Body shop experiences

[gran coupe john]

Wanted to hear some of e body body shop experiences. 9 years ago my car went to a body shop. A guy with 30 years experience told me he could have it finished in 6 months. After almost 2 years he called me to come get the car. The car was not even close to being done. He told me he was going out of business. He had been renting the garage. When he called was the night before his lease was up. Had to get a wrecker that night to retrieve my car. Two years of my life ruined, because car was worse, than when he got it. I know there are some worse stories about body shops.

 

[Adam]

That sucks! I used a small shop, only two guys, between my house and work. I would stop in a couple of times a week just to see if there was any progress. I tried very hard not to be a nuisance, and it worked out so well that I brought another car in, and had an appointment for a third when the owner/painter died of a stroke; younger guy too.

Then, I had a place that sandblasted a bunch of truck parts very quickly, then didn’t/wouldn’t do the frame for months, so I just pick it up unfinished, even though I already paid him, and did it myself.

I sent my Rally gauges to a well know place for speedo work, and cosmetics.. it was slow but the work was very good; then I sent in my 1948 Power Wagon truck gauges, it took over a year, and they didn’t do the numbers correctly. The original numbers were an art deco style. I told them I wanted it the same but black numbers on a white back ground, opposite from stock. They just used generic numbers!… I would have made them fix it but didn’t want to wait another year.

So, I recommend being the squeaky wheel a little bit.. otherwise they will forget about you and concentrate on new customers & new money.

 

[don selleck]

paid a guy to do body work on my charger, came back full of bondo and was a rust free car not sure what he was thinking, ground it back down and did it myself. Dropped it off at a friend of mine who owns a body shop and he painted it in his paint booth, turned out very nice, that was ten years ago, I just do it myself. Most people won't put the time into it, and its alot.

 

[440WB]

Wanted to hear some of e body body shop experiences. 9 years ago my car went to a body shop. A guy with 30 years experience told me he could have it finished in 6 months. After almost 2 years he called me to come get the car. The car was not even close to being done. He told me he was going out of business. He had been renting the garage. When he called was the night before his lease was up. Had to get a wrecker that night to retrieve my car. Two years of my life ruined, because car was worse, than when he got it. I know there are some worse stories about body shops.

Man I feel your pain... been there, got burned - found out the hard way too.
Finding the right shop usually gets down to trust - most are full of B.S. with you finding out they are like a Salesman - going after the down payment!
25+ years ago - with a few bad experiences - is what got me into doing the work myself!
FIRST bad ---
Thinking that a well known body shop, on a main street, in business several years...
after a phone call - Took my car for the estimate - a written contract with the promise she would be in primer for me to check before paint within 2 weeks - $3k would be due at that point ( I was on a job out of town for that time ) after 2 weeks came to give payment - Car was still in the back parking lot - untouched! They changed the agreement to say I had to pay 100% up front! I said NO THANKS thats not going to work.
They knew they were in the wrong -

 

[gran coupe john]

Wish, hindsight got on this site sooner. The bad thing is the next body shop had it a year with little to nothing done. That was in 2019. 3rd shop was a charm. Have had the car back since 2023 should be done by end on August. (Cross your fingers)

 

[440WB]

Wish, hindsight got on this site sooner. The bad thing is the next body shop had it a year with little to nothing done. That was in 2019. 3rd shop was a charm. Have had the car back since 2023 should be done by end on August. (Cross your fingers)

Fingers Crossed! Hope it works out for you this time!

 

[heminut]

I guess I'm the fortunate one here. I live about 30 miles from the border of Mexico and there is a body shop in the little town just across the border, which has been owned by the same guy for about 30 years. He has been doing paint and body for 40 years and all of his guys are trained by him. Years earlier I had replaced the dutchman panel, trunk floors and both quarter panels my self, so the car had no rust to speak of. What it did have was three or four paint jobs, the last one being the one a guy did for me after I replaced the sheetmetal. That paint job started going to hell about 1&1/2 years after he painted it, his prep was bad and it was cracking and lifting everywhere. The guy at the shop across the border (he is a US citizen and former US Marine) said they would take the body down to bare metal and do a two stage paint job for $5800. Two months after taking the car to him it was done! When I picked it up, he told me they put two gallons of clear on it so if I ever wanted to do a cut & buff it had plenty of clear coat to do so.

 

[gran coupe john]

Great looking car!

 

[cawley]

Wanted to hear some of e body body shop experiences. 9 years ago my car went to a body shop. A guy with 30 years experience told me he could have it finished in 6 months. After almost 2 years he called me to come get the car. The car was not even close to being done. He told me he was going out of business. He had been renting the garage. When he called was the night before his lease was up. Had to get a wrecker that night to retrieve my car. Two years of my life ruined, because car was worse, than when he got it. I know there are some worse stories about body shops.

good luck i hope it turns out for ya

 

[Challenger RTA]

30 years experience

At what! I have heard and seen about experienced what ever. An induvial or a one man shop can get it to 80% with effort. Then other 20% gets lost in the day to day operations.

An expensed induvial or shop can get it to 99% real quick. The other 1% has to worked out. Unexposed or unforeseen problems come up. No parts, wrong parts, bad parts. Personal shortage, vacation illness, family. Garage burns! Seen that happen! Garage blows up!

Seen that Too! ( Short story. Knew a guy had a garage. Got to know him while I was working at a machine shop. His brother would help from time to time. They both had OLD'S 442 W30. One yellow and one orange. So I stopped in one day and walker in the door. At the back of the shop on the right the was a lot of block laying around. ? He was also a block layer. I ask. Are you expanding your shop? He said we are now! He explained they were changing changing a gas tank K 5 Blazer and couldn't get the gas out for some reason. So they poked a hole and drained it. Any how the gas got spilled or something to that effect. Don't quite remember. They did open the doors right away. The phone rang and set off the fumes and expanded the garage! I did call him mid week to let him know his head was ready. But no answer. That's why I stopped in.

By chance Bill did fix a 1/4 on a car the wife wiped out! My fault because I showed her a short cut home from work. Back road crossing a T intersection one road came down the hill and made a hump. I showed and told her you have to slow down or the hump will put you into the guardrails. Well guess what, it happened. I looked at it and said there's $800 damage! Got the easement from Bill and it was $810. Here again she said I was wrong.

The point here Bill gave me a day to bring it in and said. I have all the parts. It will be done by the end of the week I have 1 or 2 to do ahead of you depending on there parts.
Mid week he called me and said it's done. I was perfect! You couldn't even tell where it was touched! I know what I'm looking for!

A good shop big, little or very small can give a sound answer and or make way to get it done close to the estiment.
Bottom line: A professional knows there next move!
I have to give a plug to @cawley
I have seen his work on this site.