Fine, lol. Had a few issues to work through.

I got the car back from the shop today. Introducing Celeste 3.0!



I already have LOTS of issues with the work on the car. Where to start...

First off, understand that we took it to the same guy who has rebuilt it twice before (v2.0 and v2.5 lol). He's also the same guy we bought it from. It's a small shop out in the woods, but they've done good work for cheap in the past.

Well, that's the past.

I printed him off a list of things to have done, as well as notes about what modifications I had done to the engine so he would know. I guess he lost it.

Strike 1: When I backed it out of the shop, the engine was still stumbling and not idling right. He had not replaced the plug wires like I asked. He had swapped just one. So I basically had 3 different sets of plug wires on the car. This meant I had to drive it for 30 minutes to get home while it misfired the entire way there. Max speed 55, misfires on 1 and 2. (Replaced with a set of Bosch wires, fixed the issue. Hope that brand new cat is ok.)

Strike 2: He did not get the parts I requested. I wanted him to put an Si grill and Si lip on the front, as well as new OEM fog lights. They put an "EX" grill on it (wtf, same thing as the DX/LX sedan), then color matched it (wtf, they dont come like that stock...). They reused the BROKEN front lip that I had ghetto rigged in the past to work. And they reused the "broken" fog lights (though they do magically seem to fit better than ever...)

Strike 3: PAINT. Jesus Christ on meth, the paint is crap. I'll have to post pictures. The front half is MUCH lighter than the rest of the car. Its almost silver in direct sunlight. The passenger fender has unforgivably shoddy work on the hole for the side marker. The driver's fender has unforgivable "work". It looks like there was tape on it that, when removed, pulled a whole chunk of base coat off. Then they just clear coated over it. ITS AWFUL.

Strike 4: I wanted the car to be repainted in Electron Blue Pearl. He didn't even quote me on it. He just said after the fact that it would have cost about $2000 for just the paint. Glad I didn't get it painted because I would have been severely disappointed with the quality.

Strike 5: He didn't repair the rest of the body damage like I asked. Nor did he respray the entire car once said body damage was repaired (like he said he would).

Strike 6: Corners cut everywhere! For example, no front hood seal, no plastic clips to hold the washer nozzle hoses to the hood. The frame was straightened but the alignment wasn't fixed. Strikes 1 and 3 again! The headlights were NOT aligned. The fog lights were NOT aligned. (Drivers side headlight goes down, passenger side headlight goes up, drivers side fog light goes up, passenger side fog light goes down; basically it makes a big "X" of light.)

Is there a silver lining? I dont know. I have my car back but she has ...scars/blemishes?

Credit 1: They did drill a hole in the ebay pipe so the intake air temperature sensor would be on the intake instead of hanging loose.

Credit 2: It has paint so it won't rust, and it's back together for the most part. And all this only cost $2000.

 

I should never have looked closely at the repairs. The more I look, the angrier I get at the sh!tty work. You really do get what you pay for.

On one hand, I'm happy to have it back and drivable. On the other hand... wtf redneck mechanics?

First and foremost... PAINT. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Driver's fender:




Front bumper/lip/fogs:




Passenger fender: Pictures can't show the horror here, but they hacked up the fender, the hole was too big, so it looks like they didn't prep the cut area and just painted it, then glued the damn side marker in place.




New front end paint comparison with pieces from the original bumper and fenders:


Brand new passenger headlight somehow scratched on the inside:


No hood seal:


Electrical tape fix for the harness:


Radiator fan is still broken but works I guess:


Let's play spot the hole in the frame!


And here's the valve cover, a little special. Not their fault. I didn't ask them to replace it.


Yes, Im happy to have it back. But damn, now I wish I had just pulled the engine and let it go. If I had known it would turn out like this, I would have just let it go.

 

Take it back and show him everything. If he is a respectable and honest business owner he should fix his mistakes. That is terrible, the area withthe tale looking thing is a joke, I would've been back there screaming at them yesterday. That is ridiculous that they let it roll out of their shop like that.

 

Again, it was a cash deal on the super cheap. It's not something I would even bother taking back because that's the level of quality that their paint guy holds to.

 

you said 2K thats still super shady! hell for 2K you should have drove it to my house in indy and id do it right! that paint is horible i dont even see how the hell it has those tape.paint areas!
defiantly take that back and complain! there is no reason why those painted areas should look that horible. its like he painted it once with tape on it, then saw it while painting and just removed the tape and kept shooting. totally unacceptable for 2K! thats ruffly 1K in labor you paid him to do a crappy job! hell he even painted the bumper all put together instead of seperate. hell after he fixes this crap you should never go back there EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER GO BACK!
and wheres the old hood? pull that seal off it.

 

ok if you need the hood seal. i got one today. they had a 99 civic sedan that looked like he tried to drive under a tractor trailer.lol not good for him totally jacked the whole roof and i wouldnt be suprised if the driver had some serious head trama at the least! but hood was still good. but somebody already took whole motor and radiator and fan or else i would have snagged it for ya. it still had the ac condensor and fan tho.

 

Nice. PM'd

 

I am glad you got it back in a timely fashion. Looks like it still needs a little bit of work, but at least you have some left over cash now, right?

I haz a VC if you need a replacement.

 

I have the old valve cover from the old engine in my garage, but I want to look into doing something special for it. Not sure what to do yet. Will wait for paint options.

 

I got a vtec cover on ebay right now d16z6. Win the auction and ill throw the seal in free