Rear-ended !

Hello

Its been awhile since I've been on, and hope everyone's doing well.

My '82 got read-ended a month ago, and has damage to the rear and front. I'm looking for recommendations for body repair in the Kansas City area. It has ~30K original miles, and was in excellent condition, so I'm looking for a repair place that will restore it to its former condition/value.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Dave

 

That sucks. Good luck.

 

One of the frustrating things you'll be dealing with is getting "new" parts. Of course, many of your "new" parts may turn out to be actually salvage yard used parts. Buying salvage yard parts is always a little bit of a flip of the dice as to the quality you receive. My limited experience is that salvage yards from Southern California have an advantage in that most likely the parts they offer are not salt damaged. I've bought salvage yard parts from a mid-west source and have received salt damaged parts. I ordered a windshield wiper door mechanism for a 68-73 (?) Corvette from a well known mid-western Corvette vendor that also sells salvage parts. Some of the rivets were almost disintegrated with salt damage. I had to re-rivet the entire mechanism. In you're searching for salvage yard parts, do give J&D Corvettes in Bellflower, Ca a call. They are a CF sponsor. They are easy to work with and they know Corvettes. But you have to realize that even the best used part they have may possibly be not the quality you'd really like to have.

Opps...as I think about this, maybe I shouldn't have stressed the importance of Southwestern US salvage yards. I just remembered I've received some good quality stuff from a salvage yard in the Northeastern part of the US and from another yard in the central north part of the US. Buying parts from salvage yards is a shoot of the dice, as I've said. Actually, I've only bought parts from four salvage yards and all the people I've talked too were very helpful. GOOD LUCK

 

I feel your pain. I was rear-ended a few years ago and I took my 76 to a body shop owned by one of the "club" members. I spent two weeks correcting all of the screw-ups, including overspray and fiberglass throughout the interior. I have been to a half dozen body shops before I found one that does what I want, does what they say they will do and gets it done by the day they say it will be done.

 

Good luck with this. I would be really bummed if anything ever happend to any of mine.

 

Thanks to everyone for the comments and advice !

 

Hey Dave,,,,,,I do not live far from you

There are a couple of places you can check with, one is in Merriam and one is in Kearny MO. I have heard better things about the Kearny location than the one in Merriam. I did talk with the Merriam location on a issue and I did not like the owner's attitude with me. Both of these places are Vett only.

call if you wish 816-225-1265