Hello everybody
After several weeks of tinkering with the TR4 I became satisfied with the
engine performance. It has been a blast driving it around the neighborhood
and to work. About two weeks ago I decided it was time to make the outside
presentable.
Being on a tight budget I decided to take it to Earl Scheib. Now I know
what you're thinking. How can a place that will paint any car for $199.95
be worth it. I have a co-worker that got his truck painted from Earl Scheib
and it turned out quite nice considering the cost. I also went in to a
local Earl Scheib and saw several cars that had just been painted and they
looked very nice as well.
Since I was looking for inexpensive I decided to go with them. I had also
gone to two other shops for quotes. One did "proper" paint jobs and the
quote was for $3900 for just the exterior. This would have been the way to
go (removing panels taking them to bare metal, removing dings etc... and a
show room finish) The other place wanted $1200 to basically make it look
nice. Earl Scheib wanted $550 to remove the old layers of paint take out a
few dings and paint.
I picked up the car Friday at around 1:30. Apparently it was painted that
morning and the paint hadnt even dried. Touching it left permanent prints
and even rubbed the paint into wrinkles. Agreeing that this was unaceptable
the manager informed me that he would reshoot the car this next weekend.
Until it dried completely I opted to take the car so I could finish up on
some other repairs. The finish is very ugly. It looks nothing like the
other cars I had seen at the shop or my co-workers. The hood has tons of
tiny pinholes in the paint. It looks almost like there wasnt enough paint
applied there.
On curves and small areas the paint is nice and smooth and shiny. No
pinholes to give it that rough look. I asked about this and they told me
buffing the paint in a few weeks would take care of it. Would buffing the
car be enough or should they have painted the car differently? I dont have
enough experience with paint to diagnose what the problem is but it looks
grainy. Not orange peel just millions of those tiny pinholes that make the
reflection turn from mirror like to hazy. I dont know if its overspray or
not enough paint or the painted surface not being sanded smooth enough.
Almost looks like I tried to paint it with a huge can of spray paint!!!
Anyhow thanks for all your help!
David Lee
64 TR4 (Ugly Blue)
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