Attention San Diego/Southwest states: Have you had bodywork done in Tijuana or elsewehere in Mexico?

Edited: 5/20/2009 7:12:51 AM by Undiluted

I've been to Tijuana many times. I know the area fairly well. I'm entertaining the idea of having my car painted in Tijuana, to try and save money off a paint job that might cost three or four thousand dollars here in the U.S. <br>In TJ body shops can be found on virtually every steet corner. Has anyone here ever had their car painted in Mexico and if you did how would you rate your experience? <br> 

Youre probably not going to get a straight answer here.  Ive seen cars upholstered in TJ and they seem to be done really nicely. the ticket is to stand there and watch and wait. They work pretty quick when they know youre going to wait. I have seen small dent repair but never anything huge. One time when i was walking around in TJ i noticed that alot of the body shops are full of old cars. tons of vintage shit so it looks like the hot rod community is definately taking advantage of it. Seems like a great way to turn a profit on a project if youre not expecting the best quality out there. I dont think i would personally do it though.  You should try thehamb.com there have been discussions on their on this subject. Even some big name guys taking their rods down there.  Ernie

so you can go get a killer deal on a kandy paint job and catch a donkey show kick ass

I've seen some very impressive paint jobs come from TJ, mostly single color jobs though, nothing custom like graphics etc. Do your homework!

I used to live 10 mins from TJ and my brother had a couple cars painted there. They did a complete color change on his jeep that still looks good after 6 years for $600 that  still looks  great after 6 years. Another friend got his full custom interior up there for $500 using pleather. Front and read seats  and 4 door panels. He sold the car after a year so I'm not sure how it held up.  

i suppose it's like any shop in the US.  when i lived in the san fernando area, i saw a few really nice ones & also seen a few "MAACO'S"   like someone said, i've never seen "mini truck style graphics", but they did the lowrider cars real nice as well as some very nice murals (i'm talking about the quality of the work, not that an iron clad zena warrior princess is nice...)  i guess just research the shops you'd like to go to.   also beware of the swine flu       

the biggest thing with tj is you have to know someone to get good stuff done and not get ripped off, I know allot of people who go down there for interior chrome and paint its kinda a crapshoot though unless you know someone.

Body shops in TJ need and want your business.

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Because of that, a few years ago they set up some type of hearing board for Americans who had a complaint about bad business practiced by any of the shops. Kinda like a "watchdog group". Anyone know the name of the committee I'm talking about? <br><br>

All this committee dealt with were body shop issues, that's it - nothing else. I don't know if this committee still exists, or even what it's reputation is. It wouldn't be hard to find out. Most old school Mexican body shops are aware of this committee. <br><br>If I did go through with something like this - and I may not - I would take a lot of precautions and prepare for a worst case scenario. <br><br>I would have a long list of things to tend to before I handed my car over to a Mexican body shop. I would definitely investigate the existence of that committee or board, or whatever it's called. I would go to a good Mexican lawyer to find out if an American can take an unethical Mexican body shop owner to their version of a civil court. That type of consultation would cost about ten or twenty bucks.<br><br>I would find out if conversations recorded in secret with a digital voice recorder are admissable in a Mexican court. If the answer to that question is yes, then that's a best case scenario for someone like me, even better than having a witness.

 

I am kind of surprised that someone would actually be willing to drop off their car right now in mexico. I would be worried about way more then the quality of the paint job. Given the economic and social climate down there right now I would be scared that my car would disappear.

Your best bet is to wait till there is a lowrider show in SD somewhere and ask around so of the guys showing. I have been to tons of lowrider shows and seen some killer work done to some very high end lowrider club cars that were done down there. Key is these guys know the guys doing honest work and the ones that don't. Word of mouth goes very far no matter what scene your in. Good luck with your search.....BTW what kind of paint job are you looking for?