I dropped my front bumper off at the auto body shop to have it repainted. I did this on Thursday... No dents/dings to repair, I just needed it repainted. Friday morning (around 10:00am) I stopped up there to ask the shop a question and they were sanding my bumper... They said it was going to be ready on Tuesday. I just checked my work voicemail and they called at 3:30 on Friday and said the bumper was ready? What the heck? How could they apply the paint/clearcoat in one day? Is this possible? Am I getting screwed here? I plan on going up their monday morning first thing and get it...Any insight into this so I am prepared when I go up their to dispute getting it done right?

They estimated the refinish as

3.8 hours of labor... and are using an ADP TWO-STAGE REFINISH FORMULA..

Does that explain why it was done so quick? I thought two stage meant one for paint and one for clearcoat...

Am I getting screwed here?? It's a big collision/body shop not some fly by night organization...Any help would be appreciated from the experts!!

Frank

 

Why don't you wait until you see the end result and find out their warranty on paint work first before worrying if it was done right.

 

If it took more than a day, I'd be worried. Especially if they're a big shop.

 

Guys,

Thanx for the explanation... I'm by no means a bodyshop guru. It just seemed weird to me that they could get it done in one day. Especially when they said 3 days. Anyway, I got the bumper back and it looks great... Can't wax it for 6-8 weeks but it looks tremendous. And as for as letting them know how good a job they did, I didn't have a chance... They called me today to make sure "I was satisfied with the job". I couldn't believe it. What service... Hard to find these days.

Once again, thanx for all the replies...

 

The "3 days" was to give them time to work it in to their schedule.

 

Yeah, a bodyshop can sand, paint and clear a bumper in about 4 hours. With plastic/urethane that's already got paint on it, they don't need to put the flex-primer on, just the color with adhesion promoter and flex-base, then dry (1.5 hr) then clear (1.5 hr). Then they MIGHT (probably not) wetsand and buff any crap out of the paint.

That's for OEM stuff, for show cars and stuff like that you're looking at a lot more steps.

 

Frank, The TWO-Stage (or two pack) is the type of paint. All modern car finishes use color-clear. There are a large number of grades of two-stage paint, and you definitely get what you pay for when choosing paint formulas.

 

So is that a good thing or bad thing (that they used a tow-stage paint)? (Sorry for my stupidity here)...

 

Definately a good thing. There's two basic types of paint on cars today, two stage and three stage. Most are two stage, stage one is the color, stage two is the clear. A three stage paint process is one with an additional step, such as a pearl coat. For example, my wife's Renegade is "Dark Khaki Pearl Coat" It's a 3 stage, meaning that when they put it on, they first spray the color(1), then the pearl for effect (2), then finish it off w/ clear(3).

Got it?