OnlyVans...about imperfectionism and COLORS

I found a lot of surprises while checking the van, this is the one I really liked

A little trip down memory lane
On the 11th of December last year, I decided to bring my van Vin Diesel to the true experts. Mercedes-Benz Truck & Vans in Germany. Normally I won't visit Mercedes, because in the Netherlands the hourly wages at Mercedes are insane (150 Euro per hour). But I like wellness, maybe Vin Diesel needed a bit of true wellness too. 4 days later I received a call from the garage that they had a little accident... One of the mechanics crashed a beer truck in Vin Diesel's back part. I know some people like to try putting beer bottles up in their ass, but Vin didn't like it. More about the details and pictures in the original post: It's weekend...let's have a beer and CRASH

Some of you might remember my earlier experiences with long term garage stories and receiving my van back in an even worse condition. Does history repeats itself?

Vin Diesel in a horror movie
I should trust the experts. I choose to have the issue solved by Mercedes-Benz and their insurance (instead of towing the van to the Netherlands and use my own all-risk insurance). Not knowing that I would end up in a casino and lose. Because I was not involved in the accident, Mercedes was responsible. It was during the end of year, so perfect timing with all the holidays. The damage expert was clear; the rear part of the body needs to be replaced. Total damage was estimated on 12,500 Euro's. This means, no economic total loss. Mercedes-Benz advised a car paint shop, where then normally send damaged cars. I agreed. I never asked if Mercedes damaged these cars themselves...

People that know me, know how spontaneous I can be. So I was with visiting the garage and the car paint shop regularly. I didn't show up every day. But once a month, to get some stuff out of the van (it is my home). Of course I asked if this car painter knows how to work with matte finish paint. He knew, I showed him a can of old paint, so he could check the color reference. The end of the year, we visited the car painter again, and I could already see the brown paper taped on the van. It was not because someone wanted to bake something tasty in the oven. Although temperatures were rising when I saw what the painter did. He had sealed everything with a generous layer of filler and was ready to spray paint the car. This was wrong, this was not the way how to fix this damage and not what we agreed.

Back at the Mercedes garage there was quite some internal miscommunication. In between I received an invoice for the actual repair before the accident. I asked for a discount. I got a discount on materials and hourly rate, but they just increased the hours, so the invoice was still around the original amount. While I asked questions about mistakes on the invoice, the questions were ignored.

The damaged part was removed

The 'new' part

This is they way they worked. Wooden panels still had screws sticking out

Nice burning spot in the felt

How they treat a nice wooden floor

Besides all this, I could see some improvement

Replaced parts for the body were ordered. Vin Diesel was tortured. They removed a big part of his body. He looked said. For months in this dark dusty building, being alone during Christmas and NYE. They went inside and hurt him. Not using any protection. The wooden floor looked like a mess, so many black stains and scratches. Burning spots in the felt wall covering, from welding. A big part of the interior was removed and they didn't properly take care of it. I made pictures and send it to the garage, no response.

It was about getting connected these months

During all these months, it was hard to get answers. There was no plan, no timeline, nothing. I had to visit them personally, because e-mails were hardly answered and picking up the phone seemed to be hard. Why it was constantly taking longer? Sick employees, holidays, Carnaval, etc. After 4 months I still don't know who their insurance company is. I am constantly talking with mechanics, because they have no manager or boss. Yes, it is really happening in Germany. Several times I was blamed for bringing in a car with old damage. WTF? It was quite clear what the damage was after the accident. And the car painter? He promised a lot, but in the end he did not deliver what we discussed with him 4 times. The last time we spoke to him, he started screaming on the phone and told us not to contact him anymore. The only thing we asked, was an update. The van was promised to be ready a week before and we didn't hear a thing. It's not that strange an owner will call right?

I can imagine this period was a true nightmare for Vin Diesel. We are soulmates, so I also had nightmares about it. At some point my girlfriend thought I loved my Mercedes more than I love her. Hey, it's still a German right? :)

Several examples of damage caused by the car painter

Any color difference? I mean the green

Ready or not, here I come
A few weeks ago it was ready, they said. When I visited the garage, I was a bit surprised. From a distance and inside the garage, I could see a huge color difference with the front part of the van and the back. Matte paint is a difficult thing they said. I know, but the agreement was that the whole left side would have the same color. While walking around, I discovered more...

• The left back door was removed and placed on the concrete floor. The bottom part of the door was damaged and needed to be repainted.
• Several black stains on the new green paint. It had to be removed. I know that it should have been removed quickly, otherwise you can hardly remove it from the matte paint.
• Black plastic cover plates, one of them had deep strange scratch, that was not there before. It was because of careless handling at the car painter. They will repaint the black cover on the left side in matte black.
• LED-strip inside was broken.
• Some strange white stuff on the new tail light. They should have used a condom...
• Missing felt wall covering.

We agreed that the garage should give the car a good wash inside and outside when it's ready. We will check again the colors and decide what to do.
When I picked it up last week, I did a little testdrive with the mechanic. To see if all the repairs fixed the main issue that was the reason for my visit in December. The strange metallic noise between the gears when shifting was still present. The mechanic had no idea what it could be. I know that reaction by now. It is indeed a serious problem, because I can hardly get up on steep slopes and sometimes things go wrong with automatic gear shifting. Let's see what happens the coming roadtrip. Maybe the other repairs solved the issue and the noise is just a noise...

The 'quality' of screwing things back together

Far from perfect
The last visit at Mercedes, I did a quick check and I took the van with me. With the agreement that I will send an e-mail with all my comments. I need to take Vin Diesel on a long sunny roadtrip, to see if the colors are getting better. When I get tanned, color differences are getting stronger...let's see. When it was not raining anymore, I started to do a good check in and around the van. I took pictures and wrote a detailed e-mail to the Mercedes garage. Just a few points;

• Still huge differences. The new painted part of the car, doesn't look new at all. Something else about the new painted parts some parts feel rough, others smooth.

Pictures made with 2 different phones, both quite clear about the difference. All parts behind the door are newly painted

• The black stains they tried to remove, were now dark greenish spots on the new paint. I try to see it a bit as camouflage. I looks a bit like leaves when I am standing between the trees with my van.

Uniform green is different

• The inside and outside wash? The only thing that could be linked to a 'wash', was and empty spray bottle of cockpit spray. The car was dusty and still quite dirty. I saw they tried to clean the front black bumper with some aggressive chemical thing, the black layer of paint is destroyed.
• The plastic parts they painted in black, don't really match with the other black parts. It's shiny versus matte. After questioning this, the response was that they used 'silk matte' and that the shiny look will disappear. We'll see the coming months.

Shiny matte black, a damaged hinge and the missing caps

• They used some chemicals that left marks on the bumbers.

Somebody used the wrong cleaner

These white spots are found on all black plastic parts around the left back side of the van

• Behind the black plastic parts, they spray painted the green far too low, so between the black panels, you can now see a green background with a fading gradient.

• My future neighbors will not like me. I have to slam the back door pretty hard, to get them closed. On backdoor was removed and a new corner part was added. Also new back rubbers. It all could have been adjusted better.
• The black protection caps of the ladder on the back, were gone.
• The quality of the new sealing between the panels is far from perfect.

• The new tail light was not installed straight.

• An official car painter that sprays a car like this? The drips match the tears in my eyes...

• Wheel arch and suspension were not covered during spray painting, on the black parts it is full of green paint.

• Some of the edges were partly sprayed rough, so all the dirt and dust remains. Parts of the paintwork feel like coarse grit sandpaper.

• The reinstalled wooden bedframe. This was partly screwed together crookedly. Beams and slats deviated by up to a cm in some places, making it difficult to slide them together. Many new holes had been created. I took the frame apart myself and installed it straight.

Is there something wrong here?

• In the wall panels a large number of special screws were missing. Some of them showed up, being used in the bedframe. I bought new ones and screwed the panels onto the metal walls.

Scratches, missing screws...I know, I am also missing a few screws in the head

Sandpapering the walls and give it a new layer of oil. It was a bit of testing to figure out what the pre-owners used to give the wood this nice semi shiny and warm look. I will share the results later.

• Some wall panels had been replaced crookedly. Unfortunately, this could not be repaired without removing the entire interior.
• There were so many new scratches on the wooden panels. I decided to sandpaper them all and give it a layer of oil.
• The felt wall covering they replaced, was totally different from. the short and smooth original. They actually used different ones on several spots. I compared it like a hairy dog with a naked cat. I tried to make it nicer, by sahving the messy long haired felt part, with a bear trimmer. Who can say they shaved their van?? Vin Diesel might be a smooth criminal by now.

The hairy dog vs. the naked cat

Left, the original state of my van

Right, the 'fixed' state of my van. Sponsored by Mercedes-Benz

Shaving my van

• There was a new deep scratch in the green color inside. I wanted to use a bit of my old paint and discovered that the old can I showed for color code, was empty. I still don't know what these guys have done. This paint was years old and only used for little damages.

It's good to have my buddy back

Change the mindset
I realize it's becoming a long post. I kept all the details for this 1 story, instead of weekly updates. I hardly got updates myself. When I look at my comments, I might sound like a guy that complains. But, if someone destroys your car...and you always take good care of it. You would expect from a well known garage, that you would get it back 99% close to the state before the accident. For 2 days I felt sad. Then I looked at myself and my general behavior. I spend so much time in fixing things, keeping stuff in a perfect condition, being the nice guy, taking care of others. I know, most of the time I am a perfectionist. I started to read a bit about the opposite: imperfectionism. Trying to constantly fix thing is exhausting and I feel exhausted for many years now. It's time consuming. Why should I not accept that things get damaged? I am damaged myself. Maybe when I accept damages in all forms, life could be a bit easier. Unknowingly I started damaging items today, and I called it an item with a story. I should spend more time in enjoying life, instead of constantly fixing things and be over-organized. Maybe I have to see this Mercedes torture story more as a lesson in life. Does it matter if it has color differences now? When everything has the same color, it boring right. I will become an imperfect perfectionist.

The most important thing, Vin Diesel is back! Ready for good memories & funny adVINtures. This weekend we'll spend a lot of time together.

See you soon on the road again!