cosmo10292
Ready to race!
Back in business!! Just in time for Wekfest LA
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Ended up finding one replacement tail light! So I'll keep it as is until osram releases their new tails.Looking great! What did you end up doing with the tail lights?
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Yup! And the car has a full ceramic coating so it's a breeze to keep clean now [emoji6]fantastic.
Regarding keeping that awesome paint nice, are you pretty familiar with proper washing techniques? I would be sure to get up to speed if not, as that color will definately show swirl marks from washing/drying easily.
While it's fresh paint, I would take the time to ceramic coat it (can be a DIY thing) as once done you can pretty much dry the car off with a powerful vacuum on blow-mode or a leaf blower.
2-bucket wash process and 3rd bucket for wheels only.
Just some quick tips, i want all my GTI folks to keep it fresh
Whoa, not at all. I'm guessing a screw was left out or was loose. Osram will definitely swap those out no issue thoughNice build! Love the look of your car, and liked the Osram headlights enough to start looking into them... though I'm wondering whether you have the same issues that some people are having where the lens is not secure causing them to tremble when driving.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyaBdCnV8nA
Grab a seat and your popcorn...
Backstory:
So for those who are new to this thread the majority of the bodywork has been done by a body shop in Phoenix. I've had a helping hand in doing a decent amount of the body work and making sure it got finished on multiple occasions. Main reason i kept going back was simply because it was so damn cheap (and i like learning stuff like body work).
Main story:
While i had my car back in the shop to fix a couple issues with bumper fitment, rock ship repair and Aston Martin handles i found out i would not be able to go to a show because of work reasons so i told the body guy that he could hold off and focus on other cars. At this same time a guy approached him about doing a Sema vehicle (Chevy C10 pickup truck). Body guy immediately said yes without even seeing the truck in person and agreed to a rough estimate on price materials and labor. Then the truck arrived...
Soon the body guy realized he might be in deep shit because none of the body panels lined up, most panels had damage and/or rust along with minor frame issues. During the next two weeks him and his two employees put all of their time into this truck (because Sema was only a few weeks away of course) and somehow got the damn thing finished!
Where shit goes south:
With Sema coming within the next day or so they were scrambling to assemble the truck and finish buffing polishing etc. while they were getting it on the trailer the body guy asks the owner about payment and he tells him he wont be able to pay him until they come back from Sema......
So he has to let his to let his two workers know that they will not be receiving a a paycheck for the over 80 hours each they have worked the past two weeks...
They both quit.
It doesn't end there:
See the body guy didn't exactly know who was sponsoring the truck for a Sema booth but didn't really care since all he wanted was to show off his skills for pretty much the entire world to see. When they arrive they push the truck (yeah the fuckin thing didn't even run) into on of the halls where Avery Dennison and a few other vinyl companies are and the body guy starts to get a little confused. That's when the owner lets him know that the truck was sponsored by Avery and will be getting wrapped there at Sema.
Now, most of you know but there is one BIG rule when it comes to wrapping a vehicle. you NEVER wrap a car that has been freshly painted... Most professional shops wont even touch a car that has been repainted because it is highly likely that the paint will come off with the vinyl later on.
Back to the story. So it gets better! So not only is the truck getting wrapped but it is in the main wrap hall where it and a couple other vehicles will be wrapped by different teams. Every... Single... Day....
At the end of the Sema the winning wrap gets to stay on the truck but sad to say the paint is completely fucked. even through the vinyl you can see all the places where paint was ripped off. So again the body guy attempts to get payment when the owner then tells him he isn't happy with the paint.....
So he works out a deal to fix what he can just so he can make back what he lost on the materials and time the previous three weeks.
Beginning of the end:
So this is when i start making weekend trips to PHX to try and get my car sorted and everything is going to shit. The shop has well over two dozen vehicles that haven't been touched and no one to work on them. I start paying him to help out with keeping the shop open because honestly i was scared that i would go up one weekend and the car would be locked inside the shop and i would have no way to get it out. multiple weekends later we end up finishing up the car and a buddy lends me his trailer to pick it up one weekend. Most of the cars there are still in their current states and he still has no help or money. When i left that night i had a good feeling that it would be the last time id see that shop. A couple weeks later he hits me up asking if he could borrow money but i was broke myself so i couldn't help. the week after i see a picture from a friend who is also an ex employee of the shop, empty. I call the body guy and he breaks down telling me that he was done, he scrapped all of the vehicles that he had out back which were either junkyard donor cars or his own personal cars to scrape up any money he could and in the end it wasn't enough.
I'm sad that it ended this way because i know he is genuinely a good person he just fucked himself over time and this was the last straw.
Going on:
One of the great things i got from this was all of the knowledge he gave me. Because of this next year i will be doing a massive overhaul on the GTI once I get a damn house.
Agreed. He's talented when it comes to body work he just couldn't keep up when it came to running the business. I'll take all of the experience he gave me as a positive outcome from all of this though! If you thought the bodywork was crazy now just wait till next year when all of the carbon work starts!boy thats a hell of a story and goes to show the guy knew nothing about general project management.
Prior to even thinking about quoting you must gain a full scope, general budget and timeline from the client. Then you must figure out the real time and materials needed to see if the needs can be satisfied. from there you come up with a budget and sign a contract (which goes both ways) ensuring when payment will be earned and recieved. Sounds like the guy also just had no idea how to manage his resources. BUmmer
Shitty how that whole thing went.