Quote:
Originally posted by Boongie
My car has collected some door dings and a couple of scratches in the paint. The scratches are deep enough to catch my fingernail so I figure that using Scratch-X, 3M SMR, or a similar product is useless. I have not had a car in a body shop for years and that experience was rather negative. So a few questions occur:
1. How can I tell if the body shop is any good beyond the obvious, such as looking at finished cars or shop cleanliness?
2. Speaking of finished cars, should I expect perfection...that is, not being able to tell that the car was worked on? The reason I ask this question is that my neighbor recently had a quarter panel on his car re-painted. He was quite proud of the work but I could see a difference in the clear coat when the sun was reflecting off the repaired area.
3. Is a stand-alone body shop generally better than a new car dealer body shop?
4. Is paintless dent repair the way to go for the door dings?
5. Finally, can anybody recommend a body shop in the Chicago area? Feel free to send me a PM on this last question.
Thanks! |
you can tell if the body shop is good by looking around at the other cars that are being repaired. If they are just layering on the bondo and pulling out dents with a drill gun then the are not
the ones i would be using. Look to see if the shop is I-car certified or ASE certified. You also want to see if the are working with any insurance companies. Insurance companies try to pick only the best, but some slip through the cracks
if they paint the vehicle correctly then you should not have a problem. they may need to blend an adjacent panel for a color match and may need to go into another panel so you dont see a clear coat line.
dealer shops suck most of the time. dealers look to have the work done as cheap as possible so they can get the mark up and make money on it. I would look for an indepently owned shop
paintless dent repair is always the best if it can be done. nothing is better then the factory paint. never paint unless you have to
sorry cant help you with the last question, but i know there are some good shops.