Requesting Input On Body Shop Work.

[Shaney]

So over this week my car was in the shop as someone damaged my driver door panel and ran. However the body shop did great work on the exterior of my car and it looks brand new and you can’t even tell it was fixed. Sadly after getting my car back and seeing my interior around my door panel and a Pilar I found two minor scratches that were not there before.

The repair went through insurance and I know my car is supposed to be returned to me in condition before the damaged occurred. Is it unfair of me to bring this up to the body shop to be fixed?

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[dcalero]

That is unfortunate but as you know sometimes when using tools it is hard to be perfect and accurate. You should ask them if there is something that can be about them. The second scratch is the one I would probably voiced concern about. The other one seems so small you can probably get a small knife and scrape the little bit of hanging plastic.

 

[furdfan2018]

I would not say it is unfair to expect them to be perfect.

I would say, me personally, if the bodywork was done in an excellent manner and completed on time, I'd deal with those tiny imperfections and call it a day.

 

[young at heart]

How would you go about proving those marks weren’t preexisting?

Relative proximity to the work that’s been done is purely circumstantial.

I‘d maybe just mention it casually but if they don’t take the bait right away I’d let it go and deal with it myself.

 

[WItoTX]

Can you take a photo that shows more? It's hard to tell what I am actually looking at. It almost looks like its so zoomed in, that it magnifies the marks, with zero context as to how big they actually are.

 

[dcalero]

I would agree with some of the opinions listed here. When minor things like that happen I deal with them myself. Ask them if there is anything you can do to lessen the scratch.

 

[ORRadtech]

Your results may depend greatly on your approach.
Going in and saying the car isn't like it was before the accident could, be taken as confrontational and set a bad tone.
Going in with a calm attitude and saying that you noticed something while cleaning and was it possibly missed during inspection might work better.

However, it's been my experience, not just with body shops, that once the job is signed off on and they are paid, it extremely difficult to get anything else done.

I wish you luck but be prepared to look up Dr Colorchip...

 

[Cobra Jet]

Get a black wax pencil (most hardware stores have them in different colors). Run it over the scuff/scratch. Then use a microfiber to buff lightly and the mark "disappears".

It works on light scuffs/scratches. It won't work on very deep surface gouges or damages.

 

[Shaney]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. The two spots were on the door trim panel and and the driver side a pillar.

After a little bit of work I was able to fix the door panel piece with just some detailer and a microfiber.

The spot on the a pillar is more difficult to see and seems to be fixable by a return to black plastic restorer.

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