Looking for Bay Area Auto Body Reccomendations (1 Viewer)

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Dec 6, 2016
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Colorado
First off, I hope any fellow CA folks are all safe during the fires.

My Fiance and I are moving home to Massachusetts from San Jose this winter and I need to to prep my FJ60 for a land of salt and rust. I have pulled and painted the front axle, replaced all suspension and steering components, and the frame is in good shape. Unfortunately the body is in worse shape. There is minor surface rust in a few places, then the expected bad rust on top of both rear wheel wells. I have been calling around to different auto body shops in the greater bay area and most dont even want me bringing the truck in for a quote. Anyone have a recommendation?


Thanks
 
First off, I hope any fellow CA folks are all safe during the fires.

My Fiance and I are moving home to Massachusetts from San Jose this winter and I need to to prep my FJ60 for a land of salt and rust. I have pulled and painted the front axle, replaced all suspension and steering components, and the frame is in good shape. Unfortunately the body is in worse shape. There is minor surface rust in a few places, then the expected bad rust on top of both rear wheel wells. I have been calling around to different auto body shops in the greater bay area and most dont even want me bringing the truck in for a quote. Anyone have a recommendation?


Thanks


Gigler's Auto Body on 19th St in SF. A very low-key but semi-legendary place.

The owner (Ted?) is an older guy, very old-school, hot rod and classic oriented, but when my old 03 Tundra got hit-and-run, he treated it like a show car. I was paying out of pocket and I remember his prices being fair. Not cheap, but not unreasonable.

The one wild card is that he, like a lot of other body guys, might not want to deal with rust. Dents are one thing but rust is something else.
 
Rust repair is hard to find in Cali, we just don’t have it, unless you are on the coast.. and most body shops are r&r plastic parts and insurance jobs. The minute you find a shop willing, it’s a high dollar hot rod shop! I had trouble finding a shop 25 years ago to paint my fj45 wagon...
 
I'm not sure if they will want to take on rust repair or not, but Testa's Auto Body near downtown does pretty decent work. They just fixed my VW GTI that my neighbor backed into, and when I picked it up I think there was an older chevy pickup in the back of the shop.

@EasternYeti may be a good resource for info on what to do to prepare your truck for a Massachusetts winter and also on working with a body shop. (his truck is getting re-done at a body shop right now)
 
My truck was originally from Monterey, so thankfully it was rust free with some very minor exceptions like yours. Before it came over to mass the frame was powder coated and the under-body was prepped and painted with lizard skin.

After five years up here I can tell you if I didn’t continue to spray my frame yearly with CRC it would have rotted into the ground - the climate is so hard some parts of exposed frame (by the wheel wells) had the powdercoat stripped away despite my best intentions.

With that being said I Por15’d any areas on the axles and frame that showed surface rust and over that and in every crevasse I sprayed CRC aerosol gear lube. Think of it as a much more heavy duty fluid film that sticks to surfaces and isn’t as quick to come off with the constant spray of slush or water

Fast forward to April and I brought the truck into a shop for the rear quarters which developed some rust on the inner lip, about the size of a half dollar behind the seam - quoted about a grand do both quarters

If you can’t find a shop in California, I’d find one here. You’re going to need a body guy that’s not lazy and is knowledgeable enough to work with those seams to keep water out after the fact. While still few and far between, you’ll have more options up here because dealing with rust is a fact of life

Gimmi a shout when you make it out, happy to have a “CRC afternoon” and we can winterize both trucks

CRC Industries Extreme Duty Open Gear LUBE, Black Amazon product ASIN B000R8EI08
 
Thanks everyone for the info!

@EasternYeti what body shop are you using? I am going to have the undercarriage done before I ship the truck but will be somewhere in the greater Boston area and if your body guy is doing work I am interested. I have about 4k set aside for the truck and none of it is going anywhere till I have the rust under control
 
Thanks everyone for the info!

@EasternYeti what body shop are you using? I am going to have the undercarriage done before I ship the truck but will be somewhere in the greater Boston area and if your body guy is doing work I am interested. I have about 4k set aside for the truck and none of it is going anywhere till I have the rust under control

I’m about 45 minutes outside the city, by Gilliete Stadium

it’s at Havens Autobody in Medway now, and he’d definitely need to see it in person.

What started with quarters on my truck turned into a complete body resto - and he kinda wants to kill me because of all the extra things I’ve tacked on, but he’s a great guy and the work is excellent.

Once my truck is out of his shop I can send pictures - he’d probably do your quarters if that’s all you needed done
 
Hahaha if only that's all that needed doing. That's the worst of it but there is some surface rust on the bottoms of 2 doors and I want a respray. If I go I will make sure I keep your name out of it
 
I have used KJ's Auto Repair in Oakland for body work on my cruiser. Kenny the owner is a good guy and has done a decent job for a fair price. Note that my attitude living in the bay area is to keep things in an "arrested state" of decay. I have him fix rust spots and re-spray areas that need it, but I have resisted a full repaint of my cruiser as driving off road just scratches it too much. I am getting close to just biting the bullet and painting the whole thing. I have no complaints of the quality of his work.
 

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