I picked up my car today and I’m so happy to have it back!! So here’s how this came about: there was this fellow on r3vlimited.com who was offering to answer anyone’s questions about auto body repair, and his signature said he lived in San Jose. He seemed pretty knowledgable so I approached him about my e30 and he told me to bring it by his shop if I wanted a quote. Turns out he works at a Macco franchise in Sunnyvale.

So I know Macco does not have a great reputation but they are a franchise so quality and service can vary a lot between locations. I felt o.k. going to this location because my contact was an e30 enthusiast like myself, really knows what he’s talking about and what my car needed was pretty basic. They were awesome, treated me great and hey, they guarantee their work against defects. Here’s the scope of the work:

• remove old valance
• prep and paint replacement (used but un-bent) valance
• bring front end back into spec: fix dents in fenders, align hood
• replace radiator support

So here’s the high points:

• job was done to the estimated amount, almost to the dollar
• only the items on the work order were fixed
• they were able to source the radiator support for me from their own “parts car”, cost me almost $0
• one of my lights was broken before I took it into the shop and the lens fell off and smashed. they gave me a new one from the parts car
• i had some unpainted air ducts in a box which i forgot to tell them about and they didn’t find until they re-assembled the car today. they painted them at no extra cost, i can pick them up later

So I’m super happy with the experience and the work done. Here’s the after and before:



Still to do:

• paint & install fog light deletes (coming… I’ll have to do this myself)
• delete fog lights
• install brake ducts
• install lower bumper grille

Unrelated, I epoxied some BMW center cap stickers to my TR Motorsport centercaps.