I have no choice but to have the car repainted again, but this time with a new roofcut from JDM land.
I decided to have the car repainted the soonest without even researching on other options -- so yeah, I settled for an expensive shop with so-so quality.
When I say quality, what I mean is the way you prepare the surface for paint or no-paint -- YES, it includes proper masking.
My complaints about the shop:
1. The owner rarely visits the shop, probably because he is busy with his other hobbies (like biking?). If you have a business -- especially a business that requires attention to detail, you should never entrust it to your staff. Those guys are painters and rely on a monthly salary and/or commissions. They couldn't care less if the car is turned-over like shit.
2. His staff doesn't care about plastic trims AT ALL. All the plastic pieces have broken and damaged clips. Even the most simple thing to remove like the sail panels don't have the clips anymore. I know the car is aged and the plastics might be a bit brittle, but an almost new sail panel? I even saw my black door card with black bricks cloth siding soaking in the rain. Come on!
3. My under chassis and engine bay have over-spray all over. Yes, this is very lazy in the staff's part. The engine bay plastic parts like the clutch fluid reservoir, brake lines, and harnesses have white paint on them. I would need to repaint all the black suspension and clean up the engine bay all over again.
4. It took over six months to finish the car. That long period of disassembly risks parts interchanged with other cars. Parts not belonging to me include the hood lock catcher, right tail light, and some bolts which for the longest time I made sure to keep original.
5. When the owner told me it's ready for pick-up, I drove 4 hours only to find out that the interior is dirty and full of paint dust, my OEM chin is still unpainted, antenna tip is covered in green primer, and rear trailing arms are white. So yeah, I drove back home without the car.
To be fair with the owner, he tried to make up to me by giving me his spare power window switch, right tail light, and not charging me for electricals done to the car.
Costings:
JDM Roofcut EG Hatch Civic without sunroof - P18,000 from JBT in Las Pinas City
JDM Brown Glass set except for the windscreen - P23,000 with shipping from ACVillaroman from Bacolod City
JDM Honda Access Snowflakes - P40,000 from the shop owner
USDM Rear Wiper switch with rear washer function - P1,600 from eBay
USDM EG Civic Air Filter Box - P1,500 from US Junkyard
JDM CRV 99 Integrated Control Unit - P2,000 from Darwin Martinez
JDM Honda Access 4-spoke Steering Wheel from the shop - P12,000
External washover from the shop with roofcut install - P70,000
Was the painting job expensive? Yes. Worth it? Definitely not.
The lesson learned for me is to check actual customers' cars and ask for feedback. Never ever trust what you see in car shows. These kinds of shops only do quality work on their own show cars.
