I just got the shell of my car back after a full rotisserie resto and paint job. It's a really long story, but I'm just looking for other people's experiences after this sort of thing. I'm generally happy with the end result, except for a few minor but glaring issues. I watched VERY carefully over the entire course of the project, they did high quality work except for these few minor areas, really just one, which is mind-bogglingly poor. Other than this, I know how the rest of the work was done, and I'm satisfied with what's under the paint. The particular area in question I THINK they thought it was going to be hidden by another part, and when it wasn't fully covered, it was too late to go back without major additional work. (which they should have done anyway, but didn't)

I guess my main question is, when you got your car back, were you absolutely 100% satisfied, and if not, what sort of concerns did you have? I'm primarily concerned with shell restorations where you as the owner dug in and did the rest of the job once it got home.

I'll never go back to the shop the car came from, so at this point, I'm planning to put everything back together and treat whatever minor issues I discover as spot-repairs after the rest of the assembly is done.

When I bought my '70 Charger and was ready to restore it, I knew that I wanted it to turn out better than I was able to do myself, but I could not afford to pay the $ 6000 to $8000 . I ended up trading work for the job. As a 18 year journey level carpenter, I built a 2200 sq ft garage for my friend who did the bodywork and paint on my car. Guess who got the better end of THAT deal. His work was fantastic. I offered several times to let him take time saving shortcuts, but he was adamant. He kept saying that his name and reputation was going on the car. It was a complete color change from green to Flame Red, and when it was done, you would think it rolled out of Detroit that color. Panel fitment was better than stock, paint finish was more shiny with almost no orange peel. That was 6 years ago.
My advice is to deal with someone that has a great reputation. NO TWEEKERS ! Never trust your car to a druggie or a guy with money problems. Get a clear understanding of what is expected before the job begins. Good luck.

Well there are two thoughts here. It's your car and you should be happy with it. At this stage with it all apart it would probably easier to take care of the problem now. You did not go into specifics but I assume it is fixable. But how much will it cost. Most shops are familiar with how to fix smaller repairs that match extremely well.

On the other hand, unless your building a showcar, it may just be something to not worry about. Enjoy the car and know you gave it new life. You can always fix it later if it truely bugs you. My question is, would this be an issue any non car guy would notice? If it is, get it fixed now. If not, I am not sure I would worry about it. Some pics of the problem might help.

Duster, the car is already back, so it's all said and done with this shop... Mojo, I think your advice is right on the money. I don't have a pic to send at the moment, but it's really a minor area. Major poor quality, but minor area. It has to do with the hood hinge area, and I'm also having problems with the hinges and hood alignment, I was concerned that it was all interrelated, but I don't think it is.

It is really disgusting though, that you put all this time and effort into doing the best job you possibly can, and you see what kind of crap some people are content to put their names on.

I just dropped my van off yesterday to get the body work done, don't go scaring me! :P Sorry to hear about your issues, I hope for the best for my deal!

There are two types of paint jobs.

1. those with flaws
2. those that will have flaws.

What I mean is, perfect today, something will change. I used to be heavy into the showcar thing, it made me miserable. Now just I just select catagory #1 and enjoy the car. Besides, you can only see one side of the car at a time!

in my experience its hard to make some one 100% happy with their car when its done. their is almost always something that even if small could have been better. there could be different reasons for it. if its just a finish isue and not rust or anything like that,may be they did think it didnt show and wanted to save you the money of finishing it nice. its always hard to know how perfect to make a car when your the guy doing the work and someone else is paying you.i could spend for ever on my own car making it perfect but if i handed someone the bill for the hours i put in they would probably be surprised at the cost of perfect or worse upset.when someone tells me they want a nice driver not a show car i can guarentee you when they come to pick it up they always expect it to be done to show car standards and will try to find things wrong.so i always just tell everyone i'm doing the best job i can and it will be expensive so if you dont want it that way take it somewhere else, not being ignorant just covering my but and reputation.i painted a car for a guy who wanted a driver not a show car .i had the car blasted and did it on the rotissorie painted the bottom and it looked real good.when he seen it he wanted to know why i didnt wet sand,buff the door jambs and bottom also ,like the outside? i told him that to me a drives dosent have buffed doorjambs and underside its allready nicer than new. but i buffed it all up for him so he was happy with his driver.that was the last time i painted a car that the owner said just make it driver quality.
but if you dropped off the car and said make it as perfect as you can what ever it cost, and it was screwed up then you should be upset tell them it needs fixed see what they tell you.

you could always do the job yourself.you said you followed the whole thing, then why didn't you say something?

hemibeep said it best in my opinion. after you start having fun with it you tend to not notice minor flaws but when they are fresh we tend to look at them too closely.

if the hood hinges were not rebuilt thats probably the alignment issue, e-bodys usually show excessive wear especially challengers, you will need to address that, tough to live with new paint and a hood out of alignment.

jeez, the curiousity is killing me. What's the problem and where's the problem? Pictures or a better description please!

We all do the same thing..

Paint and body work is one area all we seem to look for are the flaws....

with dirt, there is no such thing as a 'driver quality' body/paint job. Driver quality means show quality. Also in terms of body/paint flaws, I find them much easier to live with if I'm the one who painted it and created the flaws, rather than having paid extra for someone else to do it.

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jeez, the curiousity is killing me. What's the problem and where's the problem? Pictures or a better description please!

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No kidding, just tell us what the problem is already! Some members may have good suggestions on dealing with it.

Here's a comparison of before, during and after the repair. This didn't emerge as a problem until they painted over the glob of Bondo. Then, when I asked them to fix it. They did, but they must have just sanded the Bondo down flush, because it has cracked since the last picture was taken. I don't understand the underlying problem, there's no rust under there. There's a thick plate for attaching the hood that's welded to the sheet metal from behind, maybe it's that they didn't feel like doing what it took to remove this?

Since I also need hood alignment and hinge work, I'm planning to just take the car somewhere that I can trust after it's all done to re-do this repair.

Unless I'm mistaken, from what I'm seeing it looks like rust bubbles in the hood hinge area of the inner fenders.

It looks like typical hood hinge area rust for an E-Body.

It's hard to see the last pic, too small and not clear enough.

If it is rust it should have been fixed, as in new metal welded in not bondo. It can have small patches welded in or you can replace the inner fenders.

As previously stated, worn hood hinges can definitely cause hood alignment problems, big time.

Flaws are one thing and shoddy body work is another.
They were avoiding this area for a reason. Maybe they were getting tight on money for your project?
Maybe they just wanted it out of the shop?
Either way globs of bondo are not the proper way to repair anything on a car being restored.
I would go back to the shop and tell them you are posting their work on Moparts.com and they can make it right or you can add their shop name to your posts.