Bad experience with lip paint job

Zboy89

Hey guys. So I bought this lip from ebay for $109 including shipping. I wanted to paint it myself but after lots of warnings I decided to get it done at a shop.

So me being new to Houston and this game didn't have a referral to a paint shop so I found a guy on Craigslist who had a shop on Aldine Bender road. He agreed to paint the lip Pearl white for $170.

I drove up there with my black poly urethane lip and he asked me to come back later. At my second visit the lip had been painted pearl white as per the written procedure that came with the lip, which was exactly how he intended to do in the first place (sand,adhesion promoter, primer, base coat, mid coat, top coat and clear). When we put it up we realized it looked way too white. He said he'll sand the clear coat down and add more pearl color to it and also took off my gas tank lid for reference.

Btw I could see some uneven surfaces under the lip and towards the far left and right edges where the lip is screwed on to the bumper near the wheels. It was pretty obvious. He said that 'you ain't paying me for body work so I'm just going to paint. This requires a lot of sanding. So I'm only painting. I'm like well....meh.

I return for the third time today, the lip is not as white but the color difference is obvious. I partially think that it's not the guy's fault since under bright light the gas tank lid and lip match. But under normal light the lip doesn't match too well with the car. I guess that's how pearl is. .. what really disappointed me was how he wasn't able to stick the lip using double sided tape. It kept coming off...he was being lazy or just plain dumb and I had to say 'dude you wanna clean the dust and paint on the back of this lip before trying double sided tape?'.

He did that..and then his microfiber towel that was soaked in a paint thinner left green stains on one end. He chipped the paint while trying to fix that.

And now he asked for the remaining half of payment and said you can come back and I'll fix this. I'm not running anywhere.

Phew....thoughts...musings?

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

daveb91

Hard color to match...but shouldn't be way off.

xxZxx

I have the same lip on mine. .I have 09 black metallic lip paint matched..my buddy at the paint shop said it was a PITA to install it and said the double sided tape it came with wasn't worth $#iT..so I bought wider and thicker 3m double sided tape and worked out perfect.. As white pearl..yes its hard to match specially because the surface material difference between the bumper and lip..they reflect color different. But overall I think it looks good.

Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk

Zipper 104

I can understand it just might be a bit difficult to match if the painter is not up to speed.
My understanding (as explained to me by a guy at one of our best local paint shops) is there is the initial base coat for PW and the 'pearl' is in the subsequent clearcoat(s). You MUST get the base coat right. Then you hold a 'template' (kinda like a color chip with 8 increasing levels of pearl on it) up against the surrounding paint to determine just how many coats of the pearl/clear are required to get the match right. One coat is lighter, more coats darker, more pearl, hence a thicker layer of clear. If you miss the base coat you're dead. No amount off the clear/pearl will fix a mis-matched base coat.
Someone else is welcome to correct whether what I was told is wrong or right. I won't take any offense. I'm just passing on what I was told.
It was just how it was explained to me by someone who ought to know what he was doing. He's been at it forever. He grew up in his dad's paintshop and now runs it himself.

Double sided tape???? Really? What a joke.

104

Zboy89

Makes sense. I guess I shouldn't be that anal. It's the best that guy could do and yes he wasn't up to speed.

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

Zipper 104

Hey, you're new to the area. You did the best you could to get it done right. No harm, just a little speedbump.
I'd just remove it again, clean up these imperfections myself. (think of the paint on there now as a really good sealer) prep it completely myself, and find the right guy. All good.
I also noticed in the pic of the lip on the paint stand that it was lying on it's back.
I always understood that parts that sit on the car vertically (like doors) should be painted oriented that way, and parts that lay flat (parallel to the ground....like a hood) be painted lying flat. The lip should be 'standing' up as though it was on the car when getting paint applied.

Looking forward to seeing the final results.

104

Zboy89

Guys! Thanks for all the info that yall have provided to me throughout this process. I thought I'd share some before and after photos with everyone

Zboy89

You're right I guess about the pearl color being direction dependent. Proper protocol should be followed while painted the body part depending on what part it is. Also, despite all the deligence, chances are the color match won't be perfect...more so in certain lighting conditions.

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

Zoren 370

Im glad you painted the center black now your car looks more like a Z!

Zboy89

It's actually anthracite grey. Never seen anyone go this route but I was curious as to how different it would look as opposed to the traditional black dip.

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

Zipper 104

The way I understand it is ANY paint, not just pearl, although I wouldn't be surprised to hear it's more important with pearl than others.

104