flyer351

I finally dropped my car off this week to get the frame repainted. I let my leaking brake fluid go about two months without checking it and was greeted last week to bubbling paint under the vacumn reservoir.

The dealership has no body shop so they are sending my car off site to have it disassembled and repainted. I'm not happy with the solution, but it's better than letting the blistering paint sit.

I'm concerned about the body shop's capability to rip apart the AC lines and brake system properly to access the frame to repaint. For those who had their frame repainted, what was your experience? After opening up the AC system to outside air, did they replace the dryer? Did they accomplish the repair without any disassembly? Etc, etc, etc.

It's already bad enough that I now have a collision repair shop hotrodding my car around, (anybody think they won't?), but now I am concerned that a body shop really will not properly take care of the mechanicals. Am I being paranoid?
Thanks

Glenn

I would hope they would do the job correctly. The dealer is responsible for your car, I can't see them sending your car to a bunch of dimwitts.
Is there any way you can go check on its progress?

loneranger68

A little off topic, but.... the dealer might send it to a dimmwitt un-knowingly.. It happened to me on my brand new 3 week old '07 GT vert with last than 700 miles. When I took delivery there was 2 small tears in the top. Dealer apologized and ordered a new top. Boy was I nervous! This was my second vehicle (1st was an '07 Expedition) so I had no reason to feel this way, but I did! I took it in on a Friday, and called Monday pm to see if it was done. The body shop mgr said that it came back from the outside trim shop with a scratch on the side by the fuel cap (by the way he and I went over the car with a sharp eye when I droped it off and verified no scratches to begin with). He said don't worry, we will fix. I went by to look at it and there were several scratches on various places on the back and sides of the car, scuffs on the interior leather, trim pieces scratched and at least one place where they had not attached to top properly. Also, the car had 1/4 tank less gas and my avg mpg DROPPED by 1 mpg. (hot rodding at the trim shop anyone?). I was ****ED to say the least, but did not over react. I simply told the GM I wanted a new car. Believe it or not, they found me a new '07 (different color and less the GTAP) and made me a happy camper. Moral of the story is: dot all of your i's and cross your t's when your dealer is sending it out to someone else.....

Tom
Canton, NC

flyer351

Well, I just picked up my car and my fears were substantiated. The body shop did a horrible job. I could have done better with a can of spray paint. They did not properly prep the area, didn't use a clearcoat, and didn't even get all the bubbled paint removed. I reached down into the engine bay and peeled a quarter sized chunk of factory paint off the frame. They maybe got 30% of the damaged paint off. The rest is untouched.
Needless to say, I'm not happy. The car is going back to the dealership today and I'm pushing for a different body shop to conduct the work. If the shop can't do it right the first time how can I expect them to get it right the second time? Grrrrrrr.

Cavero

Could be worse. I took mine in last august and the dealer did the work. it took 3 1/2 weeks. Finally they got the paint to stop bubbling up (contamination from brake fluid), and did almost as bad of a job as they did for yours. I was so sick of driving a Loan-mower (Focus) that i stopped caring. never had a mechanical issue before or after with the brakes or A/C but the brake fluid cap still leaks.

Mtang78

I checked out my '05 for the brake fluid leak when this whole topic first came out and didn't see anything. We maintain the car and are pretty picky about all of our stangs. Well today we discovered paint missing totally gone underneath the steering column. Sure enough we have an issue. Took the car to the local dealer and was told that the paint repair isn't covered under my warranty. I have the ESP plan for 75,000 miles. I've had the car since October 2004 and currently have 71,000 miles.

Just curious of those who have had to have the engine bay repainted because of this issue, how many miles are on the car?

What should I do????

flyer351

My car has 9900 miles and it's been leaking since day one.

The dealership replaced the brake cap to stop the leak which we all know will not help.

I did stop by the body shop yesterday and talked to the tech that did the 'repair'. He explained the difficulty in reaching down into the engine compartment without any parts removed. The shop didn't remove anything. No wonder it didn't get fixed properly. So now, I am dropping off the car at the dealership next week to have the master cylinder and brake booster removed. Then the body shop will tow the car to their shop and hopefully repaint the frame better this time.
I'll let everyone know how how the paint turns out after next week.
Jeramie

whs

I had the cap leak on mine, caught it at 7,000 miles. They fixed the paint on it. I suspect the new cap still leaks, been watching it vey carefully. I too am worried about the paint fix being done correctly.

DoctorQ

I had the exact same issue... check out my post (and paint damage pics) below. I gave my dealership two on the repairs. They had my car for 4 days but gave me a loaner. They pulled master cylinder/booster (to inspect) and had to replace some sealed lines as well. Req'd completely stripping off damaged paint, priming and repainting. That was 3 months ago, and so far so good.. not a drop has leaked. Here's my post:

http://forums.bradbarnett.net/showthread.php?t=63890