Dealer rant!

[23LSVOwner]

14 hours ago, Fman said:

No, they can repair a small area.  They don't paint gel it is a layer on top of the fiberglass about 2 mil thick.  I had a silver dollar size chip in my 2013 in my bow area that was repaired.  It was white in color which is one of the easier colors to match up and show less fading over time.  They grind out the chip and clean it out, apply the gel, sand and buff.  Most people will never know it was repaired unless you know exactly where to look under certain lighting conditions.

He has orange color which is going to be a tough match.  Most places are not going to grind out a huge section of gel to repair because the cost would be extremely expensive.

20-25 mils if sprayed to the proper thickness.

[Cmb396]

@Fman, yes, I signed a quote to agree. This was an insurance claim, and I have a small deductible ($200). I, personally, would've never agreed to pay that for that small of repair. Hindsight is 20/20, but I guess I shoulda slapped a sticker over the scratches and gouges in the first place and called it a day.

I can't find any pics, but my buddies tower got into my side when some Ahole in a big cruiser decided to plane out 30 yards from us being tied up in completely open water. Needless to say, with 2-3' rollers coming in,  our boats banged off each other pretty badly.

As for the color match, I can live with the variation like mentioned above with the white gel repair. What is unacceptable is the straight transition line that really sets it off.

[Fman]

At any rate I hope you are able to get it repaired to meet your expectations.  As others mentioned it's a bummer and not acceptable how they treated your boat.  Hopefully your dealer will take care of you.  I hate to see price gouging on insurance claims and that sounds like what happened.  Pretty sure if you were coming out of pocket they would not have been anywhere close to the $1500 mark.

Good luck to you, keep us posted on how things go.

[DUKENO1]

My guess is they will not apply new gel but probably will wetsand a larger area and then try to buff/polish it out to blend better.  

[isellacuras]

2 hours ago, DUKENO1 said:

My guess is they will not apply new gel but probably will wetsand a larger area and then try to buff/polish it out to blend better.  

Which will make a huge difference imho. 

[Cmb396]

^That is what the repair guy told me. Said he would have to see what was done, but sounded like it needs blocked, and wet sanded to blend better. 

The dude was super cool about it, and is meeting much closer to home, making it easier for me. 

 

 

[23LSVOwner]

Just now, Cmb396 said:

^That is what the repair guy told me. Said he would have to see what was done, but sounded like it needs blocked, and wet sanded to blend better. 

The dude was super cool about it, and is meeting much closer to home, making it easier for me. 

 

 

Hope he gets it straightened out for you.

 

With those sharp lines at the edges of the repair I suspect it's going to be a respray though.

[bamaboy]

Here's a major question...will you still work with the same dealer after this? 

 

I'm curious too what you said about the cover if anything?

[Cmb396]

21 minutes ago, bamaboy said:

Here's a major question...will you still work with the same dealer after this? 

 

I'm curious too what you said about the cover if anything?

Doubt it, but only because of the distance thing. The dealer handling the gel, is mid Indiana Marine, and they are making right in repairing the gel. 

The dealer that subbed it out to them is No Wake Marine in cincinatti. They've been good to deal with, they had my boat for awhile, but we're good to work with. The cover, which I'm sure they're responsible for, hasn't been resolved yet. They are the closest Malibu dealer to me tho, 200 miles away. 

[robbennett]

It is not exactly as easy to blend gel as it is auto paint. They should have not broken it off at a hard tape line but the color match kinda is what it is. It is going to appear slightly off wherever it transitions from repair to factory. there are several reasons for this.

Gel is usually factory packed and sent to the dealer. Your body shop that fixes your car can mix their own paint do a spray out and then modify the formula to be very close.

Gel has no clear coat therefore they can't blend it out like they do paint. Typically the entire panel is re cleared so you cant tell where the refinish materials and factory meet.

That said 1500 is quite a lot for that small of an area. I think they overcharged if nothing else. They may have charged so much because there were two dealers trying to make some money on it. I don't think that's a fair way to do business especially when doing a rush job like that. They should have at least back taped the line so it would be easier to sand and buff out.