Just wondering if anyone has tried or experienced any BODY WORK done by Method4/FIA's body shop. Wanted to see if I could stay local with a local shop before heading to the south bay for work.

Looking to shave my rear hatch lock (after some a-hole used a screwdriver trying to pop it) and cleanup my front and rear bumpers. Love living and parking in SF.

 

i havnt gotten work done there but i have a good friend who used to work for FIA, they're shady and will take forever to get ur car done. but thats just my opinion. my friend is taking them to small claims court because they didnt have enought money to pay their workers... sound shady?

 

I had a really bad experience with one of FIA's owners and I definitely would not take my car to them, especially for body work. PM me if you'd like to hear the details privately.

 

wasnt this the shop that ed and the rest of the crew were trying to open.? Whatever did happen to it

 

Glad I asked. With that said, anyone have any suggestions for body shops in SF.?

(Yes, I did a search but now looking for more updated information and/or experiences).

 

Yeah I had taken my car in to them for new brake work and had a really bad experience with the what they did. I won't go into details but I would never bring my car to them again. Just spend the extra cash on gas and go to either AutoHQ or GST.

BTW Ed from Method 4 is no longer associated with the shop as far as I know

 

Superior Auto on 16th & Valencia. Call Jairo.

 

From your description it doesn't sound like insurance will be covering it, but if they are you may want to check out Matt's Auto Body around 10th and Folsom. They do mainly German cars (I think they have a contract with the nearby Benz dealer), but they did great work with my Suby.

 

 

theres a big stink going on NCE with FIA as well. FIA has had a bad rep in the past, tried to "renew" their rep, but seem to be falling into their old ways

 

The downside is GST doesn't do body work. No one cracks the hood of my car but Moike and the guys. I'm trying to talk Tommy into welding me up some brush guards for my car. Yeaaaahhhhh...

I'll check out Superior and Matt's. Thanks you guys.

 

FIA are nice guys really. They picked up my car and drove it 30 miles for work. However, they did lose one of my FMIC brackets which kind of irked me, cause that's one of those parts you can't just go to Kragen and get, you know? That being said, I gave them a deadline of one day and they worked on my car straight from 10am to 8pm, so they probably got tired and overlooked the part.

 

I rent space from FIA and use an office in the same building so I see their day-2-day. Sammy, the owner, really is a good guy. He's just VERY busy and is in and out a heck of a lot running various errands to get things finished here. I've seen them do some very, very good work over the past few months. Sometimes things take a little longer than one might think they should, but there are soooo many suppliers and other people to deal with that on a large project where you have parts coming from multiple places it's just a freakin' headache and it's like directing an orchestra. Sammy keeps himself really busy with that stuff and occassionally the communication (like answering the phone or whatever) is delayed because of it. Some people take that the wrong way.

As for the 'employment' stuff... that shouldn't be brought up on a public forum. I know the employees here because I'm here every day, and a couple of them have worked for FIA for a very long time. I literally, physically see them get paid. I don't know exactly what happened with this one employee in question beyond that he simply did not come to work one day. He NEVER answered his phone or any text messages (and I was even calling him and texting him because I was WORRIED about what might have happened to him) and as far as I know the shop has not heard a single peep from him whatsoever since he disappeared despite trying to contact him many, many, many times. For what it's worth, he STOLE a set of coilovers before he left. I remember some confusion in the very beginning because he was demanding a paycheck actually on the 7th day of his employment since he had asked to be payed every week and FIA agreed to that. Well, obviously, when you work some place and they pay you, for example, every other week, when you get that paycheck on Friday evening it doesn't actually pay for the work you did right up to the minute you grabbed the check... it's usually a week behind because the employer has to calculate your hours and your taxes and his taxes and all sorts of crap. He made a huge issue out of it and I do believe Sammy actually cut him a check but he had to make it very clear to the employee that it's physically impossible for him to pay him literally up to the minute of handing him the check and that it has to be delayed by at least a few days to do all of the withholdings and other calculations and whatnot. Maybe he just couldn't understand this. I know money was extremely tight for the employee the entire time, but that's not your employer's fault. I'm under the impression that he was paid fairly (exactly what he negotiated for) and in a timely fashion. If he feels otherwise, he's sure going about it a weird way NEVER contacting his employer about it or bringing it up ever


So... I know it's rough when you feel mistreated. It's not intentional on FIA's part. Sammy and Sammy alone mans the phones and answers questions online and he simply doesn't have enough hours in the day to be super responsive, but I DO see him busting his ***. I see the work that is done here and the cars that leave and there are A LOT of Subarus and Evos driving around happily after 30k/60k/90k services, brake rotor/pad swaps, turbo kits, engine swaps, LOTS of clutch jobs, complete transmission rebuilds, etc etc etc... I've seen him shuttle dozens of customers downtown so they can hang out in SF while their car is being worked on and pick them up when it's done. Every now and then something will happen that's out of somebody's control. It happens with my business occasionally. All you can do is stand behind it and Sammy has mentioned to me on various occasions that he is very dedicated to standing behind FIA's work. If you have a problem, e-mail or swing by and I'm sure he will take care of it.

I hope it helps.

Jeremy


btw -- the spray booth they built in the shop here is massive. Pretty insane. They can get a full size pickup in there. The guy who is doing the body work has been doing it for like 30 years. He seems to be very experienced and knowledgeable. The shop will be Diamond Certified, apparently. I have yet to see any of his work though as he's still doing it out of a different shop until the facilities in this one are up-and-running, but I do not doubt it will be good stuff.

 

Wow... let this thing simmer overnight and look what I get!

I guess there are two sides to every story and aside from the drama, business is business. Thanks verc and jeremy for your input, I'll be sure to take that in consideration when I visit all of these local shops.

I'm sooooo glad to be a member of BAIC.

 

Yeah listen to Jeremy, he's the guy that brings you the awesome parts of Crucial Racing.

Sammy is a great guy and he really means well. Like Jeremy says, lots of things are not under his control, but he tries to make things right. He is a really generous guy who's trying to keep everyone happy. I say give him a chance. Post some before and after shots too when you get it done and tell us from which shop.