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Picked up the car from the bodyshop today!

Brangeta

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 2, 2005
Messages
1,767
Location
Dallas, TX
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I know this isn't about a Callaway, but since this is the only area of Corvette Action Center I visit, I thought I'd share the good news with you all!

After over 5 weeks of switching bodyshops, part ordering, and waiting, we finally got to pick up my sister's Z28 from the dealership today!

They did a great job on the rear quarterpanel repair (see pics of the damage here if you don't remember them: http://rides.webshots.com/album/554164129UczmBX), and the new door looks great. Overall, they did a pretty nice job. It isn't perfect, but they did a good job. I'd rate it 8 out of 10 right now.

There are a few areas of the paint that they need to touch-up, but we're going to wait until Thanksgiving to have that done. Also, someone (either the flat-bed tow truck guy or one of the bodyshops) wrecked the front end of the car into something. Fortunately the license plate and license plate bracket took seemingly all of the damage. I will have to further inspect this in the next few days. The collision guy at the dealership said he'd order the bracket for us and charge it to the insurance or something. The car got pretty close to being totaled! $3796.39 to the insurance company!

We learned something new about the car today also; we thought we had a slow coolant leak because of an occasional green spot on the garage floor, but it turned out being a seal leak in the A/C compressor. Apparently the compressor has a green dye added to the oil inside it, and it just so happens to match antifreeze perfectly. (Now wonder my dad and I could NEVER find the place the coolant was leaking from :L). This needs to be repaired ASAP, because if the A/C is running, and the oil is all gone, the compressor is going to seize up and snap the belt on the alternator. Good to know ahead of time. :upthumbs (It also has a few oil leaks, but they are at the crankshaft, the rear of the intake manifold, and at the oil pan -- very common for a 12 year old Camaro... or Vette for that matter I'd imagine). They are quite common for a car of its age. No need to worry about them as they are very slow leaks, and we'd prefer to change all of the gaskets on the engine at one time... like when there's a quart of oil on the garage floor instead of 2 drops...)

Also, I learned something else new today; on at least the '93-'97 Camaro Z28s, the handbrake is used to readjust the rear brakes. There is a piston and spring in there that will adjust them. Since the car is an automatic, we've never used the handbrake except two times in the past 11 years that I remember. The mechanic (who has owned 3 Camaros interestingly enough) said that we should use the handbrake everytime we park. Cool stuff, I wondered why the brakes didn't feel like they were working well. New pads, brake fluid, and a lot of brake bleeding could have been prevented :cool


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pretty good repair job
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repainted bumper
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damage fixed
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I'm not sure the paintjob is completely up to snuff, but it works!
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Mom's happy :)
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Back in its rightful place next to its buddy!
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f'ed up license plate and bracket thanks to a random act of carelessness (tow truck guy? the first bodyshop? the second body shop?)
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ughhhhhhh
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no rust! but a few leaks a couple years old...
 
I forgot to mention that the car has 5 weeks of dust on it (except in the repainted areas). Oh... and it still runs like a mountain lion, so it was a blast to ride in on the way home. :D
 
Looks pretty good. As long as Mom is happy... :)

-Mac
 
Brangeta,

As far as I am concerened you are more than welcome to post here! (We know deep down you are a Callaway Guy at heart)

The repair looks pretty darn good to me - at least in pictures. You should be able to replace the front license plate holder without much effort.

Glad it worked out well for you and that they didn't total the car.

-Luigi
:cool
 
Thanks Luigi! I appreciate the kind words!

I inspected and worked on the car a bit today. Does 4 hours count as "a bit?" :L
I hammered the license plate back to being flat, and the bracket isn't too screwed up, so I just reattached it. It'd be nice to have a replacement, but this will do as is.

The front end of the car shows minimal damage underneath the plate. There's some deep scratches where the bracket got forced through the paint, and there is damaged fiberglass/plastic about the size of my pinky fingernail exactly where the plate was bent. I think I can get the dealership to repaint the area when they fix a paintchip they left in the new paint on the quarterpanel.

I don't know when I can wash the car, but the repair looks pretty good. The paintjob, I'm not sure of, but I'll know as soon as I can wash it! :)
 
Looks pretty good from here.. Glad they put it all back together. :upthumbs


Thanks for the tip with e-brake.. I never use it either.. Guess i should yank at it once in a while.. :eyerole

The couple of drips are fairly normal. Mine has 165k on it and has a few drippages, same spots as this one.. For a high mileage car, not too bad. I'm with you on the gasket, when the time comes, it will get new ones around.

:w
-Stefan
 
Good thing to know about the e-brake.

Funny thing is that I always use it on all my cars despite living in flat Florida but just to keep tension off the tranny before putting a car in park I always put on the e-brake.

Thanks for the info.

-Luigi
:cool
 

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