PAINT and BODY....SHOW QUALITY (SOCAL)

[SUPERSTAR]

I am looking for a good reputable shop that can put out quality work in the SoCal Area. If you know of a place FIRST HAND or know of someone who may have had body and paint done.

I started a VERT project a year ago and car is been sitting waiting for paint. I had the engine bay painted before SR20 swap and jams as well.
The problem started with paint shop painted wrong color and had them repaint it. Well the original painter left that shop and someone else put hands on it and did a crappy job over the jams. (peeling)

I need this painted before I go any further or start putting parts on my daily VERT and lose interest in it. I am looking for show quality...nothing less.

If you have pics of shops work please post.

[eastcoastS14]

regional section?? but anyway hit up widgets....i believe hes in socal

[deesz]

pm sent to you......

[SUPERSTAR]

yup, i sent him pm.

[hustlervibes]

PM hwyking or xfallen1x seems like the place they go give good results.

[SUPERSTAR]

Originally Posted by hustlervibes

PM hwyking or xfallen1x seems like the place they go give good results.

Cool thanks, I will do that.

[StaticX27]

Check out SuperiorPV. They're really expensive, but the quality they give is Euro OEM style quality. I've seen Ferrari's they've done that you can't even tell they're repainted.

[sikkk240]

yeaaa, shouldnt this be in regional..

[xkamikazestormx]

kasey's auto body does a really good job. its in torrance and is expensive.

my car was painted by them so you can look at my car if you want to see results.

[Phlip]

I would have closed this instead of moving if people hadn't answered the question being presented.
I will move it now.

[illxs14]

m1 autobody.

[vutony]

get at mike aka widegts on the board
http://www.zilvia.net/f/showthread.php?t=164608

[StaticX27]

Originally Posted by illxs14

m1 autobody.

Personally I had my FD painted by M1 autobody. I wasn't terribly happy with their paint job quality. Overall it was decent, I would give it about a 90%, but I had alot of complaints about their quality of work. First, the paint on the hood warped pretty quickly to the point that you could see a rainbow pattern on it. Secondly, I had specifically asked for them to make sure they cleared the door jam vin tag, since they tape over it to paint. I just wanted it to be smooth when I got it back. They didn't do that at all. The FD mirrors were two pieces, one for the housing, then a trim on the outside of the mirror. One side, they painted it and it came out looking like one piece, yet the other side they had painted it and it came out as two pieces with pieces of paint joining the two. There were a couple places that had dripped that they didn't take care of.

I mean overall the car came out looking pretty decent. Also the paint came out looking a little hazy, and I consider show quality paint something you could shave in if you look at your reflection in it. Thirdly, and this is the big one, I checked up multiple times on the car and every time they were like "omg it's gonna look nice!" Then when I picked up the car, they said "Oh man, there's enough body damage on here you probably don't want to keep this." It left a sour taste in my mouth as I would have preferred they told me so they could repair the body damage, or two they could have stopped the work and I could have sold the car and paid them for work completed plus a little extra for saving me the headache. It was more of an annoyance over anything, and I kinda felt like my money had been taken. Granted, I was being extremely critical over the work that was done, and for $3k I should be a little critical, but honestly the work that M1 did I could have gotten done at other shops for 2/3's the price. Not to mention the fact that it took them 3 weeks longer than they originally quoted me.

That being said, I've seen cars come out of M1 that look absolutely beautiful, but those are their own show cars, which naturally they're going to take the extra time on, as those are the cars that represent them. However, that's not their normal level of work. I look at a body shop's average customer's quality of work and I base their quality on that over their cream of the crop work, since more often than not, they're not going to do that cherry job for your average customer.

Also, when they were installing my side skirts, they cracked the fiberglass and couldn't rivet it to the door towards the top. They basically used alot of double stick tape on the inside to make it work, but it didn't look entirely right because of it. You can kind of see a gap on the rear of the side skirt where it joins up to the rear quarter panel, when that gap shouldn't have been there. They didn't offer any way of taking care of it, just basically put a bandaid over their mistake. That also left a bad taste in my mouth.

Here are some pictures of my old FD. You can kind of see the job, but I didn't really close up on the unhappy parts. Unfortunately I don't have it anymore, so I can't really show you my gripes:

[EDacIouSX]

gonna send you a PM. there's a guy that paints. he does a lot of FD's and show cars.

I don't know if you've seen the car but, that one model who models for falken that has that white s14? He painted that car. He also painted some other show/drift cars but I don't have any pictures. I'll pm you with his number

[gunmetalrps]

P.J Bonifacio out in La Puente.

[StaticX27]

PJ's is pretty good, and he's done some really nice cars. I would recommend them if you're looking for 95% and you're on a budget. SPV is still the only place I'd go that I consider 100%

[DUFFM4N]

PJ Banifacio

might as well pay me $3-$4k and ill have my 15month old daughter paint it...

hit up Miguel over at Mob Works in Orange

www.mobworks.com

[SUPERSTAR]

Thanks guys, I really need this info. I was recommended to M1 and Mobworks, But I think cuz of price, I have seen good and bad from both.
I am doing a THREE STAGE paint job on my car and do not want to spend top dollars for ONE A DAY quality. So this info is very appreciated and very very very valuable. I will do homework on ALL that was put up here and Let you know who I go with. Thanks again. Pics help a lot too.

[Jung918]

I have seen a purple del sol done by mob works and I would not even let them touch my car.

[Aoshi112]

Mobworks is hit or miss from what i've seen.

I hear great things about Auto Explosion in Gardena. My friend is getting his supra repainted there so we'll see how good it comes out.

[usdm180sx]

Originally Posted by EDacIouSX

gonna send you a PM. there's a guy that paints. he does a lot of FD's and show cars.

I don't know if you've seen the car but, that one model who models for falken that has that white s14? He painted that car. He also painted some other show/drift cars but I don't have any pictures. I'll pm you with his number

Yup He's talking about Mikito at 7Apple. Here's Courtney Day's PIMP ASS s14:

[SUPERSTAR]

Originally Posted by StaticX27

Personally I had my FD painted by M1 autobody. I wasn't terribly happy with their paint job quality. Overall it was decent, I would give it about a 90%, but I had alot of complaints about their quality of work. First, the paint on the hood warped pretty quickly to the point that you could see a rainbow pattern on it. Secondly, I had specifically asked for them to make sure they cleared the door jam vin tag, since they tape over it to paint. I just wanted it to be smooth when I got it back. They didn't do that at all. The FD mirrors were two pieces, one for the housing, then a trim on the outside of the mirror. One side, they painted it and it came out looking like one piece, yet the other side they had painted it and it came out as two pieces with pieces of paint joining the two. There were a couple places that had dripped that they didn't take care of.

I mean overall the car came out looking pretty decent. Also the paint came out looking a little hazy, and I consider show quality paint something you could shave in if you look at your reflection in it. Thirdly, and this is the big one, I checked up multiple times on the car and every time they were like "omg it's gonna look nice!" Then when I picked up the car, they said "Oh man, there's enough body damage on here you probably don't want to keep this." It left a sour taste in my mouth as I would have preferred they told me so they could repair the body damage, or two they could have stopped the work and I could have sold the car and paid them for work completed plus a little extra for saving me the headache. It was more of an annoyance over anything, and I kinda felt like my money had been taken. Granted, I was being extremely critical over the work that was done, and for $3k I should be a little critical, but honestly the work that M1 did I could have gotten done at other shops for 2/3's the price. Not to mention the fact that it took them 3 weeks longer than they originally quoted me.

That being said, I've seen cars come out of M1 that look absolutely beautiful, but those are their own show cars, which naturally they're going to take the extra time on, as those are the cars that represent them. However, that's not their normal level of work. I look at a body shop's average customer's quality of work and I base their quality on that over their cream of the crop work, since more often than not, they're not going to do that cherry job for your average customer.

Also, when they were installing my side skirts, they cracked the fiberglass and couldn't rivet it to the door towards the top. They basically used alot of double stick tape on the inside to make it work, but it didn't look entirely right because of it. You can kind of see a gap on the rear of the side skirt where it joins up to the rear quarter panel, when that gap shouldn't have been there. They didn't offer any way of taking care of it, just basically put a bandaid over their mistake. That also left a bad taste in my mouth.

Here are some pictures of my old FD. You can kind of see the job, but I didn't really close up on the unhappy parts. Unfortunately I don't have it anymore, so I can't really show you my gripes:

Third person with same feelings, Thanks for the warning.

[xfallen1x]

TWINS AUTOBODY & PAINT
15048 Oxnard Street
Van Nuys, CA 91411
(818) 908-1629
Ask for Mehdi & tell him Richard (Gunmetal Grey 240) and Randy (STI) sent you.

[SUPERSTAR]

Originally Posted by Jung918

I have seen a purple del sol done by mob works and I would not even let them touch my car.

yeah I have a buddy's Civic in the showroom where I work and it looks good, but you stare at it long enough and you will be like WTF?

When I say showquality, that's what I mean. I don't want to display my car at HIN or other shows and people looking at it like why is this car in here. I have built 3 show cars (classics) in the past, magazine spreads and all. So I know what I am looking for. The people who I used in the past have no clue on dealing with imports nor do they want to attempt it.

[SUPERSTAR]

Originally Posted by Aoshi112

Mobworks is hit or miss from what i've seen.

I hear great things about Auto Explosion in Gardena. My friend is getting his supra repainted there so we'll see how good it comes out.

Keep me posted on how it turns out.

[SUPERSTAR]

Originally Posted by xfallen1x

TWINS AUTOBODY & PAINT
15048 Oxnard Street
Van Nuys, CA 91411
(818) 908-1629
Ask for Mehdi & tell him Richard (Gunmetal Grey 240) and Randy (STI) sent you.

Cool I will call them and stop by to see work.

[SUPERSTAR]

Originally Posted by usdm180sx

Yup He's talking about Mikito at 7Apple. Here's Courtney Day's PIMP ASS s14:

very nice, thanks

[Bobafreak]

have mike do it. m1= cha ching! and sometimes not so well

[A Spec Products]

Yeah I think every paint shop is hit or miss

Since there's so many variables that go into painting, I've seen reputable shops do both "good" and "bad" paint jobs, at varying prices

I think the biggest variable that helps is if you are referred by someone, or the paint shop is a friend of yours, since maybe they might have more of a reason to do a good job

Also, I'd suggest if you are on a budget, to paint the door jams yourself. I ended up doing this on my car, used appliance paint in black, and it came out acceptable, good enough for me

Gotta be willing to shell out big money to get it done "right" though, and even if you shell out the dollars, sometimes that doesn't get you what you want

On a side note, Makito is a friend of a friend, and my friend speaks pretty highly of him and his painting skills. I don't have any experience with him directly though.

[SUPERSTAR]

Thanks, I agree 100%.
I will call Makito and visit his shop.