I find it disappointing that professional and even highly regarded shops are letting things like this leave the with the customer. I can’t blame the owners. They may not know better, have the eye for certain parts or fitments. The folks running the shop do, or at least should.
I regularly ask myself how a collection of hobbyists can know so much more than
most restoration specialists. I start to tell myself “well, we are focusing one one car”
and perhaps I am being too harsh. That is not the case with you
@BMW Pete, so I don’t think that it is unreasonable for a BMW-focused shop to get the parts, placement, and period right.
Craftsmanship is another ball of wax that definitely seems to be volatile even for the best shops around. Other factors such as cost, time, etc play into that. We rarely know the full story behind a restoration.
I talked to a painter who has worked on several local e9’s. I said to him: “I don’t need a show quality paint job”. He told me “I only do show quality paint jobs.”. I responded that I appreciate his approach and I am an unlikely customer. I think that if the same expectation is set in metal work, shops wouldn’t put their name behind shoddy workmanship. I look at that door gap above, and would be embarrassed to wrap up my project with fitment like that, even as an amateur hobbyist.