Someone hits your car, does auto body work "fixes" it wrong, live with it?

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Folsom

I have an older but fairly well maintained car that I don't drive a lot.

A guy changed lanes into me. Both doors had big scrapes down them, one worse.

Insurance would total the car since the value is about the same pre-accident, maybe less, of repairs. It would be hard to get a replacement spare car for remotely near the value it was worth since in this area they crushed all the used cars; basically used cars here are unusually more expensive than where I use to live.

The guy who hit me does autobody work. He says instead of paying cash for the repair work since his insurance is tied to 3 people and there was a recent accident, he can do the repair.

I found two doors on eBay that looked like straight swaps. He said they were probably beat to hell, can't trust them. So he goes to junkyard and gets two doors to paint (others were a color match, he said they may not be, but it looked obvious).

I drop my car off for him to work on at an airport hanger he uses. He finished but then says they're not an exact color match and that was the color they gave him.

I arrive and he's gone, but left keys hidden. The color isn't gloss. They look bad to me. I thought it would be like hard to tell unless you were in the wrong light. Frankly it doesn't look like automotive paint.

When I get home I have to realign the doors because there's an air gap at the top. One isn't a perfect fit and both had a spot that appears like they made contact with each other from most likely a front collision which bent the body I'd guess. (The Ebay doors had no such thing).

Why do  they different colors? Auto body paint would've been hundreds of dollars.

I feel very deceived, even though till now I've been nice about it. He's dishonest. I'm not sure if I have any recourse. Obviously I would never get a lawyer involved.

Thoughts? (Other than I'll never do anything but $ that may exceed the vehicles worth, or insurance, never again bother with trying to give a fellow millennial a break)

Folsom

If at any point I thought he was being honest I wouldn't care. But I have not a bit of care for consequences for him after his behavior.

aldcoll

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You didn't mention if you looked the guy up prior to handing him your keys?

I think you are stuck and consider it a education.  I would worry it was used in a crime while you left it with the  auto body friend.

Alan

Folsom

Please, no need to reply ridiculous bullshit.

Yes I looked him up. A lot. I know who everyone on his insurance is and what they do. He seemed like a good person, which is why I went with it.

This is my first accident believe it or not. I've never caused one, and avoided several.

Bob2

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Paint can be very tough to match. A factory paint rep told me that color match depends on many things.
Temperature, humidity, air pressure paint is applied at, base coat ect..
There is also a certain amount of talent to know how to achieve what is needed.

I worked doing this kind of work for a few years.
I would have let the insurance company deal with it..

Sorry to say I believe you are probably stuck with it..

aldcoll

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Please, no need to reply ridiculous bullshit.

Yes I looked him up. A lot. I know who everyone on his insurance is and what they do. He seemed like a good person, which is why I went with it.

This is my first accident believe it or not. I've never caused one, and avoided several.

You should have mentioned that you looked in to the back round of the person doing the work, And asking to see some of his work would be high on my list.

Yes it was nice to look into a plan B.  And as buying used Audio Equipment if the pictures on the listing add don't represent what was delivered.

Alan

Folsom

Bob I would accept a slightly off gloss white. I have a semi/flat white. I use to paint cabinets and spray finish, I know what I'm looking at. Plus it isn't as smooth as it should be (probably too much psi, and running it low to the cup, thinking his hose drops more than it does). It just hit me, why go through so much work when two direct swap doors are available? EBay burns sellers, not buyers, so there's no way those doors wouldn't be what's in the picture to a high enough degree they'd pass as seen. Those doors have never been malformed from a front collision. You can see the whole car. The rear door on mine sits a touch high because of pressure taking it out of square in an accident, and the front's top edge near the window ran into it as the cab bent into a concave shape slightly.

I don't like always being the honest person that gets the shaft. I've made mistakes before and owned up to them, even on here. My honest guess is the guy not only didn't want to spend $, but assumed I'm the opposite political party from him based on my car. Sadly that's what my generation is like...

BTW I've had very good experiences with audio gear on this forum, buying and selling. I hope no one is getting the rub around here.

Bob2

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Folsom, thanks for the info on your experience. You know what you are looking at and what you should expect..

The door swap probably would, as you suspect been the way to go.
Sometimes trusting others reveals how society has changed and many times not for the better..

One would think political beliefs should not have been a consideration.. Then again these are some strange times.
Being an honest person is rare these days. That's the only way to be.
I wouldn't worry about how you are perceived here. You have a great track record!
Take care!
Bob

G Georgopoulos

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hi Jeremy

You should have claimed insurance mate,
your car is worth scrap metal now.

Sorry to hear of your misfortune mate...

All the best in the future...

George

Folsom

I got pretty screwed for trying to be a nice guy. :roll:

Never again. And the next person who hits me (hopefully won't happen) might be a good person, sadly.

G Georgopoulos

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Elizabeth

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If you had accepted the insurance money, they would take the car. So you would have some money and no car. (though if yu had an inside guy, you might have been able to buy back the car as salvage)

Other than the scrape on the doors, it seems you like the car and want to keep it.

#1 question: do the doors look better now? after being replaced? or did they look better with the dents?

The car is not worth much. But paying to get the doors professionally painted? Is this an option you want? are you willing to pay? can you have the dude pay HALF the cost to take the car to a real paint shop?
Is paying half of $$$ OK with you?
And to comment. A cheap paint job is going to be about the same as the crap paint you now have. A good paint job may cost a LOT OF MONEY.


Now for opinions...
Usually anyone wanting to 'fix it for you' is not usually going to do very good. From their point of view, they are doing work for free. Most folks have a hard time with that. And most of the sort of guys who do stuff like this on the side are just putz.
(From YOUR perspective he OWES you, not from his perspective)

So you get what you pay for.
Too late for recriminations.
You have replacement doors. They are painted with something. They are NOT the same as before he hit you.
Take it to "People's Court". This is the perfect sort of story for that venue.

Both of you made mistakes. Best IMO to just learn from your mistake (to trust thi guy) than worry about it.

Final judgement: get over it. The car still drives and runs just as good. Use it, be happy. Forgive those who cheated you. I am 100% certain he thinks he 'did you a favor'.

Next time do not be so foolish. And be thankful the guy did not put 20,000 miles on the car, or lose it, or loan it out and it was in a serious accident charged to your insurance, or get you $2,380 in unpaid tickets mailed to your home from the car use.

Don't worry, be happy.

But you could take hime to civil court for failing to restore the car to it's pre-accident value.
Your time and irritation would be the coin YOU would be paying for the pleasure to drag him into court though. And then you might not win anyway. YOu really need proof and documentation. Plenty of pre photos, accident photos, and post photos, plus estimates. and an estimate for finishing the doors properly. All texts and letters.
(Nothing in writing I bet. ll verbal agreements? screwed.. you are screwed.)

Added: one last thing is insurance. The insurance co. should have given you more options..
And it may be possible to go back TO the insurance company and say the car was partially repaired, but you have not been 'made whole' and you either want some cash, or the doors professionally painted.
This may yield something. (perhaps just headaches, but maybe not.) Since NOW the car is no longer past the 'totaled' value. They may yield on coughing up some money.

Folsom

My car was better before he did work on it. It had matching paint, and non-collisionally-contorted doors.

I did nothing wrong. I'm at 0% fault in the accident and I got fucked. This guy came up in my business and RUINED MY CAR TWICE. He thinks he did me a favor? No, he thinks he got away by paying nothing. I'd rather have the $ now than the car... I'd file the insurance if I thought it'd work now.

Paying any $ for someone coming into my world and destroying my vehicle is absurd.

We never communicated verbally. 100% emails that can never be deleted.

Philistine

I would get a quote from a reputable body shop to fix it.  Tell him by email you're not happy with the job he did and give him a deadline in which to put it right, if he doesn't you can then go to a magistrates court (if you have one) and file against him for the value of the quote plus your filing fees. 

Folsom

I have a quote, actually, from the original damage.

Magistrates court, is that civil court in the USA?

All this wants to make me inform his parents, or fiancées parents...

Philistine

Magistrates court is the small claims court in Pa that deals with small civil claims - about $5k if I recall.


Wayner

So if I understand the story line, you let the guy that hit your car, repair your car?

If so, all I can say is..................................... ..WOW!

 :duh: :scratch: :lol:

Folsom

Wayner, yes. Give me a break buddy, first time ever. You obviously gutted some context.

If you were a millennial you might understand better.

Doublej

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It's not clear to me. Did you or did you not report the accident to your insurance company?

Folsom

Didn't.

Supposedly in this town you get a charge for not calling the police?

I swear there's no end to how stupid this gets  :duh:. The only person who won is the tit that hit me.