EN_VY

So I have an 05' Gs300. I can truly say its a beatiful car. 1 week ago it was raining over here and I was wearing some slippery shoes. My foot wasnt on the brake pedal 100% so my foot slipped and I hit the gas. I hit a chevy truck, nothing happened to him but my gs fender was dent and my front headlight was badly scraped. Anyway,the next morning on the way to get a qoute on the damage, somebody slammed into my left quarterpanel and took off. There was a car in front of me so I could'nt do anything. My insurance plan didnt cover hit and runs. I was so freaking mad I hit my fender and dent it even more. This story sounds made up but its not. Maaco qouted me $2,997. I went to other shops and all of their prices were around that price. Somebody recommended me to some guy that charged me way cheaper. I was hesitant at first but I ended up letting him do it. First off, the paint he used was totally different, he also painted my front bumper without taking it out and painted my radiator as well.It gets worse, there were paint drips everywhere, I've heard of dripping candy paint here in Houston but I think it reffers something different. To make a long story short, being cheap will probably cost me more. At least his bodywork is good. Does anyone know good shop in the H that are reasonable? Also, I saw a thread to restore your headlight with 1200 sandpaper and meguiars scratchx. I got the 600 sandpaper and now my headlight looks really bad.(i wetsanded it)
I was feeling down at first, but as long as there is life you can always make money.
I will write another day about some other tragedies ive had with this car.

JeffTsai

iTrader: (1)

There are body shops that do good work for a reasonable cost. They're just hard to come by. Sometimes a shop will see a Lexus, BMW, Benz and see $$$ signs in their eyes. Some are shady and will do the car cheap but do a terrible job. You should always ask around to get a feel of who is good and who not to goto. In your case. Maybe paying $500 more could of gotten you to a better shop. But now it might cost even more since the whole paint has be be redone from scratch. Also when I get body work done, I specifically tell the shop and make them sign a paper that I will not pay for the work if there is any overspray ANYWHERE or unless they clean it off thoroughly.

As for the headlights. It's not simply a hand buff procedure. You have to machine buff it. But you do start off with 600 grit, move up to 800, 1000, then 2000. After that you use a buffing machine and put deep cut polishing compound on the pad. Then after that use a high polish compound and the lights will look like new afterwards. It's a time consuming procedure but it's definately worth the crystal clear new look.

twojayzee

Everyone learn from this guy...please
Also, under no circumstances, ever, take your car to maaco or earl schibe.

EN_VY

I forgot to mention, both my left doors and windows felt scratchy because he oversprayed it.I had to buy a clay bar to remove all the overspray. The guy offered me to respray with other matching paint, but i know better than that. Also, can somebody explain detail by detail how to resotre the headlight, I know there is a guide I tried to follow but I didnt get the result i thought I would get. Do you all think its to late to reapair the headlights? They look real blurry. Do youall think i can still restore the green tint?I really miss all the headlights having green tint.

twojayzee

You got pix of this madness ?

EN_VY

I might be able to upload some today. The guy told me the paint didnt match because my car had already been painted a different color, it used to be black but got painted cinamon pearl or something. He called the lexus dealer to call for the paint code and they had told him it was originally black, so he had to a hard time to get the paint. That Still doesnt justify the drips and oversprays everywhere.

oohpapi44

iTrader: (1)

Dayum, sorry to hear that but it's a lesson learned.

Caoboy

iTrader: (2)

Jeff already explained in detail how to buff out your headlights.

EN_VY

Who is Jeff?

UDel

In order to get the sanding marks off your headlights I would use or get a Porter Cable and get some decent polish. Start wetsanding with more agressive 600 sandpaper if you need to until you are able to get the scratches off then go down to 2000 grit, but you may want to see if 1000 grit will work instead of 600. After you use 2000 grit most correcting polishes will polish the 2000 sanding marks like Menzerna IP. You may want to put some kind of plastic protective coating on the light because you probrably removed the factory coating meaning they will get yellow quicker, maybe some protective wax would be a good idea. When wetsanding sanding it would be a good idea to add a lubricant like Optimum No Rinse or claylube to the water and headlight to reduce friction.

Chris2

iTrader: (2)

I hate stories like this...

TRD911

Not to rub it in but, where you saying you should have bought shoes with gription (pronounced... grip chon) rather than slicks?

An engineer that I worked with used to always say cheap is as cheap does.. 98% of the time he is right.

I hate your story BTW.. I would rather blow up my engine that have to deal with body shops.. At least I can fix my stuff..

BP