why is it so hard to find a good body shop?

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Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
For the most part people don't take pride in their work anymore.


"Time & good work" takes money that insurance companies aren't willing to pay.
 
I think it's because the shops are always in a hurry, to get on to the next vehicle so they make more $$. It's similar to trying find people on this site that care about driving an American car. Getting harder to find...which is a shame.
 
Originally Posted By: Big_3_Only
I think it's because the shops are always in a hurry, to get on to the next vehicle so they make more $$. It's similar to trying find people on this site that care about driving an American car. Getting harder to find...which is a shame.

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Collision repair is not a highly profitable business. There is no other industry that is unable to set its own labor rates. There is no other industry that bills $36/hour. Due to poor compensation, the collision business has been in an extreme staffing crisis for years. We now have to hire and train anyone with a pulse. These adverse conditions have played into the hands of the Big Four consolidators that are spreading across North America, buying up the old mom-and-pop shops that people in this thread remember wistfully.

For example: when Ford came out and said that it would take $150,000+ in tools to fix the new F-150, the insurance companies came out and said they would not be charging higher premiums for aluminum trucks. Why? Because they are not willing to pay more for aluminum repairs. If a shop spends $150k for aluminum equipment, their services do not command a premium; the insurance companies decide their compensation by zip code.

So, yeah, let's hear more old fogies on BITOG bluster about how "kids these days don't take pride in their work".
 
I see some AWFUL body work on cars around me in traffic...sloppy, visible blend lines, poor color match, panel fits that are just terrible, wavy door skins that were straightened and needed to be blocked more, the list goes on and on. I have been leasing cars lately and any of them that get hit go right back to that dealer's shop, so there's no way they can complain when I turn it in at lease-end. "Hey, your shop did it, talk to them".

Bodyshops aren't the only sloppy ones...GM tends to have blotchy, mottled finishes on silver and pearl white colors, Ford puts crooked tape stripes on F-series trucks, Honda bumper covers have side clips that don't hold right so the bumper cover doesn't lay flush against the quarter panel or fender.
 
Yeah GM white diamond was sometimes veeeeery mottled and it looked even stranger if you viewed it through polarized sunglasses. Thankfully that color is gone now. No two white diamond cars came out of the factory the same color.

When the new style Escapes came out in 2013, the liftgates fit so poorly that the right backup light would hit the right taillight and they would break, just from normal operation.
 
In a prior life I was an estimator in an enormous luxury body shop in St Louis: 55,000 sq ft, all air conditioned, 8 paint booths, 24 bodymen, 12 painters, 1 guy who just rolled through the shop picking up trash from the end of the stalls. Even within that setting, I knew that some of my guys were more talented/picky/creative with fixing weird issues, and would steer certain cars to the guys who were real craftsmen. Some of this can't be taught...either you have an "eye" for color or you don't, either you have a feel for sanding & blocking, or you don't. We would occasionally get really big repairs, ($50k+) on Porsches or AMG Mercedes models, and there were only 2-3 of the 24 who I would have trusted with repairs of that magnitude, with picky owners.

On a side note, let's say your insurance company only wants to pay $54/hr for body and paint...there's nothing stopping you from paying more if you want really good work. If your insurance company only wants to pay for cheap roof shingles and you want nicer architectural shingles, you can pay the difference to get it done the way you want.
 
Originally Posted By: CincyDavid
I see some AWFUL body work on cars around me in traffic...sloppy, visible blend lines, poor color match, panel fits that are just terrible, wavy door skins that were straightened and needed to be blocked more, the list goes on and on. I have been leasing cars lately and any of them that get hit go right back to that dealer's shop, so there's no way they can complain when I turn it in at lease-end. "Hey, your shop did it, talk to them".

Bodyshops aren't the only sloppy ones...GM tends to have blotchy, mottled finishes on silver and pearl white colors, Ford puts crooked tape stripes on F-series trucks, Honda bumper covers have side clips that don't hold right so the bumper cover doesn't lay flush against the quarter panel or fender.


I'm very fortunate; my BMW dealer has an excellent body shop. When I had my MS3 a local Mazda dealer repaired it after a fender bender and their work was also excellent- so good that I called the shop manager to let him know how pleased I was. At one time I used a local indie shop but the owner retired and the remaining shops specialize in insurance work with little concern for quality.
 
"It's similar to trying find people on this site that care about driving an American car. Getting harder to find...which is a shame."

I know exactly what you're talking about. I drove our Sienna past the Indiana factory where it was made on the way to Florida this spring, and it was nice to know it was made in the US. Of course, you can drive your Buick up to Canada anytime you want to see where it was made. Bring a passport.

To the OP, I asked a tow truck driver to find my shop, which does good work. They are family run, I think that's the common thread. They are also quite expensive, which hasn't mattered for the two cars I've had repaired under insurance. I had them quote a front quarter with some damage and they were almost double anywhere else, though.
 
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I also find it amusing that people cheap-out with their car insurance then expect to be treated like royalty when there's a claim. I have Allstate, they're cheap and their claims handling is subpar, BUT I know enough about the industry to still manipulate things to get a good result.

If you want your car properly repaired, pay more, get a high-end insurance company like Fireman's Fund or Chubb Personal Lines and your car will get fixed right.
 
Originally Posted By: CincyDavid
...Honda bumper covers have side clips that don't hold right so the bumper cover doesn't lay flush against the quarter panel or fender.


+1, yep, Accord is the same way.
 
I gave up on bodyshops a while back. The final straw was an insurance claim sent to an independent HACK. He slacked off so badly, was perpetually drunk and prior to painting, he removed the masking I had done to the non-metal, non-body-coloured window surrounds and trim (that I had put on out of a justified fear he was going spray them too)- which he did. I think they joy rode the car few times too. I don't know what it is with this industry attracting these mentally blitzed dip****s!

Oh yeah, he was supposed to paint a white pearl over a black base at my request. They clearly did it when they were drunk because it was splotchy and entirely jacked up. His excuse "Oh the pearl had a reaction with the base coat". What an idiot.
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Originally Posted By: rooflessVW
I always take my car to a high-end body shop. Whoever repairs BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Porsche, Bentley, Aston, etc... gets my business.


...and you find THOSE shops in high-end neighborhoods where customers are...
1. picky
2. picky
3. picky
...and who have no problem letting the world know when a shop's work is shoddy and "doesn't belong there (in THEIR neighborhood)."
Another consideration....is the shop clean?

...and this...
We vehicle owners have to know WHAT it takes to do a good job...i.e. don't count on the shop to tell you what your options are...
1. in terms of "quality" of work and warranties available (1 vs 3-stage paint process)
2. blending painted repair into the factory paint....e.g. hood into fender crease
3. reMOVING bits and pieces rather than just masking them off....

As for what WE can do...and expect...and accept
1. if possible, wash and wax and clean that car inside and out....my lowly Camry got their attention as if it were a Lexus...when they saw my "car-care" and upgrades
2. if the shop has a display of their work (levels of "quality" finishes) point to the best and ask what it takes to get THAT done to YOUR car.
3. know IN YOUR MIND what you are prepared to expect AND WHAT YOU WILL REJECT....and inspect closely the finished work on your car
3a. rejected a black-painted roof (over OEM "tan" roof) at one shop where I could see a spot of the faded factory finish that was the reason I had brought it in...interestingly, the '18s will also have a "black roof option" but only on a few models because it takes more time to hand-paint them
3b. accepted a dust particle under the painted hood because the color matched perfectly (on a 13-year old body!) and it was up front where it would not likely survive many country highway miles before the hood got one all its own (though I did point it out to them since it could, I suppose, lead to peeling
while still under warranty).
4. be pleasant
 
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