I want to fix up my beater but don't want to spend a ton of money on it. Anyone have recommendations on a relatively inexpensive body shop in the MA (or even NY) area? Based on past experience ,anything more than a ding will cost more than the cost of your E30 at one of those places.

Thanks.

I used Pete's Custom Paint and Body in Hudson, Ma for the Chevelle a few years back- they did a great job, and the $ wasn't too bad. Somewhere around $3000 iirc for a full body spray with a little bit of repair work/body panel alignment. Joey did the paint from there. Very talented, but it took a while since there were some things to fix on the body that we didn't expect. About 6 mos from drop off to pick up with the restoration work. A little longer than it should have been, but the end result was well worth the wait.

I'm sure there are more than a few places around that will suit your needs and your budget. Key point is look at the cars they have around, if they have been sitting for a while, how neat the shop is, and especially if they have a wall of photos of completed projects- shows they take pride in their work. There's one body shop right near my office in Bedford that had some higer end euros around and a muscle car or two... forget the name though. Another thing to keep in mind is that in the spring time, a lot of car projects take quite a bit longer with the bike crowd wanting to get tanks resprayed (shops usually jump all over them, since it's quick, easy $$ as opposed to cars which can be long, hard $$) Same rule goes for shops where insurance are their bread and butter. I had a few shops that were heavy into insurance turn the Chevelle away since the $$/labor time ratio isn't as strong.