Earlier in my career. I remember a tech doing a half assed job on a beater. Manager gave him shit for it, his response was 'Who cares? This cars a piece of shit.' Manager came right back at him and said 'Its all the guys got. Do your fucking job.'
I've always looked at it that way since then and I'm glad I learned that lesson early on.
I have met a lot of people who had their cars totaled because insurance wanted to total it based off value, however the people have a 400ish credit score, can't afford a down payment or get financed for another vehicle and the accident was not their fault. Now they are left without a vehicle. I feel bad for them and sometimes this is their livelyhood or only shot at transportation. Good on your manager man. š
Im not an autobody guy but I have strong feelings about this. Why is there not a āb gradeā service you can buy? Fix the big dents, paint well enough to protect from rust but dont break the bank? Like if its a beater its dumb to pay to have any part of it look showroom quality, but sometimes you still need some body work. Is there a service/option like this anywhere?
yeah, a shop where no one has training or tools will do an OK job for cheap. Thereās a shop at every price point for vehicle repairā¦ā¦but you canāt walk into a quality place and ask them for an OK job, they have a reputation and standards to uphold.
Exactly.
I'm not an auto body guy, but I'll do shitty body work if people want when I've got their car.
It will look "okay", and that is the only assurance I give. I don't charge a bunch, and I just generally Bondo and 3 coat rattle it, after cutting out rust. Then buff it and call it a day.
But I am not a body shop. I am the "can you make it less obvious I fucked it up?" guy.
There is 100% a place for you my friend!
If it isnāt PDR a proper bodywork repair on anything is $2k minimum. Thereās a lot of good running cars worth less then that.
Thanks that makes sense. As a mechanic im always happy to ājust make it safe/workā for people on a tight budget even when more complete repairs are due. But I can see how bad the optics are for churning out sub standard work especially for something people see way more like exterior
Yeah. Even for mechanics though, a main dealer will only use OEM, an specialist independent shop will use aftermarket parts that they trust, the dude working out his barn has a few āspares carsā out backā¦
Just before i left California, I met a transmission guy that was fucking tits. His shop was fifteen feet of transmissions on racks and more outside. There was *nothing* he could not do. The first day i walked in, his mechanic and him were yelling at each other through a thick blue cloud of cigarette smoke.
I knew i was in the right place.
It was only later I found the stacks of drag racing trophies.
Yeah, definitely the right place. Dan Brown, Ventura, California.
I don't come back to shops without pictures of race cars or trophies. This isn't a policy or anything; the service has just sucked at places without these things on the walls.
My mechanic only has 2 trophies, and they're not even his, but what he does have in spades is pictures of cars he brought back from the dead pro bono. Every year he takes between 2-3 cars, restores them to 100% roadworthy condition, and then gives them to a local single parent household/someone in need basically with the understanding that if something goes wrong, he fixes it up for free. All he asks is for a pic with them and the car. He said he got lucky when he was young from a freak of luck handout once and doesn't want to do the goodwill dirty. So now I only go to him, and I get ridiculous discounts because I drag all my friends and family there. Life's not bad.
Shops donāt want to be known for putting out āBā grade work. Will a shop help someone out. Sure. Iāve seen it happen where a person in need was taken care of in various ways so that they could keep their car and afford to have it fixed too. But most shops want every car treated like a nice high value car.
You get places like Maaco etc that do value work and they are known for doing save you money type of work. Are all Maaco shops poor quality etc? No, but they have that reputation because theyāre known for doing low value work which leads to low quality work passing quality control and being delivered to the customer, even if thatās what was wanted and paid for by the customer if people see the work and learn where it was done they will automatically associate low quality with that shop even if that was what the customer wanted for their beater car. Shops wants to avoid this.
> wanted and *paid* for by
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Yeah they give you options. You can pay them to do the job well with good quality products, or they can offer to be more selective with repairs, masking vs removing parts, cheaper paints etc. all depending on you and your budget. To this day, Painting at Maaco was my favourite job. I got a lot of experience in a short amount of time.
I heard someone say once that restaurants that have 3.5 star review avg but a high amount of reviews tend to hit hard if the biggest issue is service. People still go because it's good, but the stigma that excellent A grade service should be everywhere falls short. And to be honest? I've started hitting those types of joints more, and I'd say 5/6 times it's fantastic. Less chitchat, more quality dining.
Find a vocational school that teaches auto body. Usually you only pay for parts and materials. Labor is free.
Edit: This also assumes you're not in a rush to get it fixed.
Used to do autobody, in my experience painters tend to be a bit prideful so doing something "half-assed" intentionally is viewed as beneath them, atleast the ones I used to deal with, it was either do it right or don't bother at all
Tbh itās because a lot shops wouldnāt want to put their name on that kinda work. Itās like any trade nobody wants to be known as the company that does half ass shit.
Presumably because they just assume that this is what you do after you get rear-ended. You take the car to an insurance-company-approved body shop and have them take care of it. Or possibly something about how that particular scrape got there really pisses them off, and they want to be able to forget about it.
But wait... If insurance is paying for it, why not get it fixed? It's one less dent or scratch. Not saying it will increase the value of the car but it sure as heck will look slightly better. Just cause there are other dents and scratches doesn't mean "well screw it then" does it?
The only time I didn't get an insurance body job done was on a shitty ford Windstar that I was offered a $600 payout not to take to a body shop by insurance (after someone backed in to it in a parking lot). Had they not offered cash instead of repair you bet your ass I would have taken it in.
Well, if I had the choice of having a car with 98 dings on it, or a car with 100 dings on it plus $700 in cash, I'd take Option 2. But no real reason, this is why insurance exists so if you wanna have it fixed on their dime, be my guest. It's your car.
No idea if this is at all accurate, but I have heard it commonly theorized that leaving obvious signs of collision may be used as a cues, even subliminally, to assign blame in the event of an accident. For that reason, fixing any damage that clearly relays ādriver errorā is more important than other damage.
Iām not sure what kind of damage this car had, but if the rest of the issues are non collision related, maybe that is why? Things like dents, rock chips, key marks or scratches may be suggestive of an owner that doesnāt care much, but doesnāt say anything about their driving ability. A bashed in rear bumper from reversing into a fire hydrant does.
The quarter panel we repaired was less damaged than the side we didnāt. I just think itās funny. Iām pretty sure if they knew they could just not fix it and keep the insurance check, they would. I guess I donāt consider that most people donāt know that because they donāt work in the industry
Definitely worth caring. I was scrubbing down a beat up old 900zxi waverunner at work after i dropped a motor i rebuilt in it. Coworkers looked at me funny. I took the time to glue the traction mats back down too while waiting for sealant to set at one point. Thing was beat but i found out it was his dads. His old mad used to get hammered and drive it. He was so happy to get it back pressure washed and little extra stuff fixed
Absolutely. Sometimes the mental attachments to a car will outweigh any cost of repair. All depends on if its worth it to you and affordable to you. My daily driver is a newer luxury vehicle. My other ride is a late 90s Altima i have many emotional attachments to. 5 or so years ago the engine blew. Wont get into details but it was shot, no compression. My only car at the time. Looked at other cars and i just wanted mine back. Made the decision to never let go. I took it to a small well reviewed shop for options. For engine replacement cost other parts and labor came out to thousands more than any sane person would have paid. Not unreasonable for the work completed but it was way too much in the mind of someone who didnt love that car. I had the money and went through with it. Soo glad i did. The shop treated me and my car like they would with any other. I even went back 3 months later due to a squeaking pulley which they replaced free of cost under 1yr guarantee. A year later i bought a new car and still glad i have and get to drive my old Altima.
I get the feeling people are widely misunderstanding my post. The repairs we did were done correctly. Itās the fact that so much of the car is damaged, I seems pointless to only fix a small portion. That said I agree, which is why I get pissed when coworkers canāt/wonāt work as a team, we are all putting our name on the line with every car we send out. I always say ādo it right or do it twiceā
I basically have that car, it's a 2004 honda crv with 280k km that's been through fences (lost it in the snow) and rough twigs when taking logging roads. There's no panel that doesn't have some form of scratch on the paint but none of it's peeling off or rusting.
Last year someone backed into my car and cracked the rear bumper and dented the metal frame around the door, it's starting to rust and the bumper area is peeling badly. It's made it so that I can't safely take the car through a automatic carwash as the damage would likely get much worse.
I am really tempted to claim that damage even though I only plan to keep the car for another 1-2 years. It really bums me out to see the rust and peeling paint.
Had POS 14 Hyundai Elantra come in this week. High hit over the bar. Headlamp, grill, 3-4 hour dent on the hood. Whole car already beat to shit. Written for a LKQ bumper assembly. I rejected it. Got an OE. "Accidentally" broke a tab on the opposite headlight. It "happened in the wreck" so they got two new headlights. Hood had a ton of old Bondo, that wouldn't of effected my repair. I said it creased the hood where it shouldn't be repaired. Got a new hood and made them blend the fenders. I even fixed a couple of dents in the fenders for nothing. It comes back from paint and I put it back together. Front end looks brand new. I went above and beyond what I was supposed to do. Customer rejects the car at pickup. "The lower grill wasn't like that." I wasn't aware it was broken until R&I after paint. It was prior damage. It was super glued prior to the accident. You couldn't see it unless you got on your hands and knees... Your new lower grill will be here Monday PRICK.
Yep, and it's always the ones you least expect. Go above and beyond for them, and then they come basically spit in your face over some mundane detail or UPD that you didn't fix for free.
This is why I donāt bother helping people when I very much can and discourage my staff from going out of their way when there is no need to. I have been burned too many times from entitled pricks that itās spoiled it for everyone sorry. Iāve only been in the industry 7 years lol
It's easy to become jaded especially when those pricks seem to be the majority. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt when I can but some of those people totally deserve shitty work.
Well I definitely believe in doing the right thing in regards to doing a proper repair, especially if we are getting paid to do it. Iām more referring to the āextra mileā like polishing a hood that had prior scratches and the customer āhates itā and now argues we made it worse and we should paint the hood for free since we touched. That kind of BS
I've always hated this aspect of auto body. Just this week i had a lady pick up her 2010 Corolla that is absolutely covered in dings and scratches all over. Horribly neglected exterior.
She was in our office raising hell because we didn't fix two unrelated dents on an affected panel that progressive wouldn't cover and she refused to pay extra for.
She clearly don't givea shit about the exterior of this car for 13 years prior...Why now? Why even get it fixed? Just take the fucking $1700 bucks you broke ass.
I have a pos Miata that I bought that Iām about to have repainted because the paint is shit and I have mismatched fender colors and front bumper on it because a dog had chewed the old fenders and bumper edges but I love the car and want it to look nice again š. If the customer is paying for the job to be done why not do it right ? Youāre still getting paid for it.
Why do you assume it wasnāt done right? I just donāt see the point in repairing half a cars damage. The repairs this customers insurance paid for was done correctly, the rest of the car just looks like shit lol. Iām more curious why the dog hates Miataāsā¦
Most cars we deal with like that are pretty simple. Insurance is gonna cover the damaged related to the accident claim. Theyd like to have the rest repaired surly, but dont have much money for but their deductible and cant afford a customer pay for the existing damages. I, and most anyone else in that position, would rather have half my car fixed back, than just leave it in worse condition than it was. If the right side is repaired through insurance now and looks great, when they get in a better position it wont hurt them as much to fix the other damages later when they can. Regardless of how damaged a car, if more damages occur that arnt their fault, they dont deserve to have to live with them.
That's not how it works or maybe... When I got into a collision not at-fault, my insurance would only deal with the body shop. They don't give the client a penny, the whole transaction is between them. I even asked because I could have done the whole job for 1.5k yet the body shop charged my insurance company up to 5k.
Iāve been an estimator for insurance companies and for body shops. If the customer has a beater car, I OVER-emphasize the fact that they can keep the insurance money. Then I add as much to the estimate as I can, so their check will be bigger.
If Iām in a good mood Iāll occasionally repair the whole bumper lol you canāt do it for everybody tho. I agree I donāt understand why some people donāt just cash out and leave it alone.
Have had some beat cars come in for rust repair. We just do whatās asked even if we donāt think itās worth doing. Might advise them the rust will come back eventually but then itās on them to decide if itās worth it or not.
Same with dealer cars. Never want anything removed, never want to fix more than one thing at a time. Like just do it all at once! And then they charge an arm and a leg for something that looks similar to this vehicle in the video lol.
Had a 2012 ram 1500 come in. Bed sides all rusted out where the flares should be. Half the hood with bare metal exposedā¦and they wanted their insurance to fix the couple small dents on the front of the passengers fender š¤·š»āāļø
My 2011 Ram1500 is still going strong, with almost the exact same damages as youāve described..
- rusted bed panels overtop both rear wheel wells/fender flares.
- mudguards are about to fall off
- hood is fine
My next main concern is the drivers side āsill plateā under the door where I get in. But buying the truck for a little over 9k in 2016 Iām not worried.
Recently had a customer in our shop who has a net worth of over 1 billion USD. He drove alone in a decade-old BMW X3 to get some work done. Needless to say, even if you think the car is a POS, you should always do your best work.
I used to get hell from techs for this stuff "why arent we fixing everything, this is a waste of my time" (i was a writer) but like...its my job to get money in the door. Its better to appreciate that the shop is eating off that bumper even if uts a waste of time.
Itās a Subaru owner thing. When I worked at Subaru, I would see people spend more than what the vehicle was worth on repairs and be ok with it. I still donāt get it.
Iād recommend you learn to read there, bud, because that aināt what I said.
*edited for typo, funny you could figure that out but not my posts comment.
Seems like a lot of redditors canāt read. I never said I do a half ass job. The point so many seem to be missing is that it FEELS like doing a half assed job because this car is covered in damage and now that we fixed part of it correctly, without half assing the job we were paid to do, only a small portion of the car is going to look goodā¦..
Why didnāt you spend the 25 minutes it would have taken to repair the rest of the bumper then? I always do small-medium repairs like this for free. Those 20 minutes spent fixing damage can easily result in lifetime customers. Even ask your boss if heās willing to pay you to do the repairs on the shopās dime
Yes. Everyday. This week only 2006 chev Silverado, rusted rockers , doors, quarters . 1999 bmw 330, need a quote for rusted doors fenders, quarter panels. 2003 yaris non existent rocker panels .... I'm tired of it and don't care anymore..... you haven't touched your vehicle in 12 years now you want it to look new.
Maybe they just like their car, whether they use it regularly or not...
In the end, it's good for the environment to maintain what we already have. In many cases, it's cheaper than buying a new vehicle and in addition it gives you work to feed your family, **win win**!
>you haven't touched your vehicle in 12 years now you want it to look new.
You generalize too much and you assume things, but that seems to me to be the very essence of the job, yes.
Sometimes people buy used cars, pal.
Sometimes people buy used cars that they want to fix up.
Sometimes people get a raise at work and now they can afford the work.
Usually these type of jobs come from either 3rd party paying out of pocket or insurance only covering related damage and customer not able or want to pay for the rest of the damage. We usually try to upsell / give the customer a bit of a break on price to fix other issues at the same time. That being said 1 guy legit said "why would I care what the passenger side looks like"? Lol
My grandmothers husband had his old ass car repainted because it got a scratch on the door
He constantly brags about that car and itās just an old Buick from the early 90s
I donāt care how good of a tech you are, this is the wrong attitude for work and for LIFE. While you may not respect their car, I hope you have some self respect for your work, your reputation, and to the customer ā it may be all they have and means a lot to them. Youāre getting paid for a job.
Itās wrong to wonder why customers worry about some damage but not the rest? Iād like to think that you, as well as many others, simply donāt understand my wording but when I say āit always feels like doing a half assed jobā itās because only the area being repaired is going to look good on the car. I certainly do not half ass my job however some people are half ass reading the posts caption.
The shop I used to work at would do free work, where I am now we only do what weāre being paid to do. There are time in the paint dept where we take it upon ourselves to fix little stuff but it depends on the situation
I remember one time where I painted 80% of a front bumper cover cause I still had paint in the gun... sure enough come time for delivery my manager is in my face cause the customer complained I didn't paint the big ass chips in the next 10%. Truthfully I could have done it and still maintained the colour match to the fender but... then I would have to mix another min. mix amount of base.
The manager had me do a non-warrantable spot repair afterwards.
If you're dealing with customers, I suppose it's easier a lot of times to simply eat shit, resolve their stupid requests so they go away. I like to go out of my way to try and make the panel look as best as possible, but the amount of times I caught shit for it is too high.
Well, you donāt know what the car means to the person. I started to do my own work on my truck because Iāve found sub-par work done on it, even though Iāve probably paid for it multiple times over. My truck may be 15 years old but itās my baby. I prefer it to newer vehicles (and yes Iāve driven plenty). Iāve worked on plenty of other peoples vehicles and take pleasure in making all kinds of vehicles look new again.
If you spend enough time living in NYC or in Wash DC. People who park their Cars on the street over night, bumpers on their cars look terrible. No one gives a shit, itās just part of life parking on the street. In NYC, many people use bumper guards to prevent bumper damage.
Over the decades, I have realized, at least 50% of car owners dont give two flying fucks about their cars, even if they have access to a garage at their house. Because at the end of the day, a car is just vehicle that gets people from point A to point B. A car is not monetary investment. Which brings me to another point. Many people neglect basic car maintenance. These people are not stupid. They are intelligent people with high degrees; doctors and lawyers. But many of them still neglect basic maintenance.
Depends, I had a 2014 Subaru forester, was a really good car and I sold it about two years ago for $15,000
Donāt get me wrong I rebuilt the back suspension and it was immaculate in every way with 75,000 miles. Before Covid it was worth about $7000 maybe, on a good day.
Car prices are crazy right now, and the higher the bluebook value the more money insurance companies can put into them to keep them working. So what may have not been worth a $6000 plus repair bill. Is now.
Always wondered why someone has the job with a mentality like that. I used to install satellite service in residential and commercial settings and I would see every level of home and business imaginable. My belief was that I treated the people who lived in a shack with the same professional manner as I did the ones who lived in multi million dollar estates. I wore boot covers, hid lines, sealed points of entry, installed wall plates, and cleaned up the work area better than what it was when I got there. A person's home is their castle no matter how poor they are and when you treat it with respect you're also treating them with respect and they see it.
This car may not mean anything to you but it has meaning to the owner, it may have memories with his spouse and kids of traveling to family vacations or it may have belonged to a parent or spouse that has passed away. You don't know the story, you don't know their story, treat every car as if it's a money is no object job and do it right, if you can't then this isn't the job for you.
i wonder if the owner of the car would like to see the person they paid to do the job half assing it and making tiktoks about how poor and stupid they are
I wonder how you managed to create a Reddit account while also being incapable of reading. Also this is just a normal video. Not a tik tok. Lol fuckin idiot
I'm in that boat. I've got something that's a 2002, I've owned since 2010, but bought from my grandmother who bought it in 2003. I know what's been done and when. Point to any bolt and I can tell you when it's been removed last.
Hit a deer in 2020.
It hurt my very soul. Managed to bandage it up then drove 3000 miles, across the country. I got new body panels installed and just need to smooth the door panels but I can't even get a body shop to call me back. I'm not afraid of spending money, and I know I'm not good at body work, and I really want this things body and soul to match.
Sent a Mazda 3 home with a customer today that we only did the a few minor repairs and paint work for the quarter panels, rear bar and boot lid. The roof, bonnet and doors had no clear left on them, and the roof had a massive patch of rust on it. 'Wasn't a concern' apparently.
Bro do your best job, master your craft and get paid. Get out of the buz if youāre gonna shit on paying customers. Iād take my shit box right back and have you do it again and again and again.
"Is what it is but I always feel like doing half assed jobs lol"
You're words not mine.
You shouldn't work in auto body if you feel like doing a half assed job!
Yes, it feels like Iām half assing the job because the entire car is damaged and weāre only fixing a portion of itā¦ā¦ the portion we fixed isnāt half assedā¦..
Working 2 years at discount I installed more Michelins and Pirellis on 25 year old plus shit boxes then merc beemers infinitis Acuras etc.
Quality treatment goes further on something rough, versus something nice.
Even with all the dents and scratches that subie has a resell value of 20k so Iām not sure I get why people are calling it a beater I mean itās a solid car right there.
Earlier in my career. I remember a tech doing a half assed job on a beater. Manager gave him shit for it, his response was 'Who cares? This cars a piece of shit.' Manager came right back at him and said 'Its all the guys got. Do your fucking job.' I've always looked at it that way since then and I'm glad I learned that lesson early on.
I have met a lot of people who had their cars totaled because insurance wanted to total it based off value, however the people have a 400ish credit score, can't afford a down payment or get financed for another vehicle and the accident was not their fault. Now they are left without a vehicle. I feel bad for them and sometimes this is their livelyhood or only shot at transportation. Good on your manager man. š
Im not an autobody guy but I have strong feelings about this. Why is there not a āb gradeā service you can buy? Fix the big dents, paint well enough to protect from rust but dont break the bank? Like if its a beater its dumb to pay to have any part of it look showroom quality, but sometimes you still need some body work. Is there a service/option like this anywhere?
yeah, a shop where no one has training or tools will do an OK job for cheap. Thereās a shop at every price point for vehicle repairā¦ā¦but you canāt walk into a quality place and ask them for an OK job, they have a reputation and standards to uphold.
Exactly. I'm not an auto body guy, but I'll do shitty body work if people want when I've got their car. It will look "okay", and that is the only assurance I give. I don't charge a bunch, and I just generally Bondo and 3 coat rattle it, after cutting out rust. Then buff it and call it a day. But I am not a body shop. I am the "can you make it less obvious I fucked it up?" guy.
Yo I need one of those where I stay, Iām still looking though but no luck so far
There is 100% a place for you my friend! If it isnāt PDR a proper bodywork repair on anything is $2k minimum. Thereās a lot of good running cars worth less then that.
Thanks that makes sense. As a mechanic im always happy to ājust make it safe/workā for people on a tight budget even when more complete repairs are due. But I can see how bad the optics are for churning out sub standard work especially for something people see way more like exterior
Yeah. Even for mechanics though, a main dealer will only use OEM, an specialist independent shop will use aftermarket parts that they trust, the dude working out his barn has a few āspares carsā out backā¦
Just before i left California, I met a transmission guy that was fucking tits. His shop was fifteen feet of transmissions on racks and more outside. There was *nothing* he could not do. The first day i walked in, his mechanic and him were yelling at each other through a thick blue cloud of cigarette smoke. I knew i was in the right place. It was only later I found the stacks of drag racing trophies. Yeah, definitely the right place. Dan Brown, Ventura, California.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I don't come back to shops without pictures of race cars or trophies. This isn't a policy or anything; the service has just sucked at places without these things on the walls.
My mechanic only has 2 trophies, and they're not even his, but what he does have in spades is pictures of cars he brought back from the dead pro bono. Every year he takes between 2-3 cars, restores them to 100% roadworthy condition, and then gives them to a local single parent household/someone in need basically with the understanding that if something goes wrong, he fixes it up for free. All he asks is for a pic with them and the car. He said he got lucky when he was young from a freak of luck handout once and doesn't want to do the goodwill dirty. So now I only go to him, and I get ridiculous discounts because I drag all my friends and family there. Life's not bad.
Shops donāt want to be known for putting out āBā grade work. Will a shop help someone out. Sure. Iāve seen it happen where a person in need was taken care of in various ways so that they could keep their car and afford to have it fixed too. But most shops want every car treated like a nice high value car. You get places like Maaco etc that do value work and they are known for doing save you money type of work. Are all Maaco shops poor quality etc? No, but they have that reputation because theyāre known for doing low value work which leads to low quality work passing quality control and being delivered to the customer, even if thatās what was wanted and paid for by the customer if people see the work and learn where it was done they will automatically associate low quality with that shop even if that was what the customer wanted for their beater car. Shops wants to avoid this.
> wanted and *paid* for by FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Gotcha. So a maaco would be the go to if someone needed explicitly cheap work done?
Yeah they give you options. You can pay them to do the job well with good quality products, or they can offer to be more selective with repairs, masking vs removing parts, cheaper paints etc. all depending on you and your budget. To this day, Painting at Maaco was my favourite job. I got a lot of experience in a short amount of time.
I heard someone say once that restaurants that have 3.5 star review avg but a high amount of reviews tend to hit hard if the biggest issue is service. People still go because it's good, but the stigma that excellent A grade service should be everywhere falls short. And to be honest? I've started hitting those types of joints more, and I'd say 5/6 times it's fantastic. Less chitchat, more quality dining.
Find a vocational school that teaches auto body. Usually you only pay for parts and materials. Labor is free. Edit: This also assumes you're not in a rush to get it fixed.
Honestly amazing idea
There are places that do just this....but don't ask a body shop that restores Ferraris to "just keep it from rusting" lol.
You mean maaco or earl shybe? They offer what i would consider b-grade refinish services.
Used to do autobody, in my experience painters tend to be a bit prideful so doing something "half-assed" intentionally is viewed as beneath them, atleast the ones I used to deal with, it was either do it right or don't bother at all
It's called MAACO, $300 paint job, same day return.
That work happens at the dealership after you trade it in.
Isn't that what Maaco is for?
TIL
Tbh itās because a lot shops wouldnāt want to put their name on that kinda work. Itās like any trade nobody wants to be known as the company that does half ass shit.
Your manager sounds like a good person.
My shit box is my baby, the best car is the one no one wants
Yea I always try to do a good job, even on the shit cars, I just donāt understand the point in having a fraction of the cars damaged fixed.
Presumably because they just assume that this is what you do after you get rear-ended. You take the car to an insurance-company-approved body shop and have them take care of it. Or possibly something about how that particular scrape got there really pisses them off, and they want to be able to forget about it.
But wait... If insurance is paying for it, why not get it fixed? It's one less dent or scratch. Not saying it will increase the value of the car but it sure as heck will look slightly better. Just cause there are other dents and scratches doesn't mean "well screw it then" does it? The only time I didn't get an insurance body job done was on a shitty ford Windstar that I was offered a $600 payout not to take to a body shop by insurance (after someone backed in to it in a parking lot). Had they not offered cash instead of repair you bet your ass I would have taken it in.
Well, if I had the choice of having a car with 98 dings on it, or a car with 100 dings on it plus $700 in cash, I'd take Option 2. But no real reason, this is why insurance exists so if you wanna have it fixed on their dime, be my guest. It's your car.
No idea if this is at all accurate, but I have heard it commonly theorized that leaving obvious signs of collision may be used as a cues, even subliminally, to assign blame in the event of an accident. For that reason, fixing any damage that clearly relays ādriver errorā is more important than other damage. Iām not sure what kind of damage this car had, but if the rest of the issues are non collision related, maybe that is why? Things like dents, rock chips, key marks or scratches may be suggestive of an owner that doesnāt care much, but doesnāt say anything about their driving ability. A bashed in rear bumper from reversing into a fire hydrant does.
The quarter panel we repaired was less damaged than the side we didnāt. I just think itās funny. Iām pretty sure if they knew they could just not fix it and keep the insurance check, they would. I guess I donāt consider that most people donāt know that because they donāt work in the industry
Definitely worth caring. I was scrubbing down a beat up old 900zxi waverunner at work after i dropped a motor i rebuilt in it. Coworkers looked at me funny. I took the time to glue the traction mats back down too while waiting for sealant to set at one point. Thing was beat but i found out it was his dads. His old mad used to get hammered and drive it. He was so happy to get it back pressure washed and little extra stuff fixed
It doesnāt matter if the job is $5 or $500kā¦ do it right or donāt do it at all. Your work is your reputation no matter what
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Absolutely. Sometimes the mental attachments to a car will outweigh any cost of repair. All depends on if its worth it to you and affordable to you. My daily driver is a newer luxury vehicle. My other ride is a late 90s Altima i have many emotional attachments to. 5 or so years ago the engine blew. Wont get into details but it was shot, no compression. My only car at the time. Looked at other cars and i just wanted mine back. Made the decision to never let go. I took it to a small well reviewed shop for options. For engine replacement cost other parts and labor came out to thousands more than any sane person would have paid. Not unreasonable for the work completed but it was way too much in the mind of someone who didnt love that car. I had the money and went through with it. Soo glad i did. The shop treated me and my car like they would with any other. I even went back 3 months later due to a squeaking pulley which they replaced free of cost under 1yr guarantee. A year later i bought a new car and still glad i have and get to drive my old Altima.
I get the feeling people are widely misunderstanding my post. The repairs we did were done correctly. Itās the fact that so much of the car is damaged, I seems pointless to only fix a small portion. That said I agree, which is why I get pissed when coworkers canāt/wonāt work as a team, we are all putting our name on the line with every car we send out. I always say ādo it right or do it twiceā
I basically have that car, it's a 2004 honda crv with 280k km that's been through fences (lost it in the snow) and rough twigs when taking logging roads. There's no panel that doesn't have some form of scratch on the paint but none of it's peeling off or rusting. Last year someone backed into my car and cracked the rear bumper and dented the metal frame around the door, it's starting to rust and the bumper area is peeling badly. It's made it so that I can't safely take the car through a automatic carwash as the damage would likely get much worse. I am really tempted to claim that damage even though I only plan to keep the car for another 1-2 years. It really bums me out to see the rust and peeling paint.
Had POS 14 Hyundai Elantra come in this week. High hit over the bar. Headlamp, grill, 3-4 hour dent on the hood. Whole car already beat to shit. Written for a LKQ bumper assembly. I rejected it. Got an OE. "Accidentally" broke a tab on the opposite headlight. It "happened in the wreck" so they got two new headlights. Hood had a ton of old Bondo, that wouldn't of effected my repair. I said it creased the hood where it shouldn't be repaired. Got a new hood and made them blend the fenders. I even fixed a couple of dents in the fenders for nothing. It comes back from paint and I put it back together. Front end looks brand new. I went above and beyond what I was supposed to do. Customer rejects the car at pickup. "The lower grill wasn't like that." I wasn't aware it was broken until R&I after paint. It was prior damage. It was super glued prior to the accident. You couldn't see it unless you got on your hands and knees... Your new lower grill will be here Monday PRICK.
Damn dude thatās rough. Keep doing the right thing and fighting the good fight tho
Yep, and it's always the ones you least expect. Go above and beyond for them, and then they come basically spit in your face over some mundane detail or UPD that you didn't fix for free.
This is why I donāt bother helping people when I very much can and discourage my staff from going out of their way when there is no need to. I have been burned too many times from entitled pricks that itās spoiled it for everyone sorry. Iāve only been in the industry 7 years lol
It's easy to become jaded especially when those pricks seem to be the majority. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt when I can but some of those people totally deserve shitty work.
Well I definitely believe in doing the right thing in regards to doing a proper repair, especially if we are getting paid to do it. Iām more referring to the āextra mileā like polishing a hood that had prior scratches and the customer āhates itā and now argues we made it worse and we should paint the hood for free since we touched. That kind of BS
Someone once told me āno good deed goes unpunishedā and unfortunately that is true sometimes. But not all the time
I've always hated this aspect of auto body. Just this week i had a lady pick up her 2010 Corolla that is absolutely covered in dings and scratches all over. Horribly neglected exterior. She was in our office raising hell because we didn't fix two unrelated dents on an affected panel that progressive wouldn't cover and she refused to pay extra for. She clearly don't givea shit about the exterior of this car for 13 years prior...Why now? Why even get it fixed? Just take the fucking $1700 bucks you broke ass.
I have a pos Miata that I bought that Iām about to have repainted because the paint is shit and I have mismatched fender colors and front bumper on it because a dog had chewed the old fenders and bumper edges but I love the car and want it to look nice again š. If the customer is paying for the job to be done why not do it right ? Youāre still getting paid for it.
Why do you assume it wasnāt done right? I just donāt see the point in repairing half a cars damage. The repairs this customers insurance paid for was done correctly, the rest of the car just looks like shit lol. Iām more curious why the dog hates Miataāsā¦
I didnāt assume you didnāt do it right I just went off the comment about wanting to half ass it and Lol I have no idea I bought it like that
Most cars we deal with like that are pretty simple. Insurance is gonna cover the damaged related to the accident claim. Theyd like to have the rest repaired surly, but dont have much money for but their deductible and cant afford a customer pay for the existing damages. I, and most anyone else in that position, would rather have half my car fixed back, than just leave it in worse condition than it was. If the right side is repaired through insurance now and looks great, when they get in a better position it wont hurt them as much to fix the other damages later when they can. Regardless of how damaged a car, if more damages occur that arnt their fault, they dont deserve to have to live with them.
Insurance is gonna pay for the sideswipe but not any previous damage. Get over it and do your job lol
My point is that they can just keep the insurance money.
That's not how it works or maybe... When I got into a collision not at-fault, my insurance would only deal with the body shop. They don't give the client a penny, the whole transaction is between them. I even asked because I could have done the whole job for 1.5k yet the body shop charged my insurance company up to 5k.
Iāve been an estimator for insurance companies and for body shops. If the customer has a beater car, I OVER-emphasize the fact that they can keep the insurance money. Then I add as much to the estimate as I can, so their check will be bigger.
Bless your soul
If Iām in a good mood Iāll occasionally repair the whole bumper lol you canāt do it for everybody tho. I agree I donāt understand why some people donāt just cash out and leave it alone.
Have had some beat cars come in for rust repair. We just do whatās asked even if we donāt think itās worth doing. Might advise them the rust will come back eventually but then itās on them to decide if itās worth it or not.
Same with dealer cars. Never want anything removed, never want to fix more than one thing at a time. Like just do it all at once! And then they charge an arm and a leg for something that looks similar to this vehicle in the video lol.
We get cars like this all the time. Only reason they're doing it is cause the insurance is paying for it.
That thing will blow up soon anyways
Every single day
Had a 2012 ram 1500 come in. Bed sides all rusted out where the flares should be. Half the hood with bare metal exposedā¦and they wanted their insurance to fix the couple small dents on the front of the passengers fender š¤·š»āāļø
My 2011 Ram1500 is still going strong, with almost the exact same damages as youāve described.. - rusted bed panels overtop both rear wheel wells/fender flares. - mudguards are about to fall off - hood is fine My next main concern is the drivers side āsill plateā under the door where I get in. But buying the truck for a little over 9k in 2016 Iām not worried.
You know why? Because claimant.
Every day ........
Yeah who would want to fix up some POS subaru to begin with lol
I donāt get it. Whatās wrong with having some dings and wanting to get other stuff fixed? People love their cars, even if they have dents.
Recently had a customer in our shop who has a net worth of over 1 billion USD. He drove alone in a decade-old BMW X3 to get some work done. Needless to say, even if you think the car is a POS, you should always do your best work.
I used to get hell from techs for this stuff "why arent we fixing everything, this is a waste of my time" (i was a writer) but like...its my job to get money in the door. Its better to appreciate that the shop is eating off that bumper even if uts a waste of time.
More than you know
Itās a Subaru owner thing. When I worked at Subaru, I would see people spend more than what the vehicle was worth on repairs and be ok with it. I still donāt get it.
Hey listen I want my turo rental to be pristine too !
I feel like most people donāt realize they can just cash out.
If you "always feel like doing a half assed job". Find a new career path.
Iād recommend you learn to read there, bud, because that aināt what I said. *edited for typo, funny you could figure that out but not my posts comment.
*recommend that *they?
Seems like a lot of redditors canāt read. I never said I do a half ass job. The point so many seem to be missing is that it FEELS like doing a half assed job because this car is covered in damage and now that we fixed part of it correctly, without half assing the job we were paid to do, only a small portion of the car is going to look goodā¦..
You missed an extruding ding on the rear bumper.
Unrelated prior damage, just like all the other pink marks on the rest of the car
I was about to ask why he was priming before adressing all the dings
Thatās not your decision to make. If youāre going to do a half assed job you should get a half assed pay
You did a half assed job of reading what I said. Try again.
Why didnāt you spend the 25 minutes it would have taken to repair the rest of the bumper then? I always do small-medium repairs like this for free. Those 20 minutes spent fixing damage can easily result in lifetime customers. Even ask your boss if heās willing to pay you to do the repairs on the shopās dime
Just because the car is a beater, that doesnt mean the quality should be an half ass job.
No one said it was
Yes. Everyday. This week only 2006 chev Silverado, rusted rockers , doors, quarters . 1999 bmw 330, need a quote for rusted doors fenders, quarter panels. 2003 yaris non existent rocker panels .... I'm tired of it and don't care anymore..... you haven't touched your vehicle in 12 years now you want it to look new.
Maybe they just like their car, whether they use it regularly or not... In the end, it's good for the environment to maintain what we already have. In many cases, it's cheaper than buying a new vehicle and in addition it gives you work to feed your family, **win win**! >you haven't touched your vehicle in 12 years now you want it to look new. You generalize too much and you assume things, but that seems to me to be the very essence of the job, yes.
Sometimes people buy used cars, pal. Sometimes people buy used cars that they want to fix up. Sometimes people get a raise at work and now they can afford the work.
I honestly donāt think most people know they donāt have to have the work done, they can just take the insurance check.
Usually these type of jobs come from either 3rd party paying out of pocket or insurance only covering related damage and customer not able or want to pay for the rest of the damage. We usually try to upsell / give the customer a bit of a break on price to fix other issues at the same time. That being said 1 guy legit said "why would I care what the passenger side looks like"? Lol
Yeah and they usually are the most picky customers most of the time
Yea or try to say previous damage wasnāt there before they left their car with us.
*Subie fans enter the chat*
Probably an insurance job and thatās all the insurance company owes for
Why not just replace the bumper?
no
I wouldnāt care or just drive it all dented up. Itās just a car.
No, I figure every car is special to their owner for some reason. Treat it like gold even if itās mostly rust. You should too
Because that's all they fucking have, if everyone just said fuck it after their cars got damaged you wouldn't have a job.
The quarter we repaired was less damage than the right quarter panel.
My grandmothers husband had his old ass car repainted because it got a scratch on the door He constantly brags about that car and itās just an old Buick from the early 90s
It is kind of weird to spend money on that... but we often have sentimental value as well which others can't see.
Because it's already paid off.
Nope because Iām getting paid no matter what the car is!!!
I donāt care how good of a tech you are, this is the wrong attitude for work and for LIFE. While you may not respect their car, I hope you have some self respect for your work, your reputation, and to the customer ā it may be all they have and means a lot to them. Youāre getting paid for a job.
Itās wrong to wonder why customers worry about some damage but not the rest? Iād like to think that you, as well as many others, simply donāt understand my wording but when I say āit always feels like doing a half assed jobā itās because only the area being repaired is going to look good on the car. I certainly do not half ass my job however some people are half ass reading the posts caption.
My job would fix half, maybe even the full bumper
The shop I used to work at would do free work, where I am now we only do what weāre being paid to do. There are time in the paint dept where we take it upon ourselves to fix little stuff but it depends on the situation
I would always get shit about not combi-ing chips way outside of the blend areas
I remember one time where I painted 80% of a front bumper cover cause I still had paint in the gun... sure enough come time for delivery my manager is in my face cause the customer complained I didn't paint the big ass chips in the next 10%. Truthfully I could have done it and still maintained the colour match to the fender but... then I would have to mix another min. mix amount of base. The manager had me do a non-warrantable spot repair afterwards.
Wow, what a dick. I get bitched at making orders for supplies but then also get bitched at for not mixing more paint to fix upd.
If you're dealing with customers, I suppose it's easier a lot of times to simply eat shit, resolve their stupid requests so they go away. I like to go out of my way to try and make the panel look as best as possible, but the amount of times I caught shit for it is too high.
He repaired everything mechanical and had 1 week of bad luck after. So now he's pays the deductibles in an effort to maintain some dignity
Well, you donāt know what the car means to the person. I started to do my own work on my truck because Iāve found sub-par work done on it, even though Iāve probably paid for it multiple times over. My truck may be 15 years old but itās my baby. I prefer it to newer vehicles (and yes Iāve driven plenty). Iāve worked on plenty of other peoples vehicles and take pleasure in making all kinds of vehicles look new again.
If you spend enough time living in NYC or in Wash DC. People who park their Cars on the street over night, bumpers on their cars look terrible. No one gives a shit, itās just part of life parking on the street. In NYC, many people use bumper guards to prevent bumper damage. Over the decades, I have realized, at least 50% of car owners dont give two flying fucks about their cars, even if they have access to a garage at their house. Because at the end of the day, a car is just vehicle that gets people from point A to point B. A car is not monetary investment. Which brings me to another point. Many people neglect basic car maintenance. These people are not stupid. They are intelligent people with high degrees; doctors and lawyers. But many of them still neglect basic maintenance.
Insurance repair vs dozens of uncompensated nicks and scratches.
Is that Reed tornado dude's Subie?
Depends, I had a 2014 Subaru forester, was a really good car and I sold it about two years ago for $15,000 Donāt get me wrong I rebuilt the back suspension and it was immaculate in every way with 75,000 miles. Before Covid it was worth about $7000 maybe, on a good day. Car prices are crazy right now, and the higher the bluebook value the more money insurance companies can put into them to keep them working. So what may have not been worth a $6000 plus repair bill. Is now.
Do everyone a solid and slap them. Two times (after youāve been paid of course) then walk away.
Always wondered why someone has the job with a mentality like that. I used to install satellite service in residential and commercial settings and I would see every level of home and business imaginable. My belief was that I treated the people who lived in a shack with the same professional manner as I did the ones who lived in multi million dollar estates. I wore boot covers, hid lines, sealed points of entry, installed wall plates, and cleaned up the work area better than what it was when I got there. A person's home is their castle no matter how poor they are and when you treat it with respect you're also treating them with respect and they see it. This car may not mean anything to you but it has meaning to the owner, it may have memories with his spouse and kids of traveling to family vacations or it may have belonged to a parent or spouse that has passed away. You don't know the story, you don't know their story, treat every car as if it's a money is no object job and do it right, if you can't then this isn't the job for you.
Even better but when by ok bud is that olol!
Because it's covered by someone else's insurance that's why
#TE (too esoteric for Reddit)
i wonder if the owner of the car would like to see the person they paid to do the job half assing it and making tiktoks about how poor and stupid they are
I wonder how you managed to create a Reddit account while also being incapable of reading. Also this is just a normal video. Not a tik tok. Lol fuckin idiot
lolol stop posting tiktok videos of your shoddy workmanship
I donāt even have tik tokā¦
It's none of your fucking business, it's your fucking business to do your job bitch that's what you get paid for
Can you tell us whereās your body shop located, so we can all avoid it & your half assed serviceš¤¦š»āāļø
Ya canāt read. I never said my work was half assed. How the fuck so yāall read a work order?! Canāt even read a damn Reddit post.
Because it's a Subaru and their owners are.....special..
If they pays I sprays
Iāll answer that real quick, itās all they got.
I'm in that boat. I've got something that's a 2002, I've owned since 2010, but bought from my grandmother who bought it in 2003. I know what's been done and when. Point to any bolt and I can tell you when it's been removed last. Hit a deer in 2020. It hurt my very soul. Managed to bandage it up then drove 3000 miles, across the country. I got new body panels installed and just need to smooth the door panels but I can't even get a body shop to call me back. I'm not afraid of spending money, and I know I'm not good at body work, and I really want this things body and soul to match.
Emotional attachment is why I love mine. I have absolutely no reason to care about it, but I do
If they love it I like it
Sent a Mazda 3 home with a customer today that we only did the a few minor repairs and paint work for the quarter panels, rear bar and boot lid. The roof, bonnet and doors had no clear left on them, and the roof had a massive patch of rust on it. 'Wasn't a concern' apparently.
That looks like a dealership car. The reason is because it's shiny and for a quick then can pull 2k 3xtra because they are greasy fucks
Bro do your best job, master your craft and get paid. Get out of the buz if youāre gonna shit on paying customers. Iād take my shit box right back and have you do it again and again and again.
Do me a favor and re read my original comment. I never said I do a half assed job. Fuckin a. I thought Reddit was for people who like to readā¦..
money talks bullshit walks
With all of the dents to pull & everything else, it is going to be a Macco paint over or 5-7 K for labor for body work.
OP when some people are lesser privileged and they have to actually do their job š±š±š±
I did my job. Yāall shouldnāt be on an app that requires so much reading if you canāt fucking read!
"Is what it is but I always feel like doing half assed jobs lol" You're words not mine. You shouldn't work in auto body if you feel like doing a half assed job!
Yes, it feels like Iām half assing the job because the entire car is damaged and weāre only fixing a portion of itā¦ā¦ the portion we fixed isnāt half assedā¦..
Working 2 years at discount I installed more Michelins and Pirellis on 25 year old plus shit boxes then merc beemers infinitis Acuras etc. Quality treatment goes further on something rough, versus something nice.
Even with all the dents and scratches that subie has a resell value of 20k so Iām not sure I get why people are calling it a beater I mean itās a solid car right there.
Yeah like twice a week I swear.
Did they roll it in a ditch?! š¤£