Stopped by the hot rod body shop today. Saw an old red and white Corvette and a green Nova.
Had a good chat with the owner of the shop and his wife. Family run, word-of-mouth shop and he's been modding hot rods since the 1950s. The office is lined with pictures and articles of modded cars and trucks.
Bottom line, he will not work on the NNBS in any way associated with an insurance claim. Too much hassle, middleman, insurance not willing to pay for quality work that his shop does. I was the 3rd person that morning that he had turned away. He was super nice about it, explained why from his view as a business owner, having tried it and then stopped when it became too much of a hassle. Insurance looks at volume and doesn't care about quality. Shame, and you lot can agree that we pay premiums to be covered, then every excuse in the book is made not to pay or pay less.
We talked about a clean Carfax report, diminished value, quality work, blends and full paints jobs.
We never made it outside to look at the truck and give me an estimate as he wasn't going to work on the Suburban anyways. But it sure was a great conversation and he gave me 30 minutes of his time. Very appreciated. Nice guy with way more knowledge and stories than I currently possess.
We circled back around to where this journey started and that was the dent repair. I asked him for a recommendation. He mentioned a shop that he currently had a car at. Turns out it is dent shop I originally went to. The father and son shop. Well knock me down!! It was only 5 minutes down the road.
We agreed before I left, that to not make the claim, pay cash myself, keep it off the record/no Carfax and let the dent guy try his magic and do his best to make it right would be a good option to try first. Sure it is $$ out of my pocket, but may be worth a go. I can leave it for now if I wanted to, but it really sucks seeing those dents. Thankfully only a few chips of paint off on the leading edges that I can touch up and no one will ever really pay attention to it as all of it at knee level.
So I went back to the dent shop and the father and son looked at it again. They hmmmddd and hawwwed and poked around a bit. The realized that the estimate after the 2nd look was a bit low and I knew it was too. You could feel it wasn't setting well with them. We agreed on a bit higher...I know...I know but it is a lot of work. Better to keep a relationship if we are going to do the job, than to quibble over $$ and them not do as good a job as they could at a lower rate. If he can get rid of 90% or more of those dents plus the other 2 door dings for a little bit more money and put his best effort forward that will never be noticed by average Joe, then it will be worth it. I am not betting on perfect in this case. I am betting on amazing results that only I will notice.
I am still contemplating it and have to explain it to the wife so she understands. The truck cannot go to the shop for another 2 weeks anyways. So I still have time.