Audball

Any Houstonites know of a good body shop (preferrably on the West side of town...)? Some inexperienced teenage driver caused a 4 car chain-bang, with me in the middle, so it's bodywork time.. *sigh* (At least there appears to be no structural damage - no human damage either - will post pics when I get back to Austin).

Speaking of Austin, some of you Austinites mentioned using Nova, if I'm not mistaken? Are they just a paint shop, or a full body shop? Are they good enough to drive back to Austin for? (Couple pieces of duct tape should hold the trunk down and the rear bumber to the quater panel long enough...).

Thanks for any info you all can provide,
Audball

lvs2k

If you don't have personal experience with a good body shop, I suggest you call your local Porsche, Mercedes or other high-dollar auto dealer to see where they send their customers who, as a group, are probably as picky as we are.

Audball

That's a good suggestion - I'll give it a shot. (Too bad no dealerships are open Sundays... Argh.. waiting until Monday to get my baby assessed and in the shop is torture!)

I'd still like to get word from all you Houstinites out there, as I'm all for giving repeat business to a good shop, especially if it could foster good treatment in the future to any other Houston S2000 owner who needs work done.

Cheers,
Audball

cmwaustin

Unfortunately, I don't know of a good body shop in Houston...

but definitely do NOT take it to Continental Cars in Austin(now Mercedes Benz of Austin). They are terrible! I had to take my car back 5-6 times before they did it right. Had to get the GM involved, etc.

So, you can't always trust the Porsche/Mercedes places.

I've heard from numerous people that Berli's is the best in Austin. I should have taken mine there.

Good luck! Sorry to hear of your accident.

Unicron

Audball,

I hear "Sunrise" is top notch bud...

jnmunsey

I used River Oaks Paint & Body which is near Kirby & 59(not on the West side).

My Silver S2K got some moderate fender & bumper damage last spring and they banged it out and fixed it.

Anyway, the quality of the work was mixed. The paint matched up well and was great on the fender but poor on the bumper. I had to get them to fix some things & repaint twice. They also put the side badges on as 2000S....

Anyway, they have experience with at least one of these cars. They mainly do BMW, Mercedes and Jaguar but I risked them and was satsified considering I sold the car after it was fixed. Had I planned on keep it I would have made them keep it until perfect..

John M

Audball

Thanks for the replies - cmwaustin's comment on Berli's back in Austin sounds the most promising so far...

Can anybody think of reason why or why not to have it fixed at one of the bigger Honda dealerships in Houston? It would be an inconvenience to me because I need to get back to Austin, but I wouldn't have to risk driving it back and having pieces fall off, and there may be some advantage to having Spring Branch or John Eagle Honda (or possibly Acura) do the work. Aren't the odds better that they're more familiar with the car, and could possibly get the replacement parts sooner?

Loaner car isn't an issue, as my family has a spare I can take back to Austin... Maybe I could have State Farm pay to tow it back to Austin even though it's drivable.

Hmmm... more questions than answers... Man, this sucks. Anybody have a time travelling device -- going back in time and undoing the incident would give the best results.. ;-)

Kibro

I agree with Unicron. Sunrise Paint & Body in Belair is good. They did a great job on my Type R when I still had my baby with me (before some f#$#@%^ took it from me... gotta stop this... *taking my cellphone out and calling the shrink*). Colors matched and everything was fit to a T and if ever there's something wrong, they go the extra mile to make you (and keep you) happy.

Good luck and sorry about the incident.

Pueo

I had one board member strongly recommend John Eagle on Hwy 6 and I-10 a few months ago when I needed some work done. Ended up taking it to River Oaks Body shop due to proximity and a happy customer referral. They work on cars such as jaguars, mercedes, etc. Even had a Viper in while I was there. They matched up the paint real well but I'm sure John Eagle is equally adept.

Audball

Has anybody had good or bad experiences with either "Autocraft Bodywerks" or "Jeff's Auto Body Repair" in Austin? I went to check out Berli's in response to cmwaustin's suggestion -- turns out they rejected working on my car because of the combination of the paint (Silverstone Metallic) and the insurance agency (USAA). The guy there said they worked on an S2000, but ended up having to repaint the whole thing because matching was so difficult -- something the insurance agency won't cover. Too bad, as it looked like a good shop... (Could have also been the "Hmph, it's just a Honda" mentality from them, who knows...)

Anyway, Berli's recommended (after I practically beat it out of the guy - seems everybody is paranoid about liability or recommendations or something) the two shops I mentioned above. If nobody has any comments about them, I'll probably end up bending over and going to Classic Honda, who has their own shop and deals directly with the insurance co. (whereas I'm guessing the other two don't).

By the way, the estimate I got from Rebreu Body in Austin (USAA sanctioned adjusters/shop) was just a hair under $5200. Is anybody keeping tabs on the largest non-totalled/rebuild sum? I figure that much HAS to put me in the running...

Cheers,
Audball