I'm back! Fake-Benz content inside (SRT-6)

[OSSHWA]

Damn, that sucks to hear. Hope that they end up fixing it and doing a good job... from the pics it sure looked amazing so far.

That's always the risk with paintjobs though... after all, painters are just human as well,

Yeah, and while I understand that, I expect better given the amount of time they had with the car and the money I spent. I paid a comparable amount for the paintjob (including rust repair) on my old Miata and it was basically flawless. Unfortunately that particular bodyshop has an awful sense of customer service but that's a whole different story.

But i'm not going to drop the ball just yet. I will give them the opportunity to make things right. Springfest is coming up (June 6th) so unfortunately there is a deadline. If the car isn't right by standards come then, then it'll be time to turn up the heat.

[Dr.AK]

Damn, that sucks to hear. Hope that they end up fixing it and doing a good job... from the pics it sure looked amazing so far.

That's always the risk with paintjobs though... after all, painters are just human as well,

[OSSHWA]

So I got the car back, but i'm not totally happy. I am actually bringing the car back to the shop tonight to drop it off for another week or so in hopes that it'll be "100%" when I get it back. But before I go into full bitch-mode, let me first speak to what I felt turned out great.

The front fender repair, rear badge shaving, repainted door handles and the overall color turned out great. The Obsidian Black Metallic looks great in the light and the fenders/door handles look brand new again.

However....while the paint and bodywork on the car look great, there are quite a few little imperfections in the clearcoat. Little dot impression marks here and there, a few little "squiggles" and a few dry spots along some of the seams/edges. The car also has some hazey spots which would appear that the car just needs to be buffed a few more times. Now, to the painter's defense, he was using a new paint booth (he recently relocated to a new facility) as well as a new paint gun. But they had my car for 5 weeks so I was expecting a flawless paintjob. Now, I haven't lost total faith yet - he has agreed to have me bring the car back tonight for him to work on these little impefections, most of which are in the clearcoat and can be fixed with minimal work/downtime. But I will admit that I am a bit discouraged. I was super picky when it came to picking a shop to paint my car as I wanted to avoid this situation from happening. But here it is over a month following me originally dropping the car off and I am still not totally satisfied. So that's where i'm at. I'll throw up a few pictures from this past weekend (I actually drove the car to an event for the first time this year) and provide more updates once I get the car back sometime next week, hopefully with less flaws.

[OSSHWA]

is the silver the same as the windshield frame?

I only had the door handles repainted. The windshield frame and side strakes were both in perfect condition. So essentially the door handles will be a different shade of silver. But like I said, I am going to see if it's even visually noticeable and if it is I will fork over the extra $$$ to get them resprayed the OEM color.

[hinrichs]

is the silver the same as the windshield frame?

[OSSHWA]

I love this thing. I can't wait to see it once you get it back!

Thanks man! I am meeting up with a friend of mine for a photoshoot next weekend so hopefully i'll have some good pictures to share soon.

While i'm here, here is the next round of upgrades/changes I have planned.

* DIY radiator cooling panel
* Neon SRT-4 boost gauge (getting it for free!)
* European market side-markers
* Weichers Sport front strut brace
* Needswings cat-delete downpipes
* Custom resonator delete (maybe)

[DeMaroE46]

I love this thing. I can't wait to see it once you get it back!

[OSSHWA]

There's a nasty yellow vert Crossfire parked at a local hole in the wall dealership in the town I go to school in and I always think of this car when I pass it. Fantastic work, they aren't very appealing stock. Your car proves otherwise.

Nasty as in cool, or nasty as in fugly? lol

Anywho, time for a much needed update. So....I had anticipated on picking the car up this past Saturday and here it is Tuesday and....you guessed it, still haven't gotten it back. I'm pretty bummed out because I wound up not being able to bring the car to the Los Goonies x Tuner Evolution Panda Junction event which ended up being a huge event So many big name blogs/websites were there covering the event (Stance:Nation, Slammedenuff, StanceLyfe, #FoundTheBooty, United States of Stance, Lowered Lifestyle, etc etc.) so it would have been rad to get some snaps of it with the new paintjob. But alas, life goes on. Springfest is just over a month away and it'll definitely be ready in time for that.

Ultimately the shop painting the car just didn't feel that the car would be ready in time for this past weekend because the clearcoat hadn't cured/hardened enough for them to properly wetsand/buff the car and needless to say, they didn't want me to take delivery of a car with a tacky clearcoat that wasn't properly wetsanded/buffed. They said that "good things come to those who wait" so i'm really hoping and expecting this paintjob to be top notch. On a side note, I was also having the door handles repsprayed their OEM color (it's some sort of Benz silver) due to them chipping/flaking. Sadly, the paint needed to respray just the door handles would have cost more than the paint needed to spray the rest of the entire car. (Wtf, right?) The shop said they had some left over Apex Silver paint laying around (It's the silver color for Evo's) and offered to hit them with that paint instead of me paying essentially an extra $80-$100 just to paint my door handles. They are both fine silver metallics so hopefully it'll be a close enough match, but if not I can always bring the car back to them and fork over the extra $$$ to get them painted the OEM color. Anywho, I am expecting to pick the car up this Thursday but i'm not holding my breath being as the deadline has been pushed back several times at this point. But I suppose you can't rush a good paintjob. Here are some updated pictures that he sent me Saturday evening.



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[Dremetos]

There's a nasty yellow vert Crossfire parked at a local hole in the wall dealership in the town I go to school in and I always think of this car when I pass it. Fantastic work, they aren't very appealing stock. Your car proves otherwise.

[OSSHWA]

Ill be waiting impatiently for pics bruh.

Soon!

Looks good, Chris does some nice work. Should be clean when its done!

Yeah, i'm friends with quite a few painters around the area but Chris seemed the most confident at the custom bodywork I wanted done. Plus he's just an all around laid back nice guy so I figured i'd bring it to him to get the work done.

just finished reading this whole thread and i gotta give you major props for making this thing look sick. i love that you want to be different from everyone. gotta express yourself in the raddest way possible am i right?

Appreciate it man! And yeah, that was definitely the idea behind this car. Since buying this car I have gottend ALOT of messages on IG, facebook, the Crossfire forum, etc. from fanboy's trying to basically replicate the look of my car.....lol. I feed them little bread crumbs here and there but i'm not trying to just give out all of my info and have a bunch of doppleganger SRT-6's roaming about.

[ihate0sc]

just finished reading this whole thread and i gotta give you major props for making this thing look sick. i love that you want to be different from everyone. gotta express yourself in the raddest way possible am i right?

[JASOONIGAN]

Looks good, Chris does some nice work. Should be clean when its done!

[SnazzyQ]

Ill be waiting impatiently for pics bruh.

[OSSHWA]

Tomorrow!

[hinrichs]

cant wait to see the paint finished