I took my red, 1991 Ford F-150 to Earl Scheib on 14 May and bought the Platinum Supreme package. I took it to the shop on Military Drive in San Antonio, TX. The package was on sale for about $530.00, down from I think, it was over $700.00. So I thought I was getting a good deal. I did shop around and other places gave me quotes ranging from $1800 to $5700. I didn't need my truck to be a show truck or anything like that and I really didn't want to spend a lot of money. I did want it to look nice though. I had originally budgeted $1500 for paint but when I saw the great deal ES had, I took it. I went to the shop, looked around, saw some painted cars, talked to the manager and was pleased with what I saw.
So I had them do some bodywork, fill some holes, fix some dents, and the total bill was finally $915.24. I talked to the manager, Larry, about orange peel and he said there would be some. Of course, for a $900 paint job I knew there would be. I even realized it wasn't going to be a great paint job but more probably merely Ok.
Before I took it in, I took off the bumper, mirrors, and all exterior trim save the front bumper and headlights.
After two days I went to pick up my truck. No overspray or broken anything. My first impression was "oh, that looks like crap..." It looked better than when I dropped it off, but it didn't look very good. The whole truck was orange peel. There might be two or three, one-inch square areas where there is no orange peel. Other than that, the entire truck is one, big, pimply, orange peely, mess.
I'm a pretty non-confrontational guy so I didn't say anything right there. I took it home and just looked at it. Drove it to work and showed some of my car lover friends. They all agreed it was nothing but orange peel. So I stewed a couple more days but finally couldn't stand it anymore.
I emailed the national office and stated my case and they said a district manager would get hold of me and talk to me about my concerns. Then I thought I would go straight to the source and i called the shop manager. I told him I was unhappy, that I didn't think the whole truck should be orange peel and what should we do about it? He replied that "all paint jobs will have orange peel..." I thought that was pretty ignorant statement to be made by a paint shop manager. Then he said I should just buff it out after 30 days. I said I didn't think "bufffing it out" will take out the orange peel. I know it won't. I've waxed and detailed enough cars to know that. I continued to protest but he didn't have much else to say to me.
I emailed this exchange to the national office because I still hadn't heard from the district manager. Then the district manager emailed me and said he agreed with the shop manager! But then he said he was concerned about the "appearance" of my truck and wanted to have meeting at the shop on 29 May at 3:00pm.
I responded to his email saying I didn't believe every paint job had to have orange peel. I then asked him if would agree or disagree with me that my truck was alright with all the orange peel. I said that if he agreed it was Ok, then there was no need for a meeting and I would then bad-mouth Earl Scheib for the rest of my life.
Well, today is the 29th and I haven't heard back from him. I don't even know if he's going to be there at the shop. I emailed him a couple of times asking for confirmation but nothing in return. I called the shop manager and he hasn't heard from him and didn't know about the meeting. Hmmm...
So my truck is a massive orange peel. From some angles you can't even see a shine. The places where my clear coat was peeling (the reason for the paint job in the first place) were clearly visible under the new paint. I don't understand that because when I went to the shop before, there was a truck being prepped and it was completely covered in bondo/putty and being smoothed out. It would've only taken a thin film of putty to smooth out the areas where the clear coat was coming off. But I guess they didn't do that.
So now I'm stuck. If the district manager doesn't get hold of me in the next 2 hours, I'm going to consider the meeting cancelled. Nice customer service huh?
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