Stories of knucklehead mistakes, Make me feel better about the scratches in my new paint Options

[mepstein]

I was once at the Restoration Shop that had restored many Pebble Beach winners. I felt much better about myself when I found out they too scratch cars new paint during assembly and it is common for them to do final paint repairs before shipping the car off.
Much Better (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

When I worked at the shop the techs used to scratch up paint all the time. They just expected the paint guys to touch it up. The truth is, it’s very hard to touch up and make invisible but the customer expects new paint to be perfect. Every scratch was a huge waste of time and money.

I’m my perfect world, I would fit all the major pieces of the car before paint and then install again after. It’s all the work to get parts to fit correctly that tends to mess up paint.

I commented on the little red wagon in Doug’s garage next to his brand new 6 conversion because fresh paint attracts falling parts like a magnet.

Years ago when I worked at the bike shop we had a customer who commissioned a custom build bike. He bought a new bike rack that fit on the top of his new car. Bike was painted to match the car. We installed the rack and he drove off. Came in the next day, bike was in the trunk in pieces. He explained that he drove home, under the train bridge, like he’s done for years. The only problem was his prior suv had a rear hitch mount bike rack and the new car had the bike rack on the roof.
I believe the repair of both bike and car totaled about $12k.

[DRPHIL914]

I made the mistake of taking my car to someone that thought they could properly roll the fenders, and they damaged both fenders badly, this is quite a while back, but it lead to having to have Chris Foley actually cut off the bent lips and fenders a nd weld on "new" ones from a parts car he had, this was done while the car was there to get new floor pans and all the rust removed in the longs etc, but i'd say that the extent of that mistake was in excess of $2500 for the body work and metal work/welding to fix that damage, and those fenders were perfect before that. and all that due to having wrong offset rims and wheels too wide. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif) - actually I took it to the shop to have the new tires mounted and fit and told them to make sure they checked for clearance before driving it, but they drove it , they rubbed causing blistering of the paint and then they decided to try and "roll and stretch" the fenders---- using a bat!, which caused 3 semicircular creases in the sheet metal of the left fender and a bend. anyway be careful who you take your car to and don't ever try to roll your fender lip with a bat!

[Cairo94507]

I am pretty sure we all know the knucklehead mistake I made....... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[DRPHIL914]

I am pretty sure we all know the knucklehead mistake I made....... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

you painted it green instead of the original color? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/poke.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/w00t.gif)

[AZBanks]

I made the mistake of taking my car to someone that thought they could properly roll the fenders, and they damaged both fenders badly, this is quite a while back, but it lead to having to have Chris Foley actually cut off the bent lips and fenders a nd weld on "new" ones from a parts car he had, this was done while the car was there to get new floor pans and all the rust removed in the longs etc, but i'd say that the extent of that mistake was in excess of $2500 for the body work and metal work/welding to fix that damage, and those fenders were perfect before that. and all that due to having wrong offset rims and wheels too wide. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif) - actually I took it to the shop to have the new tires mounted and fit and told them to make sure they checked for clearance before driving it, but they drove it , they rubbed causing blistering of the paint and then they decided to try and "roll and stretch" the fenders---- using a bat!, which caused 3 semicircular creases in the sheet metal of the left fender and a bend. anyway be careful who you take your car to and don't ever try to roll your fender lip with a bat!

I rolled and stretched the fenders on my 944 S2 cab with a 5 lb hammer. My neighbors who saw the work in progress question my sanity.

[Cairo94507]

Yeah.... amazingly I have seen a couple metallic gold 914s since deciding to go Irish Green and now I really regret not going with the gold. I may ask Kent about repainting it to the original color. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif)

[jfort]

My teener and tools are in rented space. I had the seats resting on top of a rolling tire rack. The seat fell, metal sliding rail first, of course, onto my friend's Ferrari that is also stored there. Luckily, I know a good body guy and my friend is still my friend. But I was sick at the time.

[DRPHIL914]

I made the mistake of taking my car to someone that thought they could properly roll the fenders, and they damaged both fenders badly, this is quite a while back, but it lead to having to have Chris Foley actually cut off the bent lips and fenders a nd weld on "new" ones from a parts car he had, this was done while the car was there to get new floor pans and all the rust removed in the longs etc, but i'd say that the extent of that mistake was in excess of $2500 for the body work and metal work/welding to fix that damage, and those fenders were perfect before that. and all that due to having wrong offset rims and wheels too wide. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif) - actually I took it to the shop to have the new tires mounted and fit and told them to make sure they checked for clearance before driving it, but they drove it , they rubbed causing blistering of the paint and then they decided to try and "roll and stretch" the fenders---- using a bat!, which caused 3 semicircular creases in the sheet metal of the left fender and a bend. anyway be careful who you take your car to and don't ever try to roll your fender lip with a bat!

I rolled and stretched the fenders on my 944 S2 cab with a 5 lb hammer. My neighbors who saw the work in progress question my sanity.

I probably would have questioned your sanity too lol! but yours look pretty good, mine did not! and they spent 2 years in primer looking like junk, now whole car is repainted, which really needed to be done anyway, and car looks pretty amazing, but if I could turn back time.... that is one thing I would change.

[windforfun]

So I knew this guy with a seven series BMW. He takes it to Alison BMW in Mtn. View, CA to get the cup holder fixed. They dropped a wrench on the roof. Several body shop episodes later didn't quite get the dent out. On top of that, as they're driving up 280, his wife goes to use the cup holder & it's still broken.

[GTSandberg]

This is not a big one, but incredibly stupid (IMG:style_emoticons/default/screwy.gif)
After fabricating a small repair panel the mostly enjoyable part of welding it in place remained. I made some spot welds to see the fit and called it a night. The next evening I continued to seam weld the rest. It went fine except from about one quarter of the weld in one of the corners where the weld turned out really terrible with a lot of splatter and holes. I redid this corner several times, grinding away the bad job each time, but still, I was suddenly a useless welder. After thoroughly ensuring there were no bondo or lead soldering left in the area, I started blaming the equipment. I dismounted and cleaned the nozzle and tightened the feeder mechanism. Not finding anything wrong I started suspecting someone had borrowed my equipent and messing with my settings. After spending some time figuring out nothing was changed I then turned what was now great anger and fury towards the plate part again. I decided making the gap a bit larger would solve all my problems. Even this turned out more challenging than expected. Why is this thin plate so much work to cut through?? Oh, the welder magnet is under there apparently.. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/welder.gif)

[AZBanks]

I bought a Techart rear spoiler in the UK for the 944 Cab and had it shipped to the US. It came with just some cheap screws for mounting it to the trunk lid. I drilled the holes and attached it with the seven screws that came with it. I wasn't thrilled with the screws and the strength of mounting fiberglass with just a few screws.
I kept thinking about finding a way to bolt it on for more but never got around to doing it.

One early Saturday morning I am on a very empty stretch of road so I decide to stretch its legs. At about 120 I hear a single strange thump from the back of the car. I didn't hear anything else and the car didn't seem to drive any different so I continued on home.

I got home and as I was getting out of the car I looked back to see a row of seven cheap screws sticking out of the trunk lid.


The lesson is don't do a high speed run with questionably mounted body parts.



I bought a replacement spoiler and this one arrived with several steel inserts bonded into the fiberglass and bolts to hold it on.

Here are couple pics taken a few weeks before the high speed run.