I am looking to get a body kit to my 05 Cooper S. The kits I was looking into are the Garbino, Orciari, Zeemax or Aero. Most likely I am opting for the Aero kit, its very subtle and most easily available should i need replacement (touch wood, and hope not . The Garbino was my first choice, but dont think anyone in the USA sells it.

Anyway my question is that I have been calling around a lot of body shop to see if they can install, paint the kit, as well as mount the Alta x4 Rally-type lights. Some would not install non-mini parts, meaning I need to get the Aero kit and Mini lights, or some say they can but need to see the kit and car before doing so.

How do you locate a body shop that can do all of that? I dont think I will leave my car with a shop that does not sound too confident. Do I really need to use the dealership to install these parts so that I dont void my warranty?

The dealership charges $115/hr for labor which is ridiculous.

I am located in the phoenix, az area.

Thank you.

 

You can order the Aero kit prepainted from Classic. I heard some parts of the kit are an easy install, which you can do. There are places willing to install the kit, but I am not familiar with AZ. sorry.

 

Kellzir,

Thanks for the reply. Most places say they can do it, but all of them said they need to look at the pieces first before they can quote me the cost or if they can do it.

Does the Aero kit comes with good instructions? And approx how many man hours do you think it takes?

 

Do you have classics URL by chance? thanks.

 

 

I would be suspicious of any shop that says they can do it and quote a price without ever seeing the kit & the car. They are actually being honest.

 

Well, unless of course they've done one before. If they have I'd suspect they could provide a quote without seeing the parts and the car.

 

Not necessarily. Hypothetical scenario. I call the shop and ask them the same question and get a quote. That just became a verbal contract. I bring my car in and my rocker panels are bent from where I ran over a rock, I had a slight fender bender which bent my bumper mounts. The parts I am trying to put on have been sitting in my hot garage while I was down in Mexico for 3 months and are slightly warped from the heat and have a few gouges on them from trying to make them fit in the boot of the car. So now there is body and additional prep work involved for the shop, but I insist that the shop do the job for the price quoted.

I am just playing devil's advocate here, but from 5 years experience of managing a collision repair facility (body shop). One thing you never, ever did was give a quote with out visually inspecting the vehicle.

 

From that perspective you're 100% correct, no doubt. What I meant was the quote was not necessarily erroneuos because the shop hasn't seen the car or the parts. The shop though, may have gotten themselves in to something they don't want giving a quote like that.

 

kou - here is Classic's parts department email & phone number.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=36665

I am not sure about how long it will take to install the kit, as I won't attempt to mine for another few weeks. But i will let you know. I think you can find instructions online from motoringfile, or here:
http://motoringfile.com/howto/Aerodynamic%20Bodykit.PDF