Quality Autobody Shops
 

As you might know from the injuries thread, I was in a car accident.

The car is going to be a $6000 fix job. The visible damages are front bumper, driver's fender, hood, wheel, control arm (wheel caved in, MADDD front camber lol)

Anyways, I have a OEM front bumper sitting in storage and I want my autobody shop to put that on instead of ordering a new one. ICBC has agreed to do this and will authorize the bodyshop to bill ICBC for whatever the "market price" is, then the body shop will cut me a cheque for that "market price".

Now, my body shop is being annoying and tell me that they need an "invoice" in order to bill ICBC for the part. My bumper is not even aftermarket and it's straight out of the Toyota Dealership parts department. However, I do not have a receipt because I bought it off someone else who sold his Matrix. If the bodyshop is reluctant to do it, I am thinking about taking my business elsewhere that will do it.

So where are some quality bodyshops that will do that for me? ICBC has authorized the use of my bumper already.

I am insisting on putting on my own bumper because it's a XRS OEM bumper, which includes a molded lip on it. Hell, I am even willing to just give away my bumper for free so they can paint it and put it on.

So, where's a bodyshop that doesn't give me BS?

Checkpoint collision for sure.
Ask for Steven or bill.
Posted via RS Mobile

The part will be on the claim and the shop needs to have an invoice to get paid from ICBC. Can't blame them, just following the rules to get paid from ICBC. Without an invoice ICBC might short pay them that part.

ICBC just called and given the bodyshop authorization to proceed. A cheque from ICBC is in the mail. I totally understand from the bodyshop's perspective. Luckily, ICBC was willing to help me out.

Thanks for the input guys! Now hopefully they can do a good job and return my car to factory condition.

Im sure Steven and Bill would be fine fine with it if ICBC approves it.

Ohly fuck. It's time for me to switch bodyshops and try out your recommendations.

Rant:

1. They fixed/painted body parts that were NOT damaged. (My door was taken apart when it had no damages at all...)

2. It's a driver's front corner impact, and they said my HIDs are broken, which I doubt but whatever. I specifically asked them to replace them with Bosch Slim kit and they can get it from HIDOutlet for $250 ($200 RS Special). Guess what? they gave me a CanBus kit made in China!!! thinking that I won't know but I busted them on it. They called HIDOutlet on the spot right in front of me and blamed them for shipping the bodyshop the wrong brand HID... right........? on top of that, they replaced BOTH side rather than just the LEFT side that was broken... wtf?

3. My suspension is fucked, and they said my Eibach Sportlines needs to be replaced. I went and saw the car today, they said it was OKAY and still usuable BUT I can spot that one side is lower than the other... WTF?

Can I do anything about it?
They are
1. replacing lower quality aftermarket parts and passing it as higher quality
2. trigger happy with the paint gun and fixed body parts that are not even damaged...

/rant

1) They may take panels off that weren't damaged in order to blend the new paint into the old paint. I've got a claim with ICBC to get my front end repainted due to gravel falling off a dump truck and the shops I've talked to have mentioned that in order to blend properly with the panels off, they'll take off the damaged sections along with the fine ones.

2) The impact from the crash may have severed one of the lines leading to the ballast or something. It's usually better to order two new ones at once anyway, to be honest. That said, it's even better not to run HID's if you also aren't running projectors... ;)

3) As ICBC to see if you can bring the car to an actual mechanic afterwards to see if the suspension actually is damaged. I don't trust body shops to be able to correctly determine if those sort of things actually need to be replaced or not.

1. Thanks for the explanation. :thumbsup:

2. Yes, I am an asshole for running HID on halogen... but giving me a Made in China crappy HID kit is a no-no, what if it catches on fire then I'm fucked. I bought some proper halogens from USA wal-mart already :p

3. Yes, I will ask my adjuster to see if I can do that. The car was parked on a slant at the time when I saw it. Maybe I need to jack it up to see if it was actually my red Eibach Sportlines... maybe they gave me TEIN S-techs :rofl:

grrrrr I just hate getting lied to and they try to blame others (although I am speculating here...)

yikes, which shop did you go?
i hope its not the shop i recommended you... =\

No it wasn't. I will not release the name as they still have my car. :p

Sorry to put race into this, but are Chinese owned bodyshops sneakier than White ones? I have done business with this shop for more than 6 years, but they were all minor jobs $300-1800.. this one was the first major one for $6000.

A crappy China-made HID can't be close to $200 :bullshit:
I bought my Bosch Slim kit for $200!

How far are you willing to go? Orgasm Donor recommended a shop to me that's down the road from Soundsgood and he seems pretty open and honest.

As long as they have a courtesy car (automatic) for my daily commute... I can give other shops a try. :)

Please forward me that shop's name. My gf needs her front bumper repainted and I will not be bringing my business back to this shop again.

removing exterior door handle for painting is a proper procedure, nothing wrong with that

My body panel damage was only front bumper and driver's fender. What they painted extra was the hood and the driver's side door (and mirror too).

PM sent. Oh, and I forgot to add this, but yes, he has loaner cars.

so you dont want colour match?

Yes, now I get it when Lomac cleared things up.

but #2 and #3 are not acceptable.

Not sure what to say about #2 but for #3 was the wheel impacted and an alignment done? Sounds like speculation at this point. ;)

youa re overreacting.. yes the HID stuff sucks, but all bodyshops, especially if ICBC is paying for it, will do everything "by the book" in terms of colour matching.. they will blend into surrounding panels... I mean if I was paying out of it with my own pocket, depending on the colour of my car, the paint may or may not need to be blended..

as for your suspension...you should always get an alignment elsewhere.. or the shop should send it out for alignment.. I don't know what the process if for mechanical/suspension issues.. Not sure if Autoshops do all that in house or send it out... but if I got into a bad accident worth that much, I would definitely be bringing it to a VALET shop. You know those shops need to maintain the highest quality of worksmanship and customer service to maintain their icbc VALET status.