Hello Subie fam, today I was involved in a 4 car pile up near my house, and Ruby suffered some damage. Long story short, 2 cars were stopped in the middle of the road, (no shoulder available), without any hazard lights on, and it caused a chain reaction. I had to lock em up, and brace for impact. I rear ended the car in front of me (newer Toyota Camry) going about 15-20mph. Thankfully my car is pretty low, so I managed to sneak under his rear bumper, and mitigate the damage. Nonetheless, I will need a new front bumper cover, grill, hood, and hopefully the new headlights I installed 2 months ago are ok. Other than tracking down a used bumper, and hood at U Pull, or an online recycler, It looks like they can be purchased online, already primed and ready for paint & clear coat. If I go with new parts, can anybody recommend a good place to have them painted? As luck would have it, I dropped my full coverage on this car about a month ago, when my 16yr old got her first car, and the monthly premium nearly doubled. Any help you guys could provide would be greatly appreciated.
i go to Seward Auto in Hopkins. 952-933-6626. Have worked on my cars for over a decade and have always done an outstanding job.
That says it all when it comes to picking a body shop. I've come to the conclusion for those of us who are anal retentive that the best thing is to just throw away the car and buy a new one.
Nah. I was super picky with the legacy, to the tune of many thousands of dollars to completely replace the inner and outer rear quarter panel to get rid of rust. They matched the paint to the point that I couldn't tell it was new metal, and that was on pearl white. Would spend money there again. Probably will on the Supra to repair the drivers side scrape.
LaMettry's declined to even touch it because it's "modified", i.e. lowered. Went to a body shop by my house last night, got a very fair estimate, and will be dropping the car off on Monday. It's crazy the range of estimates that I got. Anywhere from $1600.00 - $3400.00. I think I'm in the wrong line of work!
really? which one did you go to? because mine was pretty well modified every single time they touched it (shocks/struts, sways, endlinks, etc in addition to the engine/exhaust mods) and I never had a single issue, nor was it ever brought up.
I did their online estimate request thing, uploaded a bunch of pics, and the guy that emailed back was from their Maplewood location. It is what it is. Maybe they thought it wasn't a big enough job, or they didn't like the fact that I was paying out of pocket, and they couldn't bend over an insurance company for $5K.
must be a location thing, because I paid out of pocket more than once, and not everything was a huge job.
Eden Prairie. If you need a contact there, Dave Faidley at New Brighton or Brandon Mehdizadeh who used to be at Eden Prairie but may now be at Chaska.
Last time I used Raymond was back about '85, '86 after a little girlie ran into the back of my '78 Mustang II notchback. Since I wasn't paying, I looked for the best and they were highly recommended way back then. The Keystone refurbished urethane bumper fit like ****, but that wasn't their fault. God I hated that car.
That not really how the body shop business works, you actually make less money doing an insurance pay job than a cash pay. Most body shops have a program for insurance companies that make they bill out at less rates per hour and require the use of used/refurb/aftermarket(in other states for AM).
Heppner's did a fine job when I took my car to them. Wasn't anything super complicated, but they got it done at a fair price. @housemusic1 Where did you end up taking it? Just to add to the rolodex.
Thomas Auto Body in Crystal. Front bumper got cleaned up, resprayed, and clear coat. The whole front end had to be shimmied to the passenger side a little, to make the headlights and hood fit correctly. The rear bumper had a run in a shopping cart a while back, so I figured, if they're redoing the front bumper, why not redo the rear too. All said and done, $1200 cash out the door, and it looks better than it ever did. Then, last week I had a kid run out in front of me, and I had to put the car into the curb, otherwise I would've killed him. Yep, curbed the bejeezus out of my Brotas. They we're in perfect condition prior to that little incident. Even for being Brotas, they were nice wheels. It's been a rough summer for her. Debating on parking her for the winter, and getting a $1500 Subie beater.
