03 Eurovan crisis in So.Cal ! Need REPUTABLE, body repair shop immediately !

Recently moved to Long Beach, CA AND after much searching bought an 03
EV (in pristine, as new cond. with only 11,000 miles on it) from Pop
Top
Heaven in Yucaipa, Ca. On 09/10 at 2 am people in this part of LB
(Ocean Avenue @ 2nd Place were awakened by a loud noise. By the time I
got outside,the source of this noise was undergoing a field sobriety
test after crashing -HARD- into 3! vehicles parked in front of our
residence. She failed four attempts and was accorded the temporary use
of two SS bracelets, and given a ride in a LB B&W to ? The vehicle
owners (of
a Mitsubishi SUV, a 1950 Ford and a 2003 EV (me) were left with no
contact info.-driver was kept incommunicado by LBPD to cope with this
mess as best we could.

Since much of my financial worth is tied up in this vehicle-the
thinking
was that I would have a place to stay wherever I chose to go and if
necessary I could rent out my beachside studio for income-it is vitally
important to me that the repair be done correctly.

To that end I chose a shop well recommended by many, including a close
family member, in San Gabrial, town some distance to the north of
here.
After a long ride on a flatbed a week ago I got a prelim., eyeball
estimate
of $8500. to put Humpty Dumpty together again. (State Farm, thankfully,
has been very supportive re the choice of a high end repair shop.)

Unfortunately, this body shop in whom I had heavily vested my hopes
for
a good outcome for my expensive replacement of a 71 Bubble Top VW
camper
bus** called a few days later to inform me that they could not put
Humpty
Dumpty together again after all. Too many camper parts with which they
are unfamiliar have to be removed and replaced to fix it properly.

SO HERE I
SIT CARLESS IN LB WHILE MY EV LANGUISHES IN AN EXTREMELY TENUOUS
POSITION IN SAN GABRIAL. Does anyone have any suggestions for a shop,
preferably in So Cal, which does a good job on EVs??

**(Adventurer pkg.-wonderful configuration
which I drove daily, and solely, for 17 years. It was with great
reluctance I finally had to admit that I needed a new vehicle-I was
spending too many weekends fixing something on my beloved van and had
shoved too many rebuilt motors into its rear end. Although its white
fiberglass "attic" space above the driver and passenger helped keep the
temp.inside below broiling, even I had to admit it was past time for
air conditioning. In short, an aging, air-cooled 48 hp vehicle needed
restoration-which I couldn't afford at the time or -retirement. So I
defected to the Honda camp for a few years and put the bus out to
pasture. Unbelieveable as it sounds, it was stolen off the street just
a few months ago in the town from which I just moved !)

This entry probably ranks amongst the longest ms. ever posted here. My
apologies and my thanks to any who took the time to read it.

"netnanna" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Recently moved to Long Beach, CA AND after much searching bought an 03
> EV (in pristine, as new cond. with only 11,000 miles on it) from Pop
> Top
> Heaven in Yucaipa, Ca. On 09/10 at 2 am people in this part of LB
> (Ocean Avenue @ 2nd Place were awakened by a loud noise. By the time I
> got outside,the source of this noise was undergoing a field sobriety
> test after crashing -HARD- into 3! vehicles parked in front of our
> residence. She failed four attempts and was accorded the temporary use
> of two SS bracelets, and given a ride in a LB B&W to ? The vehicle
> owners (of
> a Mitsubishi SUV, a 1950 Ford and a 2003 EV (me) were left with no
> contact info.-driver was kept incommunicado by LBPD to cope with this
> mess as best we could.
>
> Since much of my financial worth is tied up in this vehicle-the
> thinking
> was that I would have a place to stay wherever I chose to go and if
> necessary I could rent out my beachside studio for income-it is vitally
> important to me that the repair be done correctly.
>
> To that end I chose a shop well recommended by many, including a close
> family member, in San Gabrial, town some distance to the north of
> here.
> After a long ride on a flatbed a week ago I got a prelim., eyeball
> estimate
> of $8500. to put Humpty Dumpty together again. (State Farm, thankfully,
> has been very supportive re the choice of a high end repair shop.)
>
> Unfortunately, this body shop in whom I had heavily vested my hopes
> for
> a good outcome for my expensive replacement of a 71 Bubble Top VW
> camper
> bus** called a few days later to inform me that they could not put
> Humpty
> Dumpty together again after all. Too many camper parts with which they
> are unfamiliar have to be removed and replaced to fix it properly.
>
> SO HERE I
> SIT CARLESS IN LB WHILE MY EV LANGUISHES IN AN EXTREMELY TENUOUS
> POSITION IN SAN GABRIAL. Does anyone have any suggestions for a shop,
> preferably in So Cal, which does a good job on EVs??
>
> **(Adventurer pkg.-wonderful configuration
> which I drove daily, and solely, for 17 years. It was with great
> reluctance I finally had to admit that I needed a new vehicle-I was
> spending too many weekends fixing something on my beloved van and had
> shoved too many rebuilt motors into its rear end. Although its white
> fiberglass "attic" space above the driver and passenger helped keep the
> temp.inside below broiling, even I had to admit it was past time for
> air conditioning. In short, an aging, air-cooled 48 hp vehicle needed
> restoration-which I couldn't afford at the time or -retirement. So I
> defected to the Honda camp for a few years and put the bus out to
> pasture. Unbelieveable as it sounds, it was stolen off the street just
> a few months ago in the town from which I just moved !)
>
> This entry probably ranks amongst the longest ms. ever posted here. My
> apologies and my thanks to any who took the time to read it.

If this is a EVC (sounds like it is) you might need to have an EV repair
place first repair the camper equipment and then have a body shop repair the
EV-only body stuff. See if your ins. co. will cover such an arrangement.