Today I got quotes to repair the T-bird. I went to 4 places and got 2 quotes from each, one for the repair with blending and a second for the repair and full paint. We already purchased a new door and fender, $550 delivered; we use Pat Wilson for T-birds parts, I can't say enough good stuff about these folks, they are simply fantastic! The first shop said 9k and wouldn't give me a quote for just the repair. They didn't want to put their name on a sub par repair and made sure to tell us they had 4 cars in the World of Wheels and that we wouldn't get the car back until June!. Next place gave me a price of 3k and 7k. Third place, 1500 and 3800. Fourth place said 1400 and 3500.
The first shop has done insurance repairs for us in the past. Body and paint wise, they do nice work. BUT with a few glaring exceptions, my Dad wanted an aftermarket grill on his truck after I rear ended a box truck. He bought one that literally bolted on top the origional with hidden fasteners. For some really odd reason they cut out the factory grill and grafted the new grill onto the old mounting flanges. I have no idea why that was done; it looked good so we never questioned it. Also, they messed up the door locks and broke the windshield wiper washer bottle and pump. Their mechanic had the balls to tell me the washer bottle and pump must have got hit in the front end collision. They weren't, the pump worked and bottle held liquid, I know because I used it and had checked the bottle when checking for leaks. Also, they left out maybe a half dozen plastic rivets. They took care of all our complaints, so we never really put up much of a fuss. Basically, for body and paint they are excellent, for anything mechanical they kinda blow. Now that we're talking about 9k, that stuff does matter.
I went to the 4th place based on the recommendation of one of my customers who uses them for his DD's and Corvettes. They do mostly insurance work and some custom stuff. The examples I've seen of their work are excellent, a '65 Vette respray and his rear ended Lexus. The shop owner said he can take the car right away and have it done in 2-3 weeks as long as there isn't another big snow storm. Funny thing is the third shop said the exact same thing. lol