Had a small issue while on I-26 and need some body work done. Nothing smashed just a small dent in the hood with a scratch and a few small dents/scratches in the windshield frame. Anyone have good luck with any of the shops?

I've had good experiences with Gerber Collision & Glass at the I-26 Lake Murray Blvd exit in Irmo.  They've done 4 repairs for me, both insurance claim and out-of-pocket.  Two rear-end collisions, one major door ding, and my wife's car got smashed on the drivers side while parked by someone losing control in a parking lot.  This Gerber is on Evergreen Dr. back behind the Church of the Great Pumpkin, aka The Episcopal Church of St. Simon & St. Jude, off of Kinley Rd.  They used to be named John Harris Body Shop.

My son's car got hit in January.  He's over in Huntsville, AL.  Dealing with those body shops has been a royal pain.  One honestly seemed to be running a scam to wait to get parts cheap and bill my insurer full-rate.  We lost 3 months dealing with those jokers.  His car finally got in on Monday at a collision place over an hour away from Huntsville.  Of course, Enterprise "lost" the reservation request from my insurer 3 times.  There are no rental cars.  The entire area is over-booked.  He might get a rental tomorrow.  Or not.  The Enterprise station that covers Gerber in Irmo is light years more competent.

Thanks for the reply. I'm hoping to reduce the lag time at the shop as much as possible. I called about 8 shops yesterday and they are all booking work for mid/end of august right now. They all told me the repair time will depend on parts. I told them all its only body work. I have or will replace all the parts that need replaced so you shouldn't have any parts to wait for. Still held the line about waiting for parts

Yeah.  I was surprised after dealing with Huntsville body shops and the b.s. about parts that Gerber was able to get my wife's Subaru Outback in for service within days of the damage being done.  This was back in the start of May.  It took them about 3 weeks to complete the work.  Gerber took the car in because it was unsafe to drive no matter what bull the at-fault driver's insurer was spewing.

I had the windshield replaced and got a new wiper arm. The Jeep is drivable now, the rest is literally paint/body. I’m hoping for a week turn around.

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There is damage to the pass side roof panel I will source and the plastic “cowl” is messed up too but I’ll change that out as well.

I've used 2 shops near Lexington, SC that I have been satisfied with, for minor dent and repaint work on my pickup. They are Crescent Collision, (Pro-Tow is a sister company) and Prime Paint and Body.
Crescent repaired damage on the back of the cab from a bad folding bed cover rubbing the back of the cab when being folded. They had to move the bed back temporarily and didn't get the gas filler neck back in place until I took it back. Imagine my surprise when i went to put gas in it and their was no gas filler neck behind the flap. So, they get a B rating from me. Otherwise work was good and turnaround was not too bad.
Later, I had some sort of solvent attack the paint on my hood. Crescent was loaded up so I went to Prime Auto Body on South Lake Drive They are an Hispanic operation but owner speaks perfect English. They do a lot of custom truck work. Truck was in and out in about 4 days and quality was very good. They removed the hood, painted and cleared it, then reinstalled the hood and the bug guard for the hood.

That said, any place that does good work, is going to be busy and backed up somewhat.

HTH

I’ve used Caliber Collision right off Clemson back when they were Summit.  Caliber is a chain company, but they still did good work at the time.  It’s been a few years, so now sure how things are lately. Collision/Insurance work gets preference no matter how small your job is.  Insurance companies practically run these places now.  If they go against the grain, insurance won’t play nice with them.

@ScottsGT I used to run a John Harris shop and what you said about the insurance companies running the show is exactly why I quit.


The JH shop (now Gerber) in Irmo (that Mitch mentioned) was the flagship of the small chain before Gerber bought them out.  Our best techs worked there. They usually do a very good job, but insurance work keeps them hoppin'. At this time of year, I'd expect at least 3 weeks.

The Gerber on Farrow Rd and Killian was my old shop.  We got a lot of the Porsches from the dealership next door, and we had some good techs there too.  Same situation as the Irmo store--more insurance work than we could handle most of the time, and again, probably a 3 week turn time.

Prime, right off #6 in Red Bank was mentioned earlier--Martin (the owner of Prime) was one of my painters at John Harris just 3 years ago.  Young guy with a fantastic work ethic and he's an excellent painter.  I have no idea what his work load looks like, but his parking lot was pretty full yesterday.

There's another Gerber shop in Red Bank a little closer to the freeway.  I currently have some motorcycle parts there for paint but I don't expect them to be done for at least a week or 2--their parking lot is completely full and every bay was in use when I dropped my parts off yesterday.