Body Shop Advice (Los Angeles)

[liam821]

Wow that came out awesome! Beautiful.

[Nate047]

Did you drop off just the hood or the entire car? I could see them prioritizing cars over panels…but that’s really all I can think of.

Yea just the hood. After a few weeks, I asked if I could bring the car in, thinking that would speed it up lol. I asked if I could have them blend and address some other paint things, but he said he didn't have room for another car.

[cornerbalanced]

Yea see now I'm just wondering why it took them so long to paint my hood. Took them 10 weeks. Water under the bridge I guess

Did you drop off just the hood or the entire car? I could see them prioritizing cars over panels…but that’s really all I can think of.

[Nate047]

Yea see now I'm just wondering why it took them so long to paint my hood. Took them 10 weeks. Water under the bridge I guess

[M Coupe]

Looks awesome brotha! Glad you are satisfied!

[Tbonem3]

Feelsgoodman.jpg

[Gearhead55]

Got the car back from ABS. Paint looks flawless as far as I can tell. Basically three weeks start to finish. I'm very satisfied.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0hvhfRyS7H/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=N2ViNmM2MDRjNw==

[Nate047]

For future reference--

I collected my car from ABS last week. It took a week and change for a front bumper respray, in addition to my side reflectors and license plate bracket holes being shaved. I was charged $500 (I may have gotten a better rate, I may have not...I'm a repeat client). Upon delivery of my car, it was freshly detailed, and ABS took the liberty of adjusting my hood and adding foam on my bumper carrier to correct all panel gaps up front.

Overall, I'm happy with the quality of the job, the time it took for the job to be completed (ahead of schedule) ... Kevin, the owner of ABS also updated me with pictures throughout the process. My car being detailed--it was dropped off fairly dirty--was icing on the cake. Can't really ask for more from a bodyshop these days, esp. after reading about other member's experiences.

Of course, YMMV. Excited to see how Gearhead55's car turns out.

Sounds like a good price for that job, I’m envious of the turnaround time lol.

[Gearhead55]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but the light reflecting off the corner bumper looks like horizontal streaks similar to the post of atb88. Am i seeing it correctly? Doesn't looks like orange peel. Orange peel should look like orange peel. Hopefully I'm wrong Jim, lol

Lol thanks Clarence. This also had not been wet sanded and polished yet. I should be getting it back tomorrow so I can inspect in person.

Honestly it's a track car primarily so I'm not expecting perfection. I'll wait a month or so for it to cure before getting it PPF'd.

One more teaser:




I'm glad cornerbalanced had good results

[M Coupe]

Glad to hear a positive experience. I hope everyone who ever needs bodywork does their due diligence on researching shops that put out good work and of course one must have reasonable expectations. Don't expect Concours level work for TJ's pricing for example.

[cornerbalanced]

For future reference--

I collected my car from ABS last week. It took a week and change for a front bumper respray, in addition to my side reflectors and license plate bracket holes being shaved. I was charged $500 (I may have gotten a better rate, I may have not...I'm a repeat client). Upon delivery of my car, it was freshly detailed, and ABS took the liberty of adjusting my hood and adding foam on my bumper carrier to correct all panel gaps up front.

Overall, I'm happy with the quality of the job, the time it took for the job to be completed (ahead of schedule) ... Kevin, the owner of ABS also updated me with pictures throughout the process. My car being detailed--it was dropped off fairly dirty--was icing on the cake. Can't really ask for more from a bodyshop these days, esp. after reading about other member's experiences.

Of course, YMMV. Excited to see how Gearhead55's car turns out.

[oceansize]

There was a time when my eye was so trained I couldn't look at a paint job and not find flaws. Color match (there are all kinds of caveats here), lack of obvious flaws, general texture/gloss, and no clear coat peeling, solvent pop, fade/haze etc. within the first thirty days are good enough.

Let me say working in a collision shop was the toughest job I've ever had by far. I did a little bit of everything. Started detailing then on to parts guy, then I was the guy that ripped all the bad panels and mechanical bits off, then on to body work, then I was the prepper and finally painting. I quit two weeks before I was going to be sent off to what was then Sikkens paint school. I'm glad for the experience it provided but I would never go back to a production collision shop, just hardness all around. I'm telling you all, it really is tough. No joke tough (remember I'm referencing a busy collision shop, not Joe's backyard shed).

[Nate047]

If you really want to be picky, even if a shop matched the amount of orange peel to 2000's bmw paint, they wouldn't be able to match the "knit" as I call it or pattern of the peaks/valleys. That takes an extremely close examination in the right light/angle, however.

I would say none of the body shops in question in this thread are capable or interested in even trying to do that. Luckily, none of the customers in this thread are trying to have a perfect show restoration either, nor pass of a car as having never had paint work, etc... I believe most of us are in the same boat of wanting it to look good for the money whilst managing expectations, and if someone gets close enough to find flaws, so be it.

[M Coupe]

Luckily, LSB is flat, so no worry about the flop of the metallic. You can see orange peel in the reflection of the light, so hopefully it's close enough to stock.

If you really want to be picky, even if a shop matched the amount of orange peel to 2000's bmw paint, they wouldn't be able to match the "knit" as I call it or pattern of the peaks/valleys. That takes an extremely close examination in the right light/angle, however.

Good point. Metallics and their flop/shifting nature adds additional complexities and are definitely more difficult to match than 'uni' paints. I find the best place to gauge whether or not body work and paint was done right is under a well lit gas station. You'll see everything there.

[oceansize]

Body shops, even the better ones, are not considering orange peel outside of trying to avoid an excess amount of it.