Urgent Help -- Vandalised FTO

mxysxy · Post by **mxysxy** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 12:19 pm

Hi everyone,
Nice to catch up with you all FTO owners as this is my first time in ftoaustralia.com
Bought my 95 GPX, silver about 8 months ago and still working in perfect condition.
About 2 weeks ago left it in the carpark of a shopping centre while I was watching a movie.
Guess what, I come out and found my precious all deeply scratched. Scratches are everywhere; bonnet, roof, all side panels, boot, both front and back spoilers, even on the fuel cap. Very deep scratches, and some panels has been scratches three times all the way.
It looks to me a complete respraying but I donâ€™t know much idea about the process and pricing.
Any help will be much appreciated.
Man I am so angry. Only if could find these bustards!!!

mxysxy · Post by **mxysxy** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 12:37 pm

byw, I have to pay for this, my insurance wont cover it, and the car is in MELBOURNE

Black_FTOGPX · Post by **Black_FTOGPX** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 12:46 pm

Sorry to hear about that. It comes down to people being nothing but, stupid, narrow minded jealous pigs, and nothing else.

Which car park did you leave it at?

I donâ€™t really know much about costs of having a car resprayed, but I know that it would vary.
I am currently getting some panels of mine sprayed, at Bayside panels in Bayswater, so I will ask how much it would cost when I pick my car up this week.

Post by **smorison** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 12:46 pm

mxysxy wrote:byw, I have to pay for this, my insurance wont cover it, and the car is in MELBOURNE

why won't your insurance cover it?? it is afterall vandalism

this is more than just a mobile touchup guy repair...

i would estimate somewhere around 2k to fix it up... the melbourne guys will be able to help you with pricing and suppliers

mxysxy · Post by **mxysxy** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 12:56 pm

I left it at the Northland Shopping Centre, went for the movie "TROY". I guess this will be the most expensive movie of my life.
Insurance; my stupidity, it was only third party with JustCars. For insurance I quoted stuped numbers upto $2k. And my car was always garaged, both at home and work. So I thought that would save some money for upgrades, but look at the result. That was the only time I left my precious on a outside carpark. Man I am sooo angry
I have a 3 year warranty on the car but dont think they will cover anythink.
So I have to pay for this.

ruchi · Post by **ruchi** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 1:39 pm

Man that sucks!

Depening upon your age and driving record, $2K could be the right price for insurance and in this case it would probably have worked out cheaper to have insurance than to do a respray.

As long as you don't plan to respray the car in a different colour you'll probably be looking at around $2K-$3K.

Did you report this to the police and have you or the police spoken to the shopping centre to see if they caught it on camera?

mxysxy · Post by **mxysxy** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 1:54 pm

Yee Ruchi , I reported straight after the incident and they had a look at the cameras.
On the video, they saw the guy who did this, a male car owner (White Mitsubishi Lancer, probably 95 model, old design, had a large, red coloured mitsubishi symbol painted on the bonnet) had done this but they couldnt get the rego.
So, No results again.
It is even making the situation worst that the guy vandalised my car was a mitsubishi owner as well.
They even stole my tire valve caps.

ruchi · Post by **ruchi** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 2:01 pm

Given that this guy has done up his car a bit he may be on another car forum. It may pay to visit a few Melbourne based car club forums and post some subtle messages saying you saw this car thought it looked hot and wondering if anyone knew who it was.

akumi · Post by **akumi** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 2:02 pm

Hey MxySxy,
Sorry to hear about your car, i knew it's really bad to park there, coz i live nearby northland, everytime i go watch movie, i will drive my other car. There's a lot of goons around that area.

mxysxy · Post by **mxysxy** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 2:11 pm

I guess I will try visiting other forums.
In the main time, I decided to go through with respraying, if I can find a price suitable for me. It is a real pain everytime I open the garage door and see the car like this, considering I try really hard to look after my car and wash and polish regularly.
Will respray the same colour which is silver.
Btw, I have been to a smash repairer joint which mainly works for RACV, he quoted me $5k for a total resparay, I was almost dropping dead. Imagine the engine update I could do with $5k.
Considering he is working for a insurance company I guess this price is the top limit, which there is no way I can pay for it.

mxysxy · Post by **mxysxy** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 2:13 pm

Thanks Akumi, we guys all should be carefull, as there is many loosers around.

ruchi · Post by **ruchi** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 2:14 pm

Make sure they understand what you want done. For $5K you should be able to get a complete respray in any colour you want including all the fiddly bits like engine bay and door jams etc.

All you need done is the outside panels. There is still a lot of labour involved however I reckon the price should be closer to $3K.

FTO338 · Post by **FTO338** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 2:26 pm

mxysxy wrote:Yee Ruchi , I reported straight after the incident and they had a look at the cameras.
On the video, they saw the guy who did this, a male car owner (White Mitsubishi Lancer, probably 95 model, old design, had a large, red coloured mitsubishi symbol painted on the bonnet) had done this but they couldnt get the rego.
So, No results again.
It is even making the situation worst that the guy vandalised my car was a mitsubishi owner as well.
They even stole my tire valve caps.

Hey i've seen this guy/car hang around the CBD area (Lonsdale st, between Queen & Eliz St) especially in Chinatown, with all the "rice", its easy to spot.

Black_FTOGPX · Post by **Black_FTOGPX** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 2:29 pm

Something tells me he will run into a most unfortunate accident!!

mxysxy · Post by **mxysxy** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 2:29 pm

GET THE NUMBER PLATE, GET THE NUMBER PLATE!!!!!!

mxysxy · Post by **mxysxy** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 2:32 pm

FTO338,
is he a european/middle eastern looking guy?
That car should have mag wheels as well.

akumi · Post by **akumi** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 2:39 pm

i think I'm gonna start a thread saying where keying or theft had happend so we'll avoid it!.

DZYRME · Post by **DZYRME** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 2:40 pm

That is very sad to hear. That is the main reason why I dont park my car at shopping centres. Especially Northland and Broadmeadows.

I am getting parts of my car re-sprayed at the moment at DT Panels in Springvale. I have heard only good things about these guys, and their prices are very reasonable. I pick up my car tomorrow night, so Il ask him how much it would cost for a full re-spray. $5000 is a ridiculous price, in my opinion. You could pretty much airbrush your car for that much!!

FTO338 · Post by **FTO338** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 2:50 pm

mxysxy wrote:FTO338,
is he a european/middle eastern looking guy?
That car should have mag wheels as well.

I never had a good look at the guy, i will next time i c him, & get his number plate down.

mxysxy · Post by **mxysxy** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 3:21 pm

I just had a talk with another guy who can respray my car. He didnt give me a quote but will be definately well under $5k.
But he is asking me questions about the respraying job.
Apparently this job can be done in two ways; one is the proper way and the other one is quick and cheap fix.
In Proper way, apparently they will be stripping all the parts out, including bumbers, spoilers, indicaters, plastics, probably windows as well and they will respray the whole thing.
Cheap way is to masking the plastics and spraying over it.
But he said that he cant guaratee how long the cheap way will last, as the paint is not covered all around the body, this may start chipping out later on.
He wants to do a proper job, as I dont plan to sell the car. I love FTO's, sexy little chick magnets.
What do you thinik that I should do?