Thread: Best paint shop in VA (Hampton Roads are would be nice)?

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I cannot friggin believe this. I spent $7k having a factory color paint job at a primo shop using Glasurit on my car (well, and the front windsheild and the back glass were part of that price). I was saving up for a programmable warm up regulator (the last part needed to get the modified engine I put in the car running perfectly) because I had spent every single last penny I have on my baby. It was painted just one year ago. I garage the car, wash it every week, and wax it every month.

Today, some [expletive deleted] t-boned it while it was parked. So, now I'm going to have to sell a gun or two to get it fixed. Some minor damage on the front passenger door lower molding and the rear door is shot, paint scratched but more importantly the door is curved into the car about a foot, it's done. Welcome home for Thanksgiving I guess.

So, is there a good, and by good I mean exceptional shop in VA, preference for Hampton Roads area? It is an absolute requirement that the shop use glasurit and that the shop be intimately familiar with 1980's Mercedes and only use factory parts. If not, I'll drive it to the shop that did it the repaint in NC, but it'd be nice if I didn't have to do that.

I guess I'll be selling my rifles to pay for it. I realize that I just said I spent every penny I had on the thing, but I have saved up most of the way towards the programmable warm up regulator and my rifles are worth a decent amount, I want the best darn shop there is, and if there isn't one in VA I'll go out of the state. I don't want good or good for the money, I want amazing.

Son of a gun. That car is my everything. I love that car more than people love their children. If someone said that smashing my left hand with a hammer (so I could still shift from park to D) would magically fix it, I'd be smashing my left hand with a hammer right now.

Marlin I am sorry to hear what happened to your car. Sorry that I do not know of any painters. Good luck in your search.

Thanks. The car is my baby. Exactly my age, to the day. My dad bought it new with no intention of keeping it, but I learned to work on cars on it and grew attached.

However, it got parked outside for 20 years before I had any money. It was shot. Dad gave it to me. I gutted the interior and using like-new finds at junkyards restored the inside. Then I had a custom engine built for it...which lasted 1500 miles. JE pistons admitted fault - they had told me they were making me special pistons that would work in an alusil engine, but they were wrong. They admitted they were wrong. But because there's no warranty on their stuff, the most they would do for me was make me a new set of pistons and I would just pay the cost of the materials, but I would have to find and pay for my own sleeved block...which doesn't exist, and I looked into the very expensive custom options and it wasn't worth it, so instead I spent $10k building a whole new engine (everything was done after those pistons...well that and the first engine builder must have been in on the whole thing because he screwed me too, which I realized once I saw the underside of the heads. His response? So sue me. Just beautiful.

I had it painted between the install and when it died.

Then, when it died, another $10,000 later and I was back in business, needing only 1 more part (it was driving fine, has about 4k on it, but that one last part would make it run perfectly), and then this happened.