body shop repaint vs factory?

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Originally Posted By: Texican
I've worked in the auto collision industry for 15 years, a quality shop can do a better looking job than the factory. As far as chips go, they are going to happen no matter what factory or re paint. The factory paint is a little more resistant to them because the paint at the factory is baked on at over 600 degrees and is fully cured. A body shop can not produce that kind if heat in there paint booths and if they could most if the interior would melt. The re paint is softer but will eventually completely cure out. As to the remark about a shop be a quality shop just because they are a preferred shop for a insurance is a false statement. They are a preferred shop because they fix the car however the insurance tells them to, which is always the cheapest way possible. The shop goes along with this because the insurance will always funnel work to there shop.



Best reply - all truths.

Insurance recommended shop means stay away!

I work at a GM plant and our factory paint is cured at high temps and creates a more durable finish than a bodyshop can and under more cleaner conditions with perfect prep. Our paint repair process uses differernt paint then what is in the paint shop due to the high heat not possible after the vehicle is built. But our repair work is not noticable to the customer it is that good....becasue our painters are trained and skilled.

With all this, a very skilled painter can paint a vehicle to look equal or better than the OEM paint job but the problem lies in finding someone willing to take the extra time and effort to do this.....and an insurance repair won't pay for that.
 
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QWERTYDUDE,
So what you are saying that once u are in a fender bender, or have a deep scratch in a body panel that needs to be repainted, that new
repainted area is never the same quality as the rest of the car, no matter how skilled or how much prep the body shop painter does??
 
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Originally Posted By: flinter
QWERTYDUDE,
So what you are saying that once u are in a fender bender, or have a deep scratch in a body panel that needs to be repainted, that new
repainted area is never the same quality as the rest of the car, no matter how skilled or how much prep the body shop painter does??


That is correct.

There is a reason why any car with prior paintwork is automatically less desirable. And 9 out of 10 times, it can be easily spotted as well.
 
Wow, that's disappointing! However, I wouldn't necessarily agree that it can be spotted easily 9 out of 10 times.
I sold my 2006 beige Elantra last year privately, several panels of the car had be repainted and it always looked like a perfect match to my eyes. There was NOT a single scratch or ding or dent on the car. 8 people looked at the car before I sold it and not a single person asked me if it had been repainted.
Of course, if I had done a dealer trade in, a trained eye would have probably spotted it, but 95% of the average lay person would never spot it when you sell privately, asssuming the re-paint was done be a skilled body shop painter.
 
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All things are relative. Yes some body shops can do a pretty good job. But a trained eye can spot them and to the trained eye it's as obvious as black eye on someone's face.

I have family that now has kids, my nieces and nephews that just started driving. And they did have nice new cars that I've seen. A few months later on a visit I was blown away, as soon as I saw the car pull out I exclaimed "When did you repaint the fender! It's a brand new car," And he said you're the first person to spot it. Not even the dealer could tell, insurance adjuster couldn't tell, even the next door neighbor who's a paintless dent removal guy could tell.

But to me, the lay of the metallic in the paint was wrong, the orange peel didn't match, the paint reflections weren't as sharp. Dead giveaway, but only if you know what to look for. Having apprenticed in a paint shop where I learned both detailing and painting they don't get by me.

But I will say the paint shop I did apprentice in could paint a panel to be an OEM match. Which is quite a feat to know how to not only match paint color including if the paint faded over time, and match how metallic paint lays on a panel and match factory orange peel. That takes a truly skilled master to be able to do. And it's not cheap.
 
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I can spot re paints just sitting at a red light and looking at the car beside me. But that goes with all my training and job skills that I have developed over time. I don't even go to car shows anymore because all I can see is the flaws in the body, prep, and paint work.
 
Tex,
How do you like your 2014 Forte?? That was my second choice and sometimes I wish I brought it instead of my 2013 Civic.
 
Originally Posted By: flinter
Tex,
How do you like your 2014 Forte?? That was my second choice and sometimes I wish I brought it instead of my 2013 Civic.


My wife and I like it a lot, gets good gas mileage and it looks good. The only complaint I have on my Kias is that the GDI engines are a little noisy. But other than that I have no complaints on either of them. I get more compliments on the forte than I do on the optima at the car wash, people can't believe it's a Kia.
 
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I agree. The quality work done by a really good shop is something where I can't tell the difference where the factory paint ends and their work begins, but I do agree a body shop pro could probably spot it, although I'm not exactly sure how.
 
Bumper covers seem to be the most difficult, the paint chips off and spiderwebs much easier on repainted covers than it does with factory paint. The flex additive added at body shops just isn't as effective as the factory paint process.
 
dishdude,
Well the explains why my re-painted front bumper on my 2013 Civic EX is already spider webbing and 2 chips after just 3 months of being repainted....thats a shame. I guess my front bumper will never be the same again.

This is probably a long shot, but can anyone her recommend or know off a quality auto body shop in the Mercer County area of Central NJ?
 
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The Ford dealership that repaired my badly damaged F150 did a wonderful job. The new paint is FAR better than the original orange peel, wavy and weird paint. In fact, I'd like them to repaint the entire truck.

With the questionable quality of OEM paint jobs today, (Toyota's legendary thin paint cough, cough) I'd much rather have a carefully applied, high quality material, hand finished job.
 
Originally Posted By: Cujet
I'd much rather have a carefully applied, high quality material, hand finished job.


Me too, finding a place to do it the right way would be the real challenge though.
 
Originally Posted By: Cujet
The Ford dealership that repaired my badly damaged F150 did a wonderful job. The new paint is FAR better than the original orange peel, wavy and weird paint. In fact, I'd like them to repaint the entire truck.

With the questionable quality of OEM paint jobs today, (Toyota's legendary thin paint cough, cough) I'd much rather have a carefully applied, high quality material, hand finished job.


Orange peel on ford trucks is the worst out of all cars and trucks. My boss would always get on to me and the other painter about our clear coat being to slick when we painted a ford truck. We always tell him "sorry we haven't been trained to make our paint jobs look like [censored]." And your right about Asian cars having a thin clear coat on them.
 
Originally Posted By: demarpaint
Originally Posted By: Cujet
I'd much rather have a carefully applied, high quality material, hand finished job.


Me too, finding a place to do it the right way would be the real challenge though.


Your right, the body shop business is a very shady business. There are a lot of crooks out there, but there are still some honest good shops out there.
 
Originally Posted By: Texican
Orange peel on ford trucks is the worst out of all cars and trucks.


Haha, you're tellin' me! However, a quick trip to the Honda and Chevy dealerships lately (helping a friend buy a new car) prove that Ford does not have a corner on orange peel....

There was a post a while back about the '14 Corvettes having crummy paint jobs. I looked and the one they had in the showroom had nice enough paint. But certainly not as good as an expert painter would produce.
 
My non-professional perspective: I have seen both poor quality and very nice looking paint from body shops, but even those that looked great at first were peeling and generally disintegrating less than 3 years later while adjacent panels with 10 year old factory paint (even Toyota) still looked near perfect to my untrained eyes.
 
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