The worst repair job Ive ever seen in my life.

Man comes into the shop after a shop in Santa Rosa fixed his car. He says the bumper and the liftgate dont fit. Hes right. They fit like shit. This guy allowed what I like to call a gypsy shop to repair his extensivley damaged 2008 Subaru Outback. Its the worst job Ive ever seen in 42 years of doing collision repair. He left the car for me to take back apart and what I found simply floored me. He bought the car back as salvage after it was totaled and shopped around for a cheap fix. He got fucked. Now Im going to fix it for 9K the right way. Hes already spent 5,500 at the butcher already. Simply amazing. Quality costs money. If you think a price is too good to be true, it probably is. Heres some pics of the floor, rear body panel and frame after I took the car apart. If you are in a collision take your car to a reputable shop with references. thanks, Craig

I thought body work was easy!!       You're right Craig, quality does cost money.  I tell that to my customers all the time, when they ask about price, and I say "well, Im not the cheapest guy, but....." 

Wow, amazing!
 I think the same guy did the plumbing under my kitchen sink, which I still need fixed.

Haha that is crazy! what auto body place did this?!

Beat it into submission 

Is it half way strait... from the doors forward?? 

 Seriously,  any frame machine time? 

 I've spent a fair bit of time in the trade myself. I've seen some of that. and gallons... really, Gallons of mud backed with newspaper in quarter panels, rockers, doors and back decks.  I've got about the 1/4 the time you have, seen some really wacked shit.

Nothing a little Bondo can't fix! 


Brought back a good laugh of the mobile gypsy body repair guys from back in the day. Fix your damage on the spot for cheap - fill it with steel wool, slap on a layer of plaster of Paris and some cheap spray paint - good to go...until the next rain    

Beat it into submission 

Is it half way strait... from the doors forward?? 

 Seriously,  any frame machine time? 

 I've spent a fair bit of time in the trade myself. I've seen some of that. and gallons... really, Gallons of mud backed with newspaper in quarter panels, rockers, doors and back decks.  I've got about the 1/4 the time you have, seen some really wacked shit.

The frame is bent all the way up under the rear seat. The whole rail will be replaced to that point. Never even was on a rack. The rocker mouldings were never off. No clamp marks on the pinchweld. Ill post up the repair if it interests anyone. I will have it on a Chief EZliner frame rack measured with a Car-o-liner measuring system. Very cool measuring system. By touching various points of reference on the undercarriage it will make a live feed to the computer via bluetooth to the measuring program. I can get the frame back to perfect OEM  specs. There is a 3mm tolerance level to suspension parts and a 5mm tolerance level to non suspension points. Thats + or -.

http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?p=car-o-liner+measuring+system&tnr=21&vid=4999106417786986&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts3.mm.bing.net%2Fvideos%2Fthumbnail.aspx%3Fq%3D4999106417786986%26id%3D9421931a9d57586db0c4e83f8cdfb424%26bid%3DCiPXrlILUyA4Cw%26bn%3DThumb%26url%3Dhttp%253a%252f%252fwww.youtube.com%252fwatch%253fv%253dbzBPu411VN0&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DbzBPu411VN0&sigr=11av2eft5&newfp=1&tit=Car-O-Liner+Vision+Electronic+Measuring

Yeah, that is a very cool frame rack measuring system!   

Just eyeball it 

Ill post up the repair if it interests anyone.

That's what I was thinking. Would love to see before and after.

On the bright side, it's easy for the owner to do his own alignments.  If it pulls left, just kick the right side of the rear bumper a few times to wrinkle the frame a little.  It may dog track a bit, but, hey, no more pull.


Sent from AnglingWes.com mobile HQ.

I do pre purchase inspections and some of the cars I see look a lot worse than that! Always have a look underneath before you buy or have it inspected!!!!!!! What lurks below you'll never know (unless you peek) 

 
     Looks like the other shop removed the panels, tried to beat them back flat and reuse them!
I'm not in that business, but I think I could have done a better job!

Crazy, is the car worth that much to repair out-of-pocket?  I am thinking part out On ebay! Man!