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)