It's scratched!

My sales guy calls this morning to tell me, my factory order has arrived. but he says there is a small scratch in the door. I have to go down and look at the damage and tell him if I want it touched up, or resprayed. I know respraying the door sometimes results in colour differences down the road.

What should I do? Should I ask for any compensation?

 

I had a car come in with a spot on the hood. I had them fix it, what a mess, 1st the shot paint in a spot in middle of hood, no sanding, etc. Looked like crap, then they sanded the hood and then sprayed over it, looked like they sanded it with a broom. I finally had to go to the manager who explained they didn't use their best painter on warranty work. They finally got it fixed, but it still wasn't as good as it started out.

I know this was the body shops fault, but I would want to make sure their work is good before they touched it. Also, what color is your truck ?

I put a 1 inch scratch in mine last week on the door with a button on my shorts, I am going to see if they can put some color in it so it won't hardly show up, but as far as repainting the entire door, no way.

 

From my own personal experience I have to disagree with the two previous posts. Our local dealer has a separate body shop that is larger than the service department and they don't even like to touch it up, they prefer to repaint the entire panel. Also note that for any decent paint process your truck will be out of commision for about a week.

 

It depends on how bad it is. In my opinion, if it's bad enough that it can't be buffed out and lived with, then don't except the truck. Otherwise, right out of the lot you'll basically be taking an additional reduction in value because of the scratch. Repainting is never the same, no matter how good the paint shop. If you do have it repaired, at least have your dealer compensate your disappointment with a free extended warranty.

 

I had my truck in for a new seat cover. The leather was coming apart. They did a great job on the seat. Unfortunatley some genius left the door open and bumping into a wall or something. I found that the door edge was chipped in several places. They asked "Do you want it fixed, or touched up?". Hell, I want it fixed! What kind of question is that? I went to the body shop, and the old timer assured me that I would be happy with a touch up repair. I agreed, and envisioned globs of paint out of a plastic bottle with a nylon brush. The guy came out with a can of paint and a wood handled pinstripe brush. I knew I was in skilled hands at that point. This guy did a awesome job, and even agreed to touch up a small scratch I took credit for. I would say touch up is safer if applied by a skilled hand. Now if a salesman comes running out with a retail type bottle of touch up paint I would leave him in a trail of smoke.

 

I had a 94 Mazda Protoge that had a spot in the hood about the size of a quarter where the paint had simply flaked away. I guess a fleck of dirt or whatever got under the paint and the result was this bare spot. When I went to pick up the vehicle the dealer just sort of didn't tell me about the spot. I think the paint must have peeled off when they washed it. It was way too obvious. I told them they had to repaint it.

The repaint looked fine except a couple of years later the hood looked like !@#$%^&.

Tooo late for any recourse. I guess they didn't put the clear coat on or whatnot.

At a minimum make sure you have written documentation that they repainted or touched up etc. so you may at least have a shot at recovering something when years later that area looks different than the rest of the vehicle.

Chip

 

I have a dark shadow gray scab, passenger door was retouched on the assembly line, looked like crap, the dealer repainted the door and you cannot tell it was ever done. Make then repaint it and give you the ext. warranty!

 

I'd say "This is not my truck. I don't recall asking for that option. Now go in there and find the truck that I ordered."

 

Good news, went down and checked it out there are a couple of small hairline scratch in the clearcoat and should be able to be buffed out. I had visions of a deep gouge, ouch!

Thanks for everyones input, Ill post some pics!

 

I wouldn't let the dealer off the hook so fast. Make sure it can be buffed out, or better yet make the dealer do it. If they screw it up make them prep and repaint the scratch and then clear coat the entire panel.

I unfortunately had a deep scratch on my 04 Screw (Aspen Green), it stuck out like a sore thumb. Luckly insurance paid for it. On mine, the body shop said there is a right way to fix it or the cheap way. I figured, spending 30K for a vehicle may as well fix it right the first time. The fixed the scratch and then clear coated the entire door (removed the handle and molding). Then did some clear coat blend work. It looks like it just came off the showroom floor.

Good luck!
JC