Esposito restoration

[notsanoremac]

Having a fender bender on my 911, I was told to contact
Esposito Restorations
to take care of the damage to the body.
Anyone has had an experience with this body shop?

I appreciate the guidance.

[High Life]

Have no opinions.. however this shop has been discussed in numerous threads-

Search is your friend..

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/982903-esposito-s-north-hollywood-still-ok-deal.html

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-marketplace-discussion/974583-53k-body-work-73k-body-work-you-decide.html

[dwelle]

oh boy. google is your friend here....

[Cairo94507]

We all work hard to be able to enjoy our cars. All it takes is one liar/thief to derail our projects and maybe result in them being abandoned. Please do the research before selecting a shop. Just because they once did good work does not mean that is the case today. Google, check with the BAR, YELP and any other platform that permits honest feedback on services.

Fortunately I got my car and a lot of my parts back. After about 2.5 years of skilled craftsmanship it is now a finished work of art I enjoy driving regularly. I was also able to collect $6K from the liar/thief. Of course that left me still about $20K in the hole but that is just life. At least I have my finished car in my garage now.

The liar/thief's shop was in Charles City, VA.

[notsanoremac]

I did a search and I found lots of 5 stars from a long time ago, however, I also found these:



Matt Rodney

1 review

5 months ago
Lying and deceitful. This shop used to be one of the best in SoCal, until the owner's daughter got involved. Since then, their reputation has severely diminished. They lie, about everything. I strongly advise against this shop.
Service:*Body & Trim



Offer Mee

1 review

2 months ago
Critical:*Professionalism,*Value
Scammers. The woman is THE ABSOLUTE worst person I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting. They will Lie to your face with no remorse
Service:*Electrical


Jerry Manderson

1 review

5 months ago
Critical:*Professionalism
Don't ever deal with these guys. John and Laurina are liars. They will lie and steal your money. There are far better shop in the city than to deal with these crooks.


Johnny Packs

1 review

2 months ago
Critical:*Professionalism,*Punctuality,*Quality,*V alue
Scheming tactics for your pockets and terrible service. Stay away -
Services:*Painting,*Engine repair




Por Sche

1 review

2 months ago
Critical:*Punctuality
I Just got back from another shop that quoted me far less than these people. They fabricated excess expenses based on incorrect information about my car. STAY CLEAR!!!




Carts Seller

1 review

2 months ago
Critical:*Professionalism,*Quality,*Value
If you want to get some low quality work done and overpriced rates come here!
Service:*Transmission



Steven Cuffel

4 reviews

a year ago
Critical:*Professionalism,*Punctuality,*Quality,*V alue
John and Laurina Esposito are criminals! They charged me $5,000.00 to fix an oil leak. They had my car for almost a year and when I got it back it still leaked oil. Had to take my Porsche to another mechanic who had the problem fixed in 2 weeks. They refused to return my money. They refused to provide the details of what they did to my engine. I filed a complaint with the Bureau of Automotive Repair. The BAR investigate and determined that John Esposito unlawfully charged me for work on my car. It also turns out the they lost their license to work on cars 3 years ago. They're operating as an illegal repair shop. I filed a case against them in small claims court which they lost. They still will not give me my money back. Is this really the shop you want to take your car to????



Marty Offers

1 review

2 months ago
Critical:*Professionalism,*Quality
Never again.
Service:*Steering / Suspension

[Tremelune]

I had them repair some collision damage on my '89 about 2-3 years ago. My review is not positive.

There are many good shops in the area.

[Bobboloo]

"Run Forest Run!"

[germanwheels]

I like Perfect Lines Restorations in N Hollywood, next to TLG.

[MY911S]

I heard good things about the shop next to TLG as well (Perfect Lines?). And I know TLG recommends them too. I visited both not too long ago ---Esposito and Perfect Lines...John Esposito doesn't really do the actual work any longer (or it's uncommon for him to) as far as I know, which is probably the basis of all the great reviews in the past. His daughter runs the place now.

[ISGASA]

I used 911Design in Montclair and they did a great job

[Matt Monson]

Originally Posted by ISGASA

I used 911Design in Montclair and they did a great job

If I had paint and body needs in SoCal I would have Loren’s guys fo the work.

[RSS]

I too was a victim of Esposito. This was in 2016 prior to John having medical issues. I did my due diligence and talked to 2 people that had their cars repainted/restored by Esposito and they were very positive. I have a SWB car and was pretty much sending him a rolling chassis that needed a little rust repair, some body repair and paint. I stripped the car to bare metal and Esposito even came to my house to take a look at it. He gave me a price and guaranteed that the car would be just like new when he was done. The sad part is I believed him.

I could tell he was in need of money because he even offered to pay to have my car flatbedded to his shop the next day because he wanted that first huge payment from me ASAP. Anyhow, things were going pretty good at first. I would come by every couple months (primarily when he needed money) to have a look. At the time, they must have been working on 30 other cars besides mine. John was always very friendly and personable. After a year or so he called me to tell me the car was done. I went over to check it out and I spotted areas that were just not done properly. I pointed those areas out and he said he would take care of it. In the meantime he wanted the final payment. I could tell he was hurting for money and I made a very stupid decision and paid him. ****WARNING, DO NOT MAKE YOUR FINAL PAYMENT UNTIL THE CAR IS DONE!!!!! Then John got sick and this is when his shop went to hell. I waited another 6 months before his daughter called me to tell me the car was done. When I went to look at it, nothing had been done to it since the last time I was there 6 months ago. She met me with her painter. I showed her the issues with the car. She couldn't see the problems and told me it was perfect and that she had 25 years experience in restoring Porsches. In the meantime her painter saw exactly what my complaints were told her he could fix them. About this time, things were starting to blow up on sites like Pelican talking about the shoddy work and work ethics coming out of his shop. At this point I just wanted to get the car out of there. It had been so long that they had the car, I began to lose interest in it because I was expecting a very high level restoration and that's not what I was seeing. The list of things that still needed to be done are long. I still need to get the car to another paint shop to fix their screw ups. I would imagine it will cost me an additional $5k to fix. Another thing they did was take parts off my car to use on other cars they were working on. Fortunately I took extensive photos of my car and could always refer to them when I would find parts missing. I ID'd all my parts like bumpers, fenders decklid etc. by writing my VIN and name on them. Even still, they used someone else's front bumper on my car as my car had the heavy weights in them from the factory and when I pulled the front bumper off about a year later, the weights were missing. The entire bottom of the car was also supposed to be part of the restoration and they did nothing. If I showed pictures of the bodywork that they missed, it would make you laugh, its so bad. Had John not have gotten sick I think this whole debacle could have been avoided. His daughter is absolutely clueless and she is running the show. I felt desperate to get my car out of there and I did.

I am not sure how they could still be in business with all the negative reviews, but I guess they are. If you value your car, find another shop to take it to.

[David 23]

I took our car to Esposito’s for a full paint and body restoration, and my experience was as bad as many others have experienced. Promises made, large deposit paid up front, excruciatingly slow work with lots of inaccurate or outright lies about progress. I would make visits to check progress only to find the things I had been told were done, had not been done. Ultimately the “completed” work was very poor quality. I was told all along the car would be perfect, and when I got the car it was completely unacceptable. Laurina and the painter agreed it was not (why didn’t they see that on their own?) and said they would strip and redo the car. They did not strip the car as I was told. They block sanded it and painted over the previous paint job. So now I have a paint job that is not a strip to bare metal, but is a repaint over an existing paint job. NOT what I paid for or was promised. The result of that redo was again sub par. Frustration with over two years of being jerked around, and poor work regardless of what was promised, caused us to pull our car before more damage could be done. Subsequently we have spent thousands of dollars trying to fix their bad mechanical assembly, and as much of the paint and bodywork as is realistic. Billing is far worse than inaccurate, and the stories of parts from one customer car being used on another’s car are commonplace. I could go on and on, but hopefully you get the idea that while the shop may have had a good name many years ago, this has certainly not been the case the last few years since Laurina has taken over. I don’t know how they stay in business. Run away.

[Prestallion]

Originally Posted by RSS

…I went over to check it out and I spotted areas that were just not done properly…
…The list of things that still needed to be done are long. I still need to get the car to another paint shop to fix their screw ups. I would imagine it will cost me an additional $5k to fix…
…Fortunately I took extensive photos of my car and could always refer to them when I would find parts missing…

Show us photos.

[Tremelune]

Originally Posted by ISGASA

I used 911Design in Montclair and they did a great job

I have a nit with them...Same car that went to Esposito, I brought it to 911 Design and had them put it on a Car Bench to make sure the chassis was straight. They said the chassis was straight. The chassis was not straight.

[Dragoa914-6]

Go outside ,go to your curb ,bend down on your knees ,open you mouth ,and put the bend of the curb between your teeth. Dealing with ESPO is like someone coming while your in that position ,and stomping on the back of your head! They're horrible. My car was there for 6 mo's ,and the ONLY way i got them to "giddyup" on the work ,was show up twice a week! I saw multiple **** ups ,where cars were being returned for things that should have been caught by a "project manager". Speaking of "PROJECT MANAGER"..there isnt one! That brings me to the woman that's there. "LAURAINA". ZERO people skills. The day i met her she had no idea who i was ,and instead of speaking ,(because obviously i dont work there) walked right by me with this *****y attitude. Once my friend told her i was a potential $$$$ ,her tune changed. She lied about what ESPO would cover ,and in the end ,tried to make me feel like i was getting some grand service that normally would have cost millions! STAY AWAY FROM THESE PEOPLE!!

[Cairo94507]

Hopefully threads like this, with multiple members having such horrible experience, will keep others from taking their cars to Esposito's shop. We need to continue to call these shops out to protect other Porsche owners. I found that the best way to objectively point out this issues was to just pictures of the actual work. We all know what crap work looks like and it is not subjective.

[David 23]

Originally Posted by Cairo94507

Hopefully threads like this, with multiple members having such horrible experience, will keep others from taking their cars to Esposito's shop. We need to continue to call these shops out to protect other Porsche owners. I found that the best way to objectively point out this issues was to just pictures of the actual work. We all know what crap work looks like and it is not subjective.

I completely agree that we need to call out these shops to protect other Porsche owners. Photos of work in progress can in many cases offer objective information. However, they can't tell the whole story. Deception, dishonesty, bullying, extortion, are only revealed by customers coming forward to reveal their experiences. None of us should be subjected to or be the victims of this type of behavior.

[notsanoremac]

Wow, I guess I started a thread pent up with great amounts of displeasure with Esposito's operation, having said that it seems ironic that he is still in business and operating out of a space in North Hollywood.
However, I drove by the other day and noticed a FOR LEASE sign on top of his building. Oh well.
I will give Perfect Lines and 911 Design a call and set up an app't to go see their operation before committing to a contract.
Thank you all for opening up your painful experiences online.
It seems that I have been saved from a horrible nightmare by you all. Thank you.

[High Life]

Its not "ironic" that there are 10s to 100s of people (or more) that can be scammed and a business remain in a legal position to continue to take money from people. (Wells Fargo)

Thanks to the people have stepped forward with their recommendations..