Estimate for body work Part II

[bmwracr]

I have been using Master Crafters for 15 years and have no complaints. They do good work and it's always done when they say it will be.

Dan

[2000_328ci]

I have been using Master Crafters for 15 years and have no complaints. They do good work and it's always done when they say it will be.

Dan

master crafters refused to do the work after seeing the pieces and told me they wouldn't do it as it would require to much custom work... but, kenny told me that he knew the best shop in town for custom stuff... (i later learned how he knew they were so good....)

OK, so today I visited YET ANOTHER body shop. This time, I went to Euro Pro out in Gaithersburg (exit 11 on 270). The guys who own the shop are former wagon works employees, bought their own shop, and have the "latest" in technology to do the work.

They looked at the pieces (i brought everything except the skirts) and they said that for the front bumper, rear add on, skirts, m3 mirrors, front lip, and to fix the rear spoiler, they wanted about 2500. They didn't write up a full estimate but that was the guys ballpark (the tech I spoke with is one of the co-owners).

They said that my spoiler was absolutely terrible but were very confident they could produce night-and-day results and make it look much better. They also said that they could make the following pieces look X% of the oem finish...

Front bumper = 70% oem look
Rear add on = 85% oem look
Skirts = 90% oem look
M3 mirrors = 100% oem look
Front lip = 90-100% oem look
Rear spoiler= 80% oem look

They told me that the front bumper may have a few sweeping waves (compared it to my acs rear spoiler) but said that where my acs spoiler had a waviness effect, the waves on the front bumper when they are done will be so minimal that to the naked eye they won't even be noticable.

They are confident that the car would look absolutely impecable and are confident that they can do the best job in the DC metro area (even better than wagon works) and the price they want is comparable with wagon works (whos price didn't include fixing the acs 3 piece).

Further, they said that they would 100% stand behind their work and if anything comes out not as described they would fix it... BUT, they said that it won't happen as they do everything right the first time and don't mess around with "fixing things later". In fact, in their shop, they had two clients cars who had work done at different shps (one of which was master crafters as mentioned above) who complained that the work wasn't up to par and the cars had been brought there to fix them.

Overall, the price is going to be insanely high and i originally didn't want to spend anywhere near 2 grand, yet alone above it. But my mom is willing to pick up 1/3 or so of the tab as a college graduation present and with the 1000 i have in the bank, the 600 i have on my debit card, and the 450 i have coming in via taxes (plus the 500 every other week for working weekends), i figure i will just pay up the big bucks now to make sure everything gets done right from the start.

They don't have an available time to begin work for about a week or two but thursday i am going up so they can look at the sideskirts and given that they are confident in their orignal estimate (the one they are doing tonight), we will begin as soon as they have an opening. Overall, the work will take a full week or so and I have to leave the car there so they can make sure the fitment is perfect and what not but they said that it will look impecable when done.

I am actually excited about spending a lot of money... this is bizzare but i am excited to have finally figured out who will do the work and am pleased to say i am confident they will do a superb job.

Within a month or so, it will finalllllllly be done




oh and as this project (including parts paint and install) will have cost me over 5 thousand bucks in total.... darn the car obsession