As per my standard bit of luck (lack of it, rather), I got hit in a Best Buy parking lot today at lunch. Thank God for my shock sensor or she might've gotten away without me getting her information. A couple Best Buy workers wrangled the girl up and paged me to check out what was going on with my car's alarm. The damage isn't too severe but it does cover the bumper, fender, and wheel.

My concern and reason for this post is to ask if anyone knows of a body shop in the St. Louis area that they have had good luck with. I have had horrible experiences in the past with places not matching paint very well. For example, Elco Chevrolet painted a jet black car of mine after some damage was repaired. They painted the hood jet black correctly, but the fender and bumper were metallic black. Um... how do you screw up BLACK!?

My 8 is velocity red mica. I've heard (and had experience) that red is a hard color to match and I'm assuming with the gold mica flake this is going to be a pain in the ***. Can anyone recommend a good body shop?

Here's a couple pix for the fun of it from the camera phone:

 

Hey swimfan, yeah that's you waterlogged,

Welcome to the collision club man, now I'm not alone. I would highly recommend the body shop I had my work done at. Terry's Auto Body in O'Fallon, IL. Yeah I know, it's on the IL side, but they did awesome work and were real easy to work with. You saw my paint job, and there was no color difference in the yellow. So they are great at matching paint too. Give me a call if you want more information on them. I believe you still have my number. If not, 210-3865.....you know the area code.

 

Sorry man!
My mother once backed out of the garage, WITH THE DOORS OPEN!
(Car was a Lexus white color) Plaza motors did a real good job.
Daughter of one of my fellow workers came to show of here driver license....
Rear ended my 2 month old ML430 (Green metallic).
Wile I was watching it behind glass doors!
Again Plaza Motors did a real good job.
Give them a call or drive by, there collision center is bigger then it's howrooms!

 

Yeah, they were on my top list of places to check out. I've had some work done there before, but it wasn't very good. Everyone else insists they're good. The good thing about them is they have an Enterprise rent-a-car rep right there and they are within 2 miles of work.

 

Please please please give Don at DaVinci a call before you decide on anything. He painted my M3, and will be painting both my RX-7's. He does incredible work, at great prices. He's very experienced with the harder to work with paints like the Velocity Red ... AND, they're one of the only rotory shops in the STL area. By supporting those guys, you help us all. Seriously, there aren't many places that give a crap about rotaries, the ones who do deserve our support.

They're in Belleville, 618-222-1201. I always can find a reason to go over there, so if you want to drop your car off I'd be happy to go over and give you a ride back.

 

Earl Scheib will not only not match it, but will add a texture at no extra charge.

 

waterlogged, another great body shop in O'Fallon IL is Steves. Their over by the old watertower and The Hut. Ive taken my vehicle to them a couple times after being rearended...they do damn good work!

baseballgenius...ive seen your car parked on 50 nice ride bro!

 

Thanks Dac, I'm pretty fond of it myself. You should see what I've done to the inside.

 

Thanks guys. I'm headed tomorrow to get some estimates. I forgot to bring in the girl's insurance information today so I could do it at lunch. I probably will hit a place either in O'Fallon, MO where I live, or Plaza in Creve Couer where I work or both.

What sucks is that I'm planning on installing the new intake and what-not this weekend and will be without my car next week to play with it.

 

Cheer up, beer is cold, well it will be
We are gonna get that bumper of, relax, have something to eat,
Talk about our monthly meet next week, (you get to meet "fourdoor again”) and your car will be fixed by then!

 

Beer's already flowing. I've had one helluva week and it's only Wednesday. At least the Revi and updated CZ came in today so I'm looking forward to tearing off the bumper and making a mess. If the intake gets installed it's a bonus.

 

Wanna do some LEDs while where at it?
Know the color of the wires by heart now!

 

I guess DaVinci isn't on your list?

 

Unfortunately Belleville's a bit out of my way. I've gotten a couple estimates and I'll most likely go with Plaza. Lifetime warranty when I'm not paying for it seems pretty good.