As I stated in my first post - I was going to post after the first couple of problems but as the weeks and months went by, more serious problems followed. As to why I didn't call Mike to talk over my concerns about the problems and take my car back to him. 1) Mike never answers his phone or emails. His excuse is he's working and talking on the phone prevents him from completing your vehicle but as he promised me my car would be ready in April but was evasive month after month avoiding my calls and emails (which elevated my stress levels) eventually getting my car back to me in early October almost eight months later.
2) Would you take your car back to someone that, when you went to pick it up, found it far from ready? The hood and driver's fender did not match up with a big gap between them. When I pointed this out to Mike, he replied, "well, what do you want me to do about it?" This should have been rectified BEFORE he painted the car. It took him and his helper 45 minutes to close the gap. The transmission was shifting funny. Mike's answer? He said he would drive my car back to Reston Va if I was to worried about driving it. My clock didnt work because Mike refused to listen to me and install an all new Painless wiring system when the car was apart and easy to do. He bitched when he couldn't find the right wires among the "spaghetti" wiring under the dash. He screwed up and put a hole in my dash installing the traffic viewer when I repeatedly told him numerous times it just screwed in place of an existing screw in the windshield molding without drilling a hole. I live with that every day and it doesnt work now as it's too far over. Mike claims he's an expert as polishing stainless and yet , he missed four or five dents in the old stainless and when I pointed one out to him upon picking the car up, he said, " Oh yeah, I saw that". Well if he SAW that well before he told me the car was ready to pick up, why on earth wouldn't he have fixed it??" The fact is, he didnt care enough. I treated Mike with great respect, paid him cash and gave him gifts but after a while began to realize, he was just another shoddy, uncaring business owner who talked the talk but didn't walk the walk. The driver window didn't roll down all the way so Mike told my "all 57's are like that". Right, that's why before I took my car to him, the window rolled down all the way. And as I said in my first post, his helper threw away my burglar alarm system responder that was attached to the old windshield and Mike never offered to take the $500 cost off the bill or replace it. My a/c hose to the unit was snapped off (again stated in my earlier post) and nothing was mentioned and I found out it leaked water back into the a/c unit almost damaging a $900 Classic air unit. I had to fix it myself. As for the paint job, it was overall very good but there is one orange peel spot that my eye keeps going to.
My point is; why take your car back to someone who blatantly screwed it up while he had it and didn't care enough to address the glaring problems before you pick it up?
Note: I am still coming across car owners who have taken their car to Mike and have the same story as I do. In fact, one of Mike's vendors who I took my car to after picking it up from him, said others that have gone to Mike have complained to him too they are not happy with the job Mike did on their car.
I would look elsewhere for a body and paint restoration shop as it will not be worth the high anxiety and many problems with your car after you pick it up if you take it to Showcase. read more