Your RV is most likely your second highest investment after your house. So knowing which repair facility to trust your investment with after a mishap, accident, or just standard aging problems can be a task at hand. So just were do you start to find the right RV body shop.

#1 Ask around to your fellow RV’ers of any good/bad repair shops that they have had personal experience with.

#2 Pick up the phone and call around to several local RV Dealers and talk to the service manager. Pick there brain on who they suggest or who they deal with for the body and painting repair needs. (keep in mind to call around to RV dealers that don’t have inhouse body shops so you can truly get an unbiased opinion).

#3 Once you have a body shop or two narrowed down, call them and explain your issues, than quiz the shop on the repair process. Talking to them you should get a feel if this shop is knowledgeable enough in the repairs you need and capable of doing the job right, trust your gut feeling.

Once you think you found the right shop, take a drive over there before taking your RV there. Ask for a tour of there facility. Some key things to look for or to ask while your there are: a professionally built paint booth to which your RV paint job is done in. Since RV’s are so big you will find repair shops operating without a spray booth which can cause problems with the paint as its not in a controlled environment causing improper curing, paint peeling, dirt and trash in the paint job, and so on.

Ask to look at there paint room and take a look at the paint on the shelf to see first hand what there using. Since RV’s are so big they can require gallon”s” of paint. Well in the paint coatings industry there are three tiers of paints lines, High grade-mid grade-and low grade paint. The difference in price can range from $100 a gallon- $600 a gallon and a difference of the paint fading in a year or two – 10+ years without fading or peeling. While your there touring the facility take a look at jobs in progress there to get a feel for the quality.

Once you have done all this and have chosen the shop you feel like you can trust, make sure if there are parts needed for the repairs, that all parts have shown up already to the shop. Otherwise waiting for parts can prolong the time your RV will have to sit at the repair shop waiting to get repaired. Read the rest of this entry »