Well, it looks like I'm going to have to repaint my whole car. I have an appointment with the insurance company next friday and they are supposed to cut me a check to get the car fixed after they take a look at it. Every single panel on the car including the roof was keyed up. How much should I expect to pay to have the whole car repainted correctly? I have no idea what insurance is going to give me, but if I have to pay the difference I will, I want the car to look good once it's repainted. If I want a really good paint job (bumpers removed and painted seperately, windows removed, etc. etc.) how much does that normally run? What if I decide I want to get change the color and get the door jams, trunk, engine bay, etc. repainted too? The sheet metal is in good shape it doesn't need any body work or anything. State Farm told me that after they look at the car they give me a check and I can get it fixed wherever I want to. Which brings me to my other question...
Does anyone in the org know someone who does good paint work? Or perhaps, someone here is a painter themself. I live outside of DC but I could travel up to the greater NYC area, or I could travel south a few hours too. I can afford to leave the car for a couple weeks if needed. I just want to make sure the car gets repainted correctly and I want to avoid paying out the nose if possible. Maybe its just me, but bodyshops seem to be pretty steep around this area. Thanks a lot to anyone who can help!!

 

Submit three quotes for the repainting work from bodyshops you trust to the the work correctly to the insurance adjuster. Ask them to pay the lowest one. If you have threee shops quoting you around $3000 then don't let them give you $1500. Don't sign anything about this being full and final payment, leave yourself the option of the bodyshop bumping the price if they find something (maybe there IS damage to the metal?)

 

Someone hit my dad's truck and he wanted to get it fixed. He keeps the thing in immaculate condition so he brought it to the (good) body shop that I bring my car to. I don't know how the whole situation worked since he got the usual estimate from the insurance company, but I know that the body shop was able to work with the insurance company to get them to pay for blending and new parts that they weren't planning to pay for initially. I think if you can find a good body shop they should be able to hook you up.

Actually now that I think of it I think they were able to hook hium up because they knew the inspector from my dad's insurance and were able to call him and explain the situation.

 

I recommend posting this in the DC area forum. If any of the guys there have had body work done in the area they can tell you how they liked the work. I had an older car of mine painted (color change) at a place called Oldest to Newest in Rockville, at the time they sort of specialized on redoing old cars but they have since got more into the normal repair stuff. I still get compliments on that paint job 5 years later so I know they do good work but it was expensive.