(Sorry if this is posted in the wrong area)



Hello all. Today is a sad day for me. Toyota Pickup in front of me on the freeway rear ended a BMW and my brakes locked up and I slid into the pickup. No frame damage from what I can tell. But the headlight on the left side is gone, hood is mangled and the "bucket" in the frame is bent back about 4 inches. Does anyone know a good, reputable body shop in the LA/OC area of California? I now have an excuse to get the aftermarket hood I was interested in but some of the body shops I called wont even do cars with pop up headlights due to parts hard to find and hard to align properly. Thank you.

 

Call up Makito as Seven Apple. He specializes in Rx7's and other JDM cars.

 

Agreed with the above, Makito at 7 Apple, 310-972-8529. He can take quite a while though, since he's a one man band and has an amazing reputation. 2020 in City of Industry is supposed to be pretty good as well, and has a decent sized crew that it shouldn't take too long.

Everyone has their opinion about the shop as a whole, but it always depends on which person you get on your car. Makito does it all himself, which is why it's consistently good. 2020 has change over in workers like any other business. I'd avoid PJ Bonafio's, simply because PJ himself doesn't care unless your car goes on a magazine cover. Personally I had bad experiences at M1 Autobody, again related to the business practices.

Keep in mind, every body shop, your car is going to look good when it's fresh and done. The problems typically don't come until years down the road, well outside of warranty time.

If you need parts for the pop ups, I have the ones out of my car still that should still be in in working order if you found a shop you like, but that's their only real concern.