A good paint shop in Vancouver BC?

[Geo]

Does anyone know where in Vancouver, BC CANADA there may be a body shop that has had done good work in Impala SSs, Dodge Chargers, Mercury Marauders, general muscle cars or luxury cars, etc? I have a 1994 Impala SS. I may need a repaint (insurance claim) and it has to be a good shop that affords itself with passion for these kind of cars yet can still do a passionate job for the kind of rates insurance companies are willing to offer (the shop may not get as much as what they can get from an average consumer).

I've been to many shops since 1994 with this car but since it may be repainted completely, my standards are much higher. There may end up being some issues afterwards and I hope to minimize them. I wonder how much trim needs to come off (and how much of the trim the shop and/or the insurance company is willing to take off).

[Aren Jay]

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[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

Especially make sure that they know you are going to be looking for prep sanding scratches showing through in the finished product, and to make sure prep is not skimped on. That is the #1 thing you are going to see in production shop dark colored paint jobs, is poor prep showing through where they get careless sanding around the edges of panels and the edges of contours, with a coarser grit that leaves gouges that the finer grits don't take fully out. The casual cusomer won't notice but if you know what you are looking at like I do, you'll see it and hate it every time you look at it.

[Geo]

Yes, thanks for letting me know about the scratches from prep. My insurance company told me to tell the shop that I would accept no less than 100%. The car is black and it has to be 100% or I'll be telling them I'll be coming back for them to fix it.

The insurance company said, too, to go to a high end shop such as BMW or Mercedes. The problem with that is that sometimes these shops are snobby about not working on their German products and whereby I hope their passion and morale don't go out the window when painting and piecing to gether my car (I have those cumbersome Impala SS script decals that go on the rear panel for example).

I am going to tour some shops today and evaluate.

G

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

No paint job done by human hands is perfect, it's impossible. You just gotta shoot for the fewest detectable flaws. And I had my MM worked on by a shop out here that had the infamous "lifetime warranty", and the sales people tell you up front, we'll fix it no matter what you don't like about it. That all changes when you bring the car back several times and they think you are being too picky vs a normal customer that doesn't know what is and isn't a preventable defect in a production respray.

Good luck! Try to get a look at some finished products, in bright sunlight, on dark cars and see if you can pick out what panels were resprayed, and how they look. A respray will always be detectable if you look hard enough and know what to look for but if it takes a LOT of looking up close, then they did a good job.

[limostudd]

when you find it let me know i need my car painted also i am also in vancouver bc but havent found one yet:(

[Aren Jay]

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[freakstatus]

Theres a small shop near where I live that I had paint and install my rear oem spoiler They did a pretty good job, and while I was there I noticed some pretty high end cars in their garage. The place is Sorenson Autobody. 604-590-8180. Its in Surrey.

[Geo]

I could have sworn there was a link of ICBC approved body shops or a link to a list of body shops posted on this thread.

Aren Jay?

[Aren Jay]

http://apps.icbc.com/locator/results-repairshops-fw.asp?listAll=false&location-addy=vancouver&distance=30+kms

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[Taemian]

I could have sworn there was a link of ICBC approved body shops or a link to a list of body shops posted on this thread.

Aren Jay?

There are very, very few shops that are NOT ICBC aprroved. It's pretty much mandatory since the basic insurance policy by law is done through ICBC here in BC.

Approved doesn't mean recommended. Kirmac is a shmuck shop. I worked there for a few months waaay back when our fleet shop had temporary seniority layoffs...it was not a great place to be. That said, give Maximum Collision a call, but not their Whiterock store. Karl is the manager of the other one, his guys do good work. Another shop with lots of hi-po and specialty cars in it is Still Creek Auto Body. Last week they had a last gen T-bird (the 57 clone), a Saleen, a Mazdaspeed3, an AMG and a Cuda. Check them out, ask for references.

It's a good thing that people who don't even live in the province are recommending local shops.:bs: Almost as good as his info on what to do when visiting Vancouver and what it's like to live here...oh wait...that was all deleted by him since nothing he writes ever stands the test of time, and comes back to bite him in the ass on a regular basis. Keep deleting every month dude, you're safest that way. Another novel idea might be to just not write at all.

[Aren Jay]

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[Geo]

I have gone to Burrard Autostrausse and Korva Worldwide and because my car is not an import (such as a Mercedes or BMW) they don't think that ICBC will allocate enoughy funds to provide a black paint job to the caliber that I expect (such as application labour time and polish time to get rid of orange peel etc).

With that said, I was going to check out Number One collision as of yet which only work on BMWs but I think my best bet is 360 Fabrication in Abbotsford ( http://www.360fabrication.com/ ). They are well known in the muscle car and hot rod community. It's still possible that ICBC may not provide the necessary time required although it is also true that if you have custom work done to a car and expect to be covered, one needs an Special Equipment Endorsement which will cover over CAD$5000. This may suggest that there is some room to breath under the CAD$5000 threshold.

Either way, my Impala would be in good hands at 360 I am thinking since they are used to applying 10-30,000 paint jobs on custom jobs so they have the passion. I am going out there tommorow to consult with them with my car.

360 Fabrication typically deals with the custom end of the business and 360 Collision division deals with insurance claims.

Abbotsford is a bit far from Vancouver but may be worth the one hour drive there.

G

[Aren Jay]

glad it all worked out.

[Geo]

well kinda sorta. I went to see 360 and it's a great place but it's in Abbotsford and I may have to continue dealing with Richmond area as Richmond ICBC is familiar with my car and history and I have a rapport with them. I would be starting from scratch with the Abbotsford estimators and it can get complicated as the level of work I expect to get 360 can provide but they may not be able to get the time in hours needed to do it. I may have some more negotiating power in the Richmond area since I have a history there and would rather continue dealing with that claim centre therefore I need to find a shop that is designated as a "Collision Plus" status. Richmond Autobody is and even though once before a couple of years ago they declined to paint the whole car, I wonder what they will say now.

The point is that there isn't alot of money in painting a whole car at most shops as it can get expensive. 360 even said they may be lucky to make $30 at the end of the day.