Yeah I know, i'm lazy!!! So i have the local mechanic regularly change my oil. This is about the seventh time I have gone through this ritual , my 00 Z28 is about to go up on the lifts. This is the lift ,which has 4 arms and must be slid under the car.

As the lift approached the underside, and raised the tires 4" off the ground, the car settles on the rack to the left with the sound of bent metal, and then it settles again to the right.

The mechanic lowered the lift and repositioned the arms.

As I always do, i inspect the underside with detail. This particular time the garage "FLUNKY" asks me to stand outside the garage saying im slowing his man down who has 2 other oil changes to do. THAT CAUGHT MY SUSPICION!!!!

Thats when I noticed the left fender attachement was competely flattened, so bad, that the fender tore at the seams which was attached to the 2 bolt connection by only a thumbnail of composite. The right side bent the flange and this could proabably be pounded into place.

YEAH I WAS PISSED. I called the owner and the mechanic admitted fault. He said no problem we can "epoxy" it back together. I said, "bulllllllll.................****tttttttttttt"



1. He damaged vehicle so you are entitled to a full repalcement of the left fender with new Z28 emblem and must have the hood and door sprayed to match paint.

2. He agreed and we got 2 estimates. $1104 and $1004.

3. He calls Sunday before the Monday she goes in and asks if he can place a steel plate behind the torn section and coat it with fiberglass sealant.

4. Two trains of thought here.
a. The damage isnt visible but I know its there
b. The mechanic admits fault, but thinks entire replacement
of fender, for such small damage, that I shouldnt
be an "***" and let him do a cheepy repair!!!

5. I have used this mechanic to do oil changes for 2 years and hes pretty honest and accepts responsibility. Because he came forward with no hastle we reached a compromise.

6. He will do the fiberglass seal repair but agrees that if the fender flap loosens he will allow full body work.

7. My farewell to this mechanic while leaving him a message his mistake cost him big time. I agreed to the repair and he agreed to my terms:

a. Pay for auto tranny oil change - POWERFLUSH - $145
b. Pay for rear differential oil change - $85
......AT THE PROFESSIONALS!!!!! - ALLEN GWYNN CHEVROLET!!!!

8. A fair compromise $225 vs $1004

Blaze One
2000 Z28 Pewter A4
K&N Filter, !FRA, Mobil 1 Tri Synthetic

http://blazeone.cz28.com

Member of the Southern California Camaro Connection
http://southerncaliforniacamaroconnection.cz28.com

 

all i will say is i am a very lazy person. BUT when it comes to my car, NO ONE touches it. i would never even consider having someone else change the oil. doesn't take long at all, and is a peice of cake to do.

i can't believe people pay to have oil changed

sucks what happend to your car, hopefully it will look good when they are done. but it will never be exactly the same

Jon

 

good job in getting your car fixed...you fought for your rights and won.

an idiot at an allignment and brake shop did something similar to my car in Hawaii. He bent the front right fender and I suspect tried to hide it. I caught it the next day (I shouldve checked, I know) and took the z back.
the owner fixed it but I'm never going there again.

if the dumbass couldn't even lift the car right, what else did that fool do wrong???

 

Especially at tire places !!

I make sure to advise them about proper lifting - fortuantely, the local Discount Tire is very familiar w/ the later F's & knows to watch for this.

Really, really stupid way for GM to attach a fender - what was wrong w/ having the mouting "tabs" lay flat against the subframe ?

That way, you would never run across this problem.

Anyway, glad to hear it is getting fixed.

Just look at other 4th gens as you are driving for pooched fenders - once you start looking, you'll see lots of them.

Oh, this happened on my '99 T/A - nothing so severe as you encountered, but noticeable.

I fixed it w/ a rubber mallet, a block of wood, and several heavy blows to bend the fender mount back into it's proper location. Ugly, but effective.

On the SS, it says "Do Not Lift" or something to that effect on the fender side .


Britt

 

I just got the car back and its not bad.

The metal plate and fiberglass seal job looks like this:

His body shop attached a steel plate behind the torn left bender at the bend. They actually welded this to the composite to strenghthen it. Then they repaired the torn section with fiberglass sealent to make it look smooth. I t was sprayed over with black primer, sanded, and finished. The undersection is black right at the connection point, but I will live with that.

They also welded a L-shaped steel plate behind the vertical metal connection to strenthen it. They did this to both sides. The left fender is still removable through the two bolts.

I am satisfied with this and will report if I have any problems. Right now the car is at Allen Gwynn's for a tranny powerflush and differential oil change.

P.S. To all 4l60E tranny owners. Allen Gwynn said a POWERFLUSH actually removes ALL tranny oil from the car including the torque converter and replaces it with 8qtsI believe as opposed to dropping the pan which only uses less than 4 qt.

FIGHT FOR YOUR OWNERSHIP RIGHTS is the moral of the story here!!

Blaze One
2000 Z28 Pewter A4
!FRA, K&N Filter, Mobil 1 Tri Synthetic, and as of today new tranny and differential oil!!

http://www.blazeone.cz28.com

Member of the Southern California Camaro Connection

http://www.southerncaliforniacamaroconnection.cz28.com

 

sorry, but if it were me, nothing less than a replacement at a chevy dealer would appease me.. That is insane...

at least you are happy.. I am prolly more annoyed than you...



just one question.. why do you keep taking your car in to change fluids?!?!
hehe

 

I couldn't let them get away with just patching it back together. It would have gone to a Chevy body shop for full replacement, repair and repainting of the damaged section to "like new" condition. And the tire shop would have paid for it.

I do as much as I can on my car, and everything else goes only to people I trust. Granted, they may make a mistake, but like your oil guy, they will own up to it and make it right.

For me ... unless it involves the wheels coming off the car, mine will ONLY go up on a "drive-on" lift. If they don't have one, they won't get my business.

At the house, or at my friend's "in home shop" ... the car goes up via floor jack to jack stands when we need to work underneath or rotate the tires.

The only time it's been up on a "4 claw" lift was when the tires were replaced, and I made sure they knew the proper contact points and I watched them the whole time.

 

sorry about the camaro buddy. I had the same thing happen at bell tire, but the messed up both sides. they paid for it, i thin it was like 900 or so. I usually dont let anyone touch my car either, but i sometimes pay fo rthe oil changes. My friend works at penzoil and i get full synthetic for 30 bucks, you can beat that witha stick. if i get regular oil(havent since the first change), it cost me a couple packs of smokes. you cant even buy oil for that much.

 

the same thing happend to me. Except mine happened when my tires were getting aligned. I have a 1997 z28 and it clearly said DO NOT JACK HERE on the underside of the fender. My fender is still bent out. Do you guys have any kind of suggestion on how to fix this? Rubber mallet like someone posted earlier? What did you do with the wood block? Thanks


Scott

 

a similar thing happened to a buddy of mines with his 03 sentra SER Spec V. He took it to a muffler shop here in miami to install his catback system and the guy, going uo crushed his side skirt, it made a loud nasty popping noise, and my boy got pisst, lucky for him and the mechanic nothing happened. but he did complain and they brought another guy in to install it for him. I don't understand why that happens to so many mechanics, it must be pure laziness, that they won't get down all the way to the floor and get a good look under the vehicle. especially on a 93 and up f-car, the lift points are clearly there, u just gotta get "down" and look for them.

 

My 98 was a used Florida police car with both fenders broken as you described.{ it was $3000 under book value} Drilled two 1/4 inch holes in the bottom of the fender, unbolted the now useless attachment bolts,ran a platic wire tie through each, pulled the fenders in tight, looks stock.

 

Hey Scott,

Check out my thread above on the repair. It wasnt bad. What they did was take a steel plate and used a special weld at the seam. Then they filled the torn section with fiberglass seal. On the metal flange connected to the body, they pounded it back in place and reinforced it from behind with a steel plate again welded. Also the fiberglass seal was prepped, sanded, and primered over. Good body work cant tell damage.

Scott

Blaze One
2000 Z28 pewter A4
K&N Filter, !FRA, Mobil 1 Tri Synthetic Oil
MSD 8.5mm Super Conductor Wires

http://www.blazeone.cz28.com

Member of the Southern California Camaro Connection

http://www.southerncaliforniacamaroconnection.cz28.com

 

I used to handel ins. claims for a LARGE retailer and unfortuneatly this is all too common but the shops do not take a huge hit on this , they have ins for just this type of thing .

I would have had the part replaced , you just helped the shop keep it off of thier record

 

Good point! Should have thought about that one.

 

I have had the same thing happen to me at my dealership. They bent it back enough to make it look good and even then it was still not right(bolting flange still bent). Well after about a month and a half the fender started to split and as we speak it is in a bodyshop getting fixed properly (I hope). If it is still not right Iwill have them do it again and it looks right(the dealer)and this was at my very first oil change on my new 2002 Camaro Z28, which I bought back in June. I will let you guys know how it turned out.