[Beware] Lotus Autobody (Richmond, BC)

So around August 2012, I bought a lip kit and brought it over to Andrew @ Lotus Autobody to get it painted (just the rear piece) and the whole kit installed because my friend said he had a good experience getting his front lip painted and installed there. Paint was good, but install was terrible. Didn't want to say anything until now but if anyone has considered bringing it to this shop on Olafson and Bridgeport, I'd suggest reconsidering..

The day I went to go pick up my car after the kit had been installed, I noticed things wrong with every single piece.

Starting off with the biggest problem, the front lip.

If you notice very closely, you can see the bumper on the driver side by the fang has been scratched by the lip and the paint has faded. The install was done terribly, it only had two screws on the entire lip and two pieces of double sided tape approx 15cm long per side. That was it. Fitment was not perfect, and there was a very visible gap in between the lip and the bumper on the front edges. The tape was already peeling and there was a good 1-2cm gap on the curve of the bumper and lip, you can see the tape was sagging and completely useless there. The tape was about 1/4 of the lip? The rest of the weight was held on by one screw on each side. I asked Andrew if this was okay, and if he was sure. He said "Yeah of course it's fine". So I leave, and 1.5 months later I went back to the shop. By this time I had scraped the lip pretty badly because of my ride height, and the two screws were half out and also angled now instead of being parallel to the ground like it was before. I bought it to him to ask if he could remount it to make sure it stayed on. He took a look at it, tried to shake the lip, and then he said "No I can't do that because if I thread the screws in it will crack the lip. Wait for the screws to fall out and I will redrill a hole for you to mount a new screw in. I can't do that until it falls out". I asked if he was completely sure that it would hold, and he just said "Yeah of course". I was retarded and believed him. The car was garaged 2 weeks later (no more scraping now because I had gotten used to the height), and taken out just a week ago. Again, no scrapes. Today, on the highway, I was just about to take an exit and going about 120km/h I hear a sudden pop and a HUGE scraping sound. I immediately stop and pull over, walk around my car and find out my front lip had fallen off. It completely fell off and was no longer attached to the car, but because my car was so low it wouldn't clear underneath my bumper so my bumper simply pushed the lip forward and it kept dragging on ground. This is the result of dragging 120km/h -> 0km/h, doesn't look as bad as it does in person in these pictures. The bottom half is separated from the rest of the lip, and is no longer one sturdy piece. It just flaps now..

The other side was sanded down by the concrete but it didn't completely sheer off yet, so it's still in one piece thankfully..

I took it back to Andrew and didn't mention anything, just that it fell off while driving on the highway. He looks at it and says it's not repairable because it's completely carbon fiber. I ask how it fell off and he said he had no idea. Both screws were missing on each side and the tape snapped in two, half on the bumper and half on the lip. He said he had no idea how the screws could have fallen out, and that someone must have tried to steal my front lip. I told him that I had just retorqued my lugs this morning because I recently put on spacers about 100km ago. The screw was still in there. My friend even made a comment a couple of days ago about how stupid the installer was because there was marks on my bumper and the screw holding the lip in was sticking out, though I did correct him saying that the scraping of the lip is what caused the screw to stick out. Even though I wanted to put the screw back in, Andrew specifically told me not to and to just leave it the way it is until it does fall out. However, I just ******* realized that when the screw falls out, so will the lip. Because all it's held on by other than the screws, are two short pieces of 3m tape that was not even really holding on in the first place.

I asked him why it happened, and if it was an install mistake and if it could have been installed better. Andrew replies with "No not at all. If it was my mistake then the rest of your kit should have fallen off too because it was also done by me." This is complete ******** because for one, the front lip takes most of the wind resistance when driving compared to the sides and rear. The sides at least had 5 or so bolts on each side, and the rear was siliconed to stay on. The front only had tape and 2 screws in total.

I also mentioned that I noticed and pointed out to him that the tape was already peeling the day that it was installed. He then says well that's not his fault, but is 3m's fault for making bad tape or if he used a defective roll. Wtf? In my opinion, it should be the body shop's responsibility for the products they use. If they don't expect the product to hold up the lip properly, why would they even use it? Shouldn't a proper bodyshop expect all of their work to actually last more than 3 months of usage without falling off?

He then says that it might have also fallen off because I drive it everyday. At this point I'm just like :rukidding: No **** I drive my car everyday, it's a freaking car. I told him that he should have expected cars to be driven... and that should not be an issue for a properly installed lip. He then says that if it was his fault, it should have fallen off the day of the install or the day after. But the fact that it took 3 months to fall off means that it was not the installers fault. I just can't believe it at this point. What kind of body shop installs a lip and says "oh well if it lasts more than one day on this car then my job is done"? I told him that I think that is a pretty big problem if a lip can't last on the car for a mere 3 months. Could it not have been mounted better? He again says 3 months of daily driving. He cannot take any responsibility for this at all.

He also asked me more than 3 times where the screws were in the half hour conversation we had. I told him that I don't know, obviously because the lip ******* flew off on the highway. The screws were probably somewhere on the highway. He says that doesn't make sense because screws can't simply fall off. I tell him that I saw the screws on the lip this morning, and he says again that someone probably took it off to try to steal the lip. I drove non stop today before the lip fell off, except to get gas and I was by my car the entire time. I told him this and that no one could have taken it off. He then says well there's no other option except someone trying to steal it. And that he can't say anything else about where the screws could have went because he could not see the screws. In my head I was thinking; well if you could see the ******* screws then my lip would still be on the car..

I understand that it could have been my fault for scraping the lip in the first place causing the screws to start to fall off, but I brought it back to Andrew because of this to make sure that it was okay. I wanted it to be remounted if needed, but he said it was completely fine and that it did not have to be fixed, touched up, or anything. Wait for the screws to fall off before he can redrill a new hole and mount a new screw? Well the screw fell off. So did my lip.

He said he can't repair it, but I showed my friend and he said he could help me. We're now going to try to use fiberglass to fix the hole and put a **** load of resin on there, then sadly have to paint the bottom of the lip black. We're also going to put clear cf resin on the cracks of the lip that are still intact... If anyone else has any opinions on how to add onto the fix please share. The lip was about $550, and being a student working two part time jobs it's really hard for me to just throw it away having it on for less than half a year.

My bumper now that the lip has fallen off..



The bumper was in perfect shape in those areas before the lip install. The lip was installed badly and loose since the very beginning, so it kept moving up and down since there were only 1 bolt on each side, and scraping against my bumper. I pointed this out to Andrew as well, and his response: "Oh that'll polish out". Yeah, so who's going to polish that out for me? -_-



The sideblades;

They were flimsy. Very flimsy. I understand it can be because of the way it was made, but install was an issue here imo... He installed the sideblades with about 4 bolts and nuts that came with the part, and 3-4 of his own screws, which had different heads. He did not use any double sided tape, which made it seem very flimsy in between the bolts. My sideblades always rattles against the car whenever someone's shoe or pants accident brush against it. This may be the case with a lot of these kind of parts, but I'm pretty sure it could have been a lot better if it were taped on so the parts in between the bolts are atleast connected to the car. I brought this up to Andrew and he said it's fine. He could have taped it but he thought the bolts were okay. I was obviously unhappy about it, but after the install of course he did not want to simply unbolt it just to add tape to reinforce it.


The rear lip was also installed pretty badly. There were gaps everywhere and the tape was peeling off already when I went to go pick up the car. I asked Andrew if he could install it any better and he said no. One corner of the lip was COMPLETELY off the car, the tape was there but could not hold it so the corner was just in the air. I showed this to Andrew, and he just pushed it back down and the tape held on for 2 seconds before the edge came flying up. He just shrugs and says "Well, bad fitment. What can you do". I told him to silicone it so it'll stay, there's no way I can accept that kind of install when the lip is already falling off. He said fine, come pick it up again in half an hour. I am also sure that the lip could have been fitted with no gaps, because I've seen a lot worse fitment on the rear lips of my previous Civic and the cheap shop that I brought it to installed it perfectly with only double sided tape and screws, no gaps at all. This one didn't even seem that bad.

Everything was also test fitted prior to install/paint, and Andrew said everything was okay. Clearly looking at it now, it's not.

Sorry for the long post, was just really choked today for almost destroying my $550 front lip... Sharing this in hopes that it won't happen to anyone else reading this. If any of you guys think your lip kit was installed badly and flimsy, take it to the shop right away and have them look at it and fix it. If they refuse to fix it like Lotus, then take it to another shop. Don't be stupid like me. And beware of this shop for lip kit installs. My friend who referred me said that his bumper was also similar to mine because the lip kept rubbing against it due to the install, which shouldn't be happening..