i am looking for a good body shop in the western MA/northern CT area..car has paint chips i want to get rid of and some very early stages of rust from a hairline cut in the paint (dont know how it happened)

anyone know of any?

My car is actually at a great shop right now in Oxford Mass, called Messina's auto body (508)987-8011
paul is the owner and Gabe is his son the painter. My car is there for 2 weeks getting complete strip and repaint with a show car finish for 4500.
if you call telll them Dave sent you, mention the Green M3 there painting they'll know exactly what your talkin about.

allright cool thanks- 4500 is not bad

anyone else know other shops?

Thats cheap, most places charge upwards to 10Gs for a complete car.

its a little bit of a hike but Cote's Auto Body in Exeter, NH....
they do absolutly amazing work and is extreamly well priced (coming from a 17 year old kid mind you)
603.772.4344

Ask for "Billy" and tell him Fred sent you, he might strike an even better deal
Cheers!
Fred

its a little bit of a hike but Cote's Auto Body in Exeter, NH....
they do absolutly amazing work and is extreamly well priced (coming from a 17 year old kid mind you)
603.772.4344

Ask for "Billy" and tell him Fred sent you, he might strike an even better deal
Cheers!
Fred

about how much does he charge to redo a car usually? pm me if you dont want to post it here

its not in your area but .. Sublime Restorations in rowley mass. the guy is amazing. julian miller. he was trained at gullwing (world renowned mercedes restorations) and he currently has a dealer account with bmw peabody, lambogini and mini. he has personally restored cars for ralph loren (one of which is a very rare early 30's buggati, great work. wouldnt trust anyone else with my car.

I got 1 crappy picture of my car that i snapped today at the bodyshop. I gave them a digital cammera to take pics of it for me as they go and it got lost or stolen or something. so there replacing it for me. butt this picture does NO justice, the car is almost completly stripped naked, the front end is right down to the radiator, no front fenders, no windows (front and rear are coming out tomorrow) its gunna be amazing.. and that heat wripple that 90% of e36's are prown to in front of the sunroof.. GONE! hahah its gunna be one hell of a sight to see when its done. keep posted i'll throw all my pics in this thred so i dont hafto start a new one.
oh this is only 2 days of workin on it too.

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w250/Nooneyman/fisrtpicstripedandsanded.jpg

...Another good shop is Audetts Auto Body in Worc. You can see it from rt 146 north on the right, just before all the construction. I think its ballard street that its on, but they do great work. They did two of my trucks before.

Audetts has a good rep, but they kinda pushed me out the door when i went to get a quote.. they gave me a price of 12K for what i wanted and then told me i wouldnt have my car for like 3 Mo.

Audetts has a good rep, but they kinda pushed me out the door when i went to get a quote.. they gave me a price of 12K for what i wanted and then told me i wouldnt have my car for like 3 Mo.

i think im gonna be going to the same shop as you..just dont know if im doing it this summer, or next (my car is going to be stored for almost a year)

cant wait to see the end result of your car..let me know about your experiences with this shop

thanks

Ricks autobody in springfield is what bmw of westspringfield uses. i got my bumper painted there and it came out great

Ricks autobody in springfield is what bmw of westspringfield uses. i got my bumper painted there and it came out great

hmm, may have to check them out too..

are you from the area?

well so far my experance with them has been very good. granted someone stole my dig cammera, BUT they offered to buy me a new upgraded one for the inconvience. i gave them a desposiable cammera instead and there going to take pictures of the entire prossess for me, i'll post all of them on here when i get the car/ cammera back.
once the car was completly stripped they noticed my hoodlatch cable was rusted almost to the braking point. so they are putting in a new one labor free (23bux for the cable from the dealer) they also are replacing ALL of my window moldings from dealer with no charges because they told me they could reuse them. but when you pull out a BMW molding it usally wont go back to gether correctly because of the way they seal.
they had me call in window clames for front and rear saying they were cracked (they were badly pitted but i was gunna live with them) the window guy went there and pulled front and rear window out and then left so they could spray the car with everything off. when the new windows go back in all that trim is giong to be dealer NEW too.. so just about everything ont he car will be NEW or refinished to be new.

at the moment the car looks completly totaled. the only thing on the nose of the car is the hood thats just laying on top of the nose. i didnt even know that my car could be stripped so far down. its insane!

Here are some pictures that were taken with my cell cammera from the weekend right before primer.
the windows are all removed (just still there to stop debries), door pannels off, all moldings of anysort off, all body work done.
OH and if any E36 owner has VERY little rust like i did. GET this done NOW because once the paint is gone it was a nightmare. there was a TON of rust that you could not see.
http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w250/Nooneyman/stripped3.jpghttp://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w250/Nooneyman/stripped2.jpg
http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w250/Nooneyman/striped.jpg

i honestly didnt know that my car could be so stripped down.. this is what you get with a 3 man teem for 3 weeks.

sounds like this shop is the one for me..cant wait to see the finished product

the guy whos is doing it such a detail freak he noticed 2 VERY small runs that indicate that my car was eather mixed up on the asyembly line or was repainted before it ever left the factory!!! I'll just add that to the list of wierd things its got. like it has all 95 options (even bmw north america could not explain them for me) but is vin is 94build date. idk, its what i call a MUTT car. kinda my own personal bmw "Individual"

the guy whos is doing it such a detail freak he noticed 2 VERY small runs that indicate that my car was eather mixed up on the asyembly line or was repainted before it ever left the factory!!! I'll just add that to the list of wierd things its got. like it has all 95 options (even bmw north america could not explain them for me) but is vin is 94build date. idk, its what i call a MUTT car. kinda my own personal bmw "Individual"

have any pics of the finished job?

RT. 28 Collision near me...They do great work.

I'll just add that to the list of wierd things its got. like it has all 95 options (even bmw north america could not explain them for me) but is vin is 94build date. idk, its what i call a MUTT car. kinda my own personal bmw "Individual"

LOL. There are tons of cars like that man.

im about 15 minutes away from RT 28 collision how much do they charge for a paint job?

im about 15 minutes away from RT 28 collision how much do they charge for a paint job?

They told me they did a 740il for 9 grand.

thats kinda pricey compared to wat saloon's place is doing it for.... no?

thats kinda pricey compared to wat saloon's place is doing it for.... no?

You get what you pay for...always.

have any pics of the finished job?
NO do you know WHY?!?!?! because i dont have it yet!! there was a problem with the LTW flag under the clear, it was set to dry and it began to spider the clearcoad, like hair line cracks just over the vinyl.. i thought it looked cool, but they said it would only get worse and begin to chip. so it had to be redone. another week + time. thenn because of the delay it pushed it into there vaca time. so another week there. i'm gunna get it back wed. i saw it today and its just about back together.. looks stunning! I love the boston green so much more now. my car was BADLY faded before and ididnt even know it!
there was a little boo boo, they painted my front splitter.. nothing i can do now, kinda upset but it was an honest mistake considering in all there were 75 indiviual pices that were painted not on the car

i will post pics the day i get it dont you worry!

You get what you pay for...always.
augy, i'll post pics of the entire paint prossess on this thread so you can see what tehy did to my car. EVERY molding was replaced, the entire rocker pannels were rebuilt, fenders were replaced, front and rear windows came out and will be replaced with new, the car was stripped down to nothing. when it was at its most stripped point it honestly looked like a salvage car.
other than the small time issue i have no complaints, Gabe the painter is a prefectionist so all the doors were re aligned so there perfectly flat with eachother, it looks soo good.
u'll see

augy, i'll post pics of the entire paint prossess on this thread so you can see what tehy did to my car. EVERY molding was replaced, the entire rocker pannels were rebuilt, fenders were replaced, front and rear windows came out and will be replaced with new, the car was stripped down to nothing. when it was at its most stripped point it honestly looked like a salvage car.
other than the small time issue i have no complaints, Gabe the painter is a prefectionist so all the doors were re aligned so there perfectly flat with eachother, it looks soo good.
u'll see

Thats cool. I will reserve my judgement until I see it in person.

no problem.. i would like everyones criticisms both positive and negitive.. but here is the first question.. how does everyone feel about a painted lower lip?? i REALLY wanted to stay the way it was (black plastic) but in the mixup of a thousand partss it got painted to match.. Should i leave it green or paint it flat black?

no problem.. i would like everyones criticisms both positive and negitive.. but here is the first question.. how does everyone feel about a painted lower lip?? i REALLY wanted to stay the way it was (black plastic) but in the mixup of a thousand partss it got painted to match.. Should i leave it green or paint it flat black?

are your moldings still black? if so, then flat black..if they are painted..a black lip would stick out like a sore thumb

are your moldings still black? if so, then flat black..if they are painted..a black lip would stick out like a sore thumb
Nope moldings are black, door handles are black. rear defuser still black.
The lower lip is already painted green and nice and shiny cleared. should i just buy a new one that is just black plastic instead of repainting this one?

Snapped this one quickly this morning as thery were finishing up a few things.. almost done. I BROKE my dam R fog light!!!! grr.. what ever..
there fixing the lower lip and makin it black. other than that tomorrow night looks like it may happen! :)

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w250/Nooneyman/bodyshop.jpg

alright well since i'm getting all new glass, the rear window is getting done also (didnt need to be changed) but it was easyer to call in a glass clame and have the windwo taken out for paint. anyways bmw's have 6 leads on the window.. what for? no clue, antenna and defrost.. buy why6? the aftermarket window only has 4... So they hafto go straight to bmw for the glass. slight hold up no biggie.

Problems = stoped this morning and the moldings were still not on, and neither were the side skirts or rundles. no biggie. i stopped back after work later that day and first thing i said was are you Fin kidding me. the side skirts were on the wrong sides. i was so bullshit, NEXT thing that hit me like a led baceball to the face was the bmw badge in the rear was NOT squared! so after finding this i'm looking the car over, and see that the ///M3 badge in the side skirt was fuckin UPSIDE DOWN! i'm like are you FREAKIN kidding me!! the owner kept appoligizing and saying its all an easy fix.

come to find out after the hard part was done (paint polish everything put back together) they had a NOOB putting the moldings/badges/skirts on. EVERYTING this guy touched he Fed it up. i'm freakin out and they brought me into the office to go over the price. it came out to close to 6K! i completely lost my cool and told them i was not payin 6k when the cant even put a fuckin badge on the correct way. he asked me what i wanted. I told them i've been with out a car for close to 50 days, they lost my moms digi cammera and now this? i wouldent pay more than 4500 and if they wernt going to give me my car back for that price i was going to get into it and drive it through the back of the paint booth as he sat there.

he agreed and appoligised again. then said they wouldent do waht they had to do to my car again for that price. i was like " i dont give a crap and i want my keys tomorrow"

so we'll see.........

Wow thats sucks big time. Hope all goes over well.

They put an M3 badge on it? That stinks.

wow dude... i paid 1200 for a strip and repaint of the entire front end. i see a small blemish last night which turns out he just didnt buff it completely. i went over this morning showed the spot, mind you the spot was no bigger than 2 cds. he buffed and polished the entire front end, taught me the proper way to polish, what kind of compounds to use, what kind of pad, the right buffer, and gave me the phone number and recomendation of a guy who replaces windsheilds because the front seal leaks a little bit.

i guess its all luck who you go to and who does what. i also found out they stripped the clear and re-coated the ENTIRE car, because they decided that they didnt like the way the new parts looked in contrast with the rest of the car. no overspray, 2/3 of the car was urethaned for free, and a free front end buff and polish. i recomend anyone goes here.

Bucci's Autobody in Cumberland RI. gods among body shops.

They put an M3 badge on it? That stinks.
the only m3 badge is the one in the moldings, just b/c i dont have another to put there instead. the onlything i'm missing from an M anyways is the vin.. and brakes :(
s52obd1 and e46 6spd is my winter project :devillook

ok, i've got alot of shit to bitch about but no time right now.. if your interested or care, i'll post pics later tonight (maybe10:30-11ish) and i have a video with a quick walk around.

OK i dont have any pics, but i'm going back to them tomorrow and demanding half my money back.. list of things wrong

1 the sunroof molding is UPSIDE DOWN! felt up rubber down. (seriously how do you fuck that up??)
2 they did not use any of the factory clips for the side skirts i supplied. intesad they used self tapping screws.
3 the fenders they used were aftermarket (i offered to buy bmw fenders but tehy assured me thease were good) DO NOT lign up anywhere! so horrable looking
4 the side marker lights are on backwards (black part with the screw in it is faceing the front)
5 the brake ducts i gave them for the Mtec bumper they did not use, instead they used the ones for the 325i and apoxyed them on there. they dont even reach back to the fender liner.
6 they broke my pasenger foglight
7 they used ?wood screws? to mount the fog instead of the factory clips. so one sticks out about a half inch.

i'm sure i can think of more.. but if i dont get my money i'm gunna get a lawyer involved and get it all back. so ya.. if you just want parts painted thease guys are amazing but if you want your car put back together correctly there retarded.. dont really have pics yet.. sorry

You get what you pay for...always.

Good luck man.

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w250/Nooneyman/newnose.jpg

Holy jesus what a shitshow. Sorry to hear all this all turning south on you saloon.. :/

Holy jesus what a shitshow. Sorry to hear all this all turning south on you saloon.. :/
i way over reacted at first, i guess its becauase i just spent all that money and i expected perfection.. but the sunroof molding and a quick realign of the front fenders is all thats really wrong.. its you cant even notice if your not staring at it. haha i just saw a few flaws and flipped out.
the sideskirt issue was not the shops fault so i cant blame them, they offered to paint the new skirt and install for nothing.
i called and chewed off there heads the other day and now i feel like a complete asshole. there gunna hook me up because i was not 100% satifyed

but the car does look damm good:rolleyes

i way over reacted at first, i guess its becauase i just spent all that money and i expected perfection.. but the sunroof molding and a quick realign of the front fenders is all thats really wrong.. its you cant even notice if your not staring at it. haha i just saw a few flaws and flipped out.
the sideskirt issue was not the shops fault so i cant blame them, they offered to paint the new skirt and install for nothing.
i called and chewed off there heads the other day and now i feel like a complete asshole. there gunna hook me up because i was not 100% satifyed

but the car does look damm good:rolleyes

I dunno, I'd still be pretty pissed over just about everything in you "list of things wrong" post. If I'm paying someone to do a job, I want it done right even if it's not perfect. Drilling a body kit? wrong screws on the fog lights? Epoxied brake ducts?

I expect that kind of "quick fix" on a "pimp my ride" type thing where you're not paying and your car is a heap to begin with, not something as relatively simple as a spray job.

If you're getting over it, I suppose I can be pissed enough for the both of us. :evil2

I dunno, I'd still be pretty pissed over just about everything in you "list of things wrong" post. If I'm paying someone to do a job, I want it done right even if it's not perfect. Drilling a body kit? wrong screws on the fog lights? Epoxied brake ducts?

I expect that kind of "quick fix" on a "pimp my ride" type thing where you're not paying and your car is a heap to begin with, not something as relatively simple as a spray job.

If you're getting over it, I suppose I can be pissed enough for the both of us. :evil2

haha thanks but not everything i listed is actually wrong.. the sunroof gasket bmw must've changed the design of it. the old one was rubber on top, the new one is half rubber half the fuzzy stuff. it is on correctly. the side marker lights i just thought were backwards in my fit of rage. the rest is fixed easly. everyone will be able to see at the next meet.

I got my car repaired and in the process had the hood, bumper, nose panel, and both fenders all painted and had all the dents removed. I payed $1600 and had about 25 or so hrs of labour into my self. the Paint looks amazing and couldnt be any happier. So to the OP expect to pay a decent amount for quality work. I DA-ed all my panels and the hood to bare metal half way up, then meticulously wet sanded all the primed panels until there was no orange peal, them sanded the clearcoat with 1200, again until there was no orange peel, then everything was polished.

I got my car repaired and in the process had the hood, bumper, nose panel, and both fenders all painted and had all the dents removed. I payed $1600 and had about 25 or so hrs of labour into my self. the Paint looks amazing and couldnt be any happier. So to the OP expect to pay a decent amount for quality work. I DA-ed all my panels and the hood to bare metal half way up, then meticulously wet sanded all the primed panels until there was no orange peal, them sanded the clearcoat with 1200, again until there was no orange peel, then everything was polished.
sweet! good deal, on my recept its got 103 hrs of labor, lol are you going to Colt state park on the 12th?? i wanna compare work;)

sweet! good deal, on my recept its got 103 hrs of labor, lol are you going to Colt state park on the 12th?? i wanna compare work;)

ya ill be there, one thing i can say with bodyshops is nothing is a gaurantee, and it REALLY takes time, so you always gotta be patient.