At the time I was tired of seeing my car broken like that, and nothing eats at me more than the stupidity of others, so I was kinda rushing to get it fixed. In hindsight, I should have taken the check, went to a junkyard, found a good door, swapped all the hardware and had it painted myself. And walked away with $500 in my pocket. In the end I got screwed royally, and I'll have to replace the door out of my own pocket. I'll leave the screwed up one outside the guys shop for all his customers to see. I actually want to see what a hackjob the inside of the door looks like. They didn't even take it off the car to fix it, and those of you who saw it at SZ saw how bad it was. I'm also still scraping off residue from the wetsanding and not washing the car. I hope that bastage goes blind!


And to top off everything, some stupid broad almost backed into the very same door the other day. My reaction was to yell, and she heard me yelling at her with the windows closed, in both cars, and stopped.

Originally posted by TheGreatOne:

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Ok, i'm sure a few of you have heard me whining about my car getting wrecked the day before I left to come out to Spring Zing. Turned out to be the biggest night mare in the world for me and the car still isn't fixed right.

I remember the day, it was a tuesday. I got up at like 5AM so I could wash and wax the car, so I didn't have to do it after work and I had more time to pack, I was leaving early weds. morning. So, 40 degrees (more like 35) I'm standing outside washing and waxing my car, getting it completely spotless, and then off I went to work. Parked the car, it was looking sharp as hell. First off, it started to rain later that day. But then, I'm in the office and one of the girls is like, Hey Chris, some lady is leaving a note on your car (she was looking out the window as she was leaving the office.) I thought nothing of it, on occasion friends have left notes on my car in the past, but something was saying go outside and check it. So I did...And I would see it as I was coming down the block, the reflection off the door wasn't perfect. I got close and my drivers door was wrecked!!!! I was out of it I didn't know what to do, so my friend went up to the car and got the note. There was some BS story this stupid beotch wrote to me trying to explain what happened. Something to the tune of how she was backing out of the parking lot for the bagel shop (which isn't even on the block, it's around the corner), and she was chasing a stray dog, and somehow managed to not see my car and backed right into it! Ok, so why were you driving around the block, in reverse, and chasing a dog? She left her number luckily, so I called her and it sounded like animal house, children screaming, dogs barking...jeez...So I get to talking to her, and she starts babbling a different story, how the kids were acting up, etc. I was like, I don't care, I dont' wanna hear it at all lady. She's like, I'm sorry, the car looked clean. I made a sound like someone kicked me in the gut. She called her insurance company and long story short I got a check for $1017.

Fair enough I suppose. So, we had this new guy at work, an Italian kid. We hit it off pretty good so I trusted him, and he recommended I take it to a body shop of a friend of the family. Ok, made the appointment for the day after I got back from SZ and that was that. I brought the car to him, he looked at it and said, don't worry we'll fix it perfect. I left the car there, he had the adjuster come down and look at it and they settled on the above price. Cool. While it was in we agreed he'd fix a little crack in my rear bumper that was bothering me. He calls me a week later and tells me the car is done. great, I couldn't wait to get out of the suzuki rental I had. I go to pick it up, car is in the back lot in the shade. I open the door and immediately point out a spot where the door had crumpled on the inside from th impact, I was worried it would hit something inside when I closed the door...he said, that's the natural contour of the door - I shot him a look like are you freakingi kidding me? The car was also dirty. Nobody washed it. So, he hands me a ticket for the carwash down the block. Ok, I had to go to work so I took the car, got it washed, and went to work. I park the car and inspect everything and my heart sank again. The door, didn't match the rest of the car, in color or in shape. It looked terrible...and there were spots in the paint where the metallic bits were kinda clumped together, so it made a shiny looking spot. Then, they sanded off the chip guard, and negelected to put it back when they painted the door. I go around to the rear and the crack I had in the bumper was still there, they just put some bondo in it and it sank in, and, they scuffed up the black fascia!!! I got steaming mad...so I went right back and explained everything to the guy and he was real nice about it and said they would redo everything. Ok, so he had it another week or so. When I went to pick it up, the rear bumper was perfect, the inside of the door that was crumpled was fixed, but, the door itself was still not perfect. The chip guard was applied, but they put it on too fast after painting the door, so when they peeled off the backing it raised some of the paint! GAH! And on top of that, the contour of the door does not match the rest of the car. you can't see it by just glancing at it, but when you look at the part where they did the body work, it looks like there's a smudge on my car. It drives me insane. I went to point this out to him and he finally came out and was like, look kid, it's never going to be perfect. I wanted to turn around and backhand the guy but I didn't. I took it as incentive to get my car out of there before they did any more damage to it. After that I found garbage in my spare tire well, which I promptly returned to him, he was all apologetic...yeah, right. He said to me before I left, if anything ever happens with any of the work, bring it back and I'll take care of it. I said in my mind...he'll never touch my car again as long as I live.

I gave him the check as soon as I got it, I thought I could trust the guy because of my friend. In the end he did everythihng he said he wouldn't do, that being take my money and give me a $200 job. I should have never paid the man. He should have replaced the door skin instead of repairing it. At the time I was tired of seeing my car broken like that, and nothing eats at me more than the stupidity of others, so I was kinda rushing to get it fixed. In hindsight, I should have taken the check, went to a junkyard, found a good door, swapped all the hardware and had it painted myself. And walked away with $500 in my pocket. In the end I got screwed royally, and I'll have to replace the door out of my own pocket. I'll leave the screwed up one outside the guys shop for all his customers to see. I actually want to see what a hackjob the inside of the door looks like. They didn't even take it off the car to fix it, and those of you who saw it at SZ saw how bad it was. I'm also still scraping off residue from the wetsanding and not washing the car. I hope that bastage goes blind!


And to top off everything, some stupid broad almost backed into the very same door the other day. My reaction was to yell, and she heard me yelling at her with the windows closed, in both cars, and stopped.

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oh good god. i haven't read your post yet but it sure looks impressive!

ahh so that's the story.
GreatOne, I always heard people mention it here and there but never knew the full story.
sorry to hear it!

I guess it's ok, because now I have a reason to have one of, if not the, tightest SVT on the whole CEG. I'm thinking something along the lines of this, Pascals old ride along with a nice color change:



Of course there would be more goodies under the hood.

Damn, sounds like one hell of a headache! Hope everything turns out okay!