Nicco

Recently my car was hit while parked, I had a guy recommended to me do the repairs, however I am not happy with the work. I may have to bring it to another body shop, or try and have him redo the work, but that is a sticky situation because I will be expecting someone who did a poor job the first time, to do a good job the second time when they will be losing money on the job from having to do it over. It is kind of a mess.

There is a place near by where I can source a fender off of another CTS, but do the non V CTS come in the same silver as the Vs? I am thinking, instead of having this guy try and tweak metal back to its original state, replacing the fender with a non bent one that still has factory paint might be a better option. Right now I have a poorly repainted fender that is still tweaked a bit from not being repaired right. Add on to that there is overspray from the clear that got on my windshield and windows I am not a happy camper.

If the color does match, and I can get an undamaged fender, is it easy to replace? I have replaced fenders before on tuner cars, it was fairly easy, just a few bolts and you're done. Here it looks similar, but there are a bunch of plastic fasteners and what not, I am assuming I would just remove the plastic fasteners, unbolt the fender, bolt on the new fender, and reapply the plastic fasteners?

FuzzyLog1c

iTrader: (4)

Fenders are easy to replace. There are a few bolts inside the door jamb that you need to undo, and a pair of bolts hidden by the front lower rocker panel. I would not count on the paint matching--I went through this on my red CTS-V a couple of years back using a fender from a slightly older red CTS-V. The replacement panel was significantly darker/more faded than the rest of the car, and I had to get the whole thing repainted to get it to match. The other annoying part was that, in removing the fasteners in the door jams, the paint stripped off the bolts and had to be redone to look right.

Nicco

Yea that sounds like it could easily turn into a nightmare. My car is Silver so I would assume the Silver would not mismatch as much as red, but yea you are right, even a slight fade will make the whole fender stand out. What a nightmare this is turning into, I just want my car back as close to factory standards as possible, is there such thing as good body work anymore?

crazy tarzan

Apparently not. And this drives me nuts, since I went through a custom/hot rodding degree in school.

Seems everyone is too worried about the $$$ vs the quality .

If you get mine in the sun you can see all the bondo on the hood and drivers side of the car (not even sanded properly). Had the same issues on an audi wagon I purchased (though it was dirt cheap).


Guess I'm trying to say, you're not the only one less than excited about poorly done bodywork.

I'll eventually replace the whole drivers side of body panels, and maybe I'll get a different hood and use this one for experiments

Nicco

Yes I do believe good body shops exist, it's just tough to find them. I know it is 100% possible to do custom paintwork and have it turn out right, I see it all the time at car shows. Hot rods with factory reflections, absolutely gorgeous clears. I will probaby take it to a custom car shop that does hot rods and restorations one day when I feel like getting everything back to factory.

BudRacing

iTrader: (3)

Unless you're in the auto business in a particular city it's tough to know the good shops off-hand. I would stop by a high-end dealer of sorts--Land Rover, Jaguar, Mercedes, etc and ask them who they use.

RADEoN

iTrader: (12)

I don't want to hear anyone talking about bad body work.

voodoochikin04

iTrader: (3)

Wtf Kevin... what's that from?? Lol.

jmilz28

iTrader: (13)

There are good body shops out there, most of them I have seen are well thought of dealers or custom shops but I have seen some chain locations that do good work. Most don't want to pay for the quality they want and often only insurance jobs (closely monitored) or custom jobs get the scrutiny needed to achieve happiness. No shortcuts I know of to find a good shop, just doing the legwork and scouring reviews, actual jobs, and word of mouth. Because it's so labor intensive, by the time you find a good shop, your overall cost should be in the same ballpark regardless of the kind of shop it is. Good luck man, don't feel alone.