myfuncar

Hey fellow St. Louisan...
I've got a couple of bodywork problems, and am looking for a decent paintless dent remover and possibly body shop to do some regular work.

Problem 1 is my front grille opening. (self influcted) I don't know where the front of my car is, exactly, and continually bump the front of the garage at work, which is concrete and so I have chips flaking off the top of the grille openeing. I had it painted once before for about $500 but would like to avoid doing the whole thing again. Is it possible to just repair that area and not paint the entire body part that its on?

Problem dtwo is a door dent from someone I parked next to 6 months ago. It looks like it could be popped out but I have no experience taking a car for this kind of thing.

Anyone have any suggestions?

PS Sorry I've never made the monthly meet, but until this gets fixed, I'd be embarassed for you guys to see the car!!

WaterLogged

Bah! Who cares if there's a little custom body work?

Apparently White Auto Body in O'Fallon, MO is a great place to get things painted with great quality and reasonable prices. You can probably call them and they'd be able to help you out over the phone with at least an idea what you have in store.

As far as paintless dent places, I've found they're all pretty much the same. Depending on the placement of the dent in the door they may or may not be able to do it easily. Usually they can just stick a little gizmo down the window and roll the dent smooth.

Hope this helps.

myfuncar

Thanks for the suggestion, but that's a long way from home...anything closer in - like the Olive/Lindbergh area? I went to a body shop on Dorsett called Old Style and they're real nice but I was just wondering if anyone knew of anything better.

WaterLogged

I just got my car back from Plaza and they did a great job matching the velocity red mica. But I don't know how they compare in regards to expense as the work done to my car was covered by the other car owner's insurance. I've heard from others that Plaza's comparatively expensive, but I went there for the quality of craftmanship.

myfuncar

My old car (Cadillac DTS) went to Plaza, and they did a very high-quality job. It was silver (as is my Mazda) which I know can also be tricky.
Plaza screwed up the billing, and I thought the people who worked there were IQ-challenged. I don't know if they could deal with someone just riding in and saying "please fix this" without insurance coverage.
I think I'll go back to Old-Style, they were pretty nice and did a good job. Now if I could quit hitting the wall with my "snout"....