Damien came highly recommended. We took our VW Thing in for some work. He was very knowledgeable and very communicative. The car is amazing now! D&J will be the only shop to work on our car.
Damian and his team really know their stuff. I've been taking my '65 bug to D&J for 15 years and am always pleased with the results. I can recommend him without hesitation.
I'm so thankful for Damian and his crew for helping us address multiple issues with our Speedster Replica. He was very thorough with giving us different approaches to get the job done correctly. On one occasion, we were faced with a deadline, and D&J Auto pulled all the strings to make it happen without disappointing us.
I would recommend D&J auto to all my friends! He has gotten our ‘67 dune buggy back on the road after years of abuse and delayed maintenance by while in the care of a family member. Damien is honest and direct in his communication. His knowledge and experience are second to none. I feel very fortunate to have him and team taking care of me.
Very happy with the service. Expected it to be there for a few weeks but got my car back within a few days. Took it in for a tune up and break adjustment. They saw all kinds of things hooked up wrong or wrong parts by the person who built it and they fixed many of them without charging. Kept me informed daily what they were doing. I was recommend them.
damian has built me a motor that ran perfect and helped me build a new replacement for my totaled 69 from his own 65. great guy good family and quality work. not the cheapest but when you see the rides they put out you'll see why.
If you have an old school VW this is the place to take your car. Not going to lie, they are expensive compared to other shops and trust me I have been to a lot of them, but this place made my car run just as good when the day I dropped my 2110 in it. Really nice people everywhere and will be straight forward with you. They stand behind their work 100%. If you have been dealing with a shop that cant figure out what's wrong with your car take it to D & J Auto, they will fix it.
D & J and Damien serviced my bus and then with in the first 10 miles it burned down and he told me he is not responsible. My Family was endangered and my bus is gone and he has shirked his responsibility to fix this issue. I am so disappointed. I am a contractor, if the tables were turned and I worked on his house and then it burned down, I think he would expect me to stand up and be responsible and I would. I am sad for his moral compass.
I have had my restored 1970 VW bus serviced at D & J auto for the past 5 Years. I have owned the vehicle for almost 10 years. It runs very nice and has had very little mechanical issue as I have owned the vehicle. I Found D & J because they are a VW specialty shop that works mainly on Bugs & Busses. They are located near my Office and convenient for me to service my Vehicle. Recently when my wife was driving the car the gear shifter complete sheared off. This was a shifter that D & J had installed about 4 years prior. We had the car towed to his property and he re-installed a used shifter to replace the new shifter that was previously installed. I asked Damien (Owner of the Shop) while the vehicle was there, to service the vehicle, Oil change, Tune Up ect.... I also informed him that there was a gassy smell in the car and asked him to diagnose the smell. I told him that I was not sure if the smell was from the exhaust or something else. Damien called me back and told me that he had looked all through the car and that there was no issue. He stated that he saw some residue near the gas cap and that he replaced the gas cap. I informed him that I felt that this was a much larger issue than that and that I wanted him to test drive the car and really find out where the issue was. He stated that he did and that there was no issue and that the car was safe to drive.
I picked up the car on Monday, July 22nd and drove the car 8 Miles to my house and parked the car. I then went out of town until Saturday July 27th. On Saturday I loaded my family into the car to go to dinner at about 4:30 pm. We drove half a block and then the engine died, and the car began to smoke. I got out of the car and opened up the engine compartment and discovered that there was a fire in the engine compartment. I removed my family from the car, Called 911 and proceeded to watch the car completely engulf in flames. The vehicle is a total loss. I estimate the worth to be approx $25,000. I had the burned remains of the vehicle towed to D & J Auto. I met with Damien the owner and informed him that I felt that this was his fault and that I wanted him to either write me a check, put this on his insurance as a claim on his insurance, or replace the Bus. He called me on Tuesday July 30th and informed me that he would not take responsibility for this issue and to come and pick up the bus. I feel that D & J Auto is not fit to be working on people's vehicles. Damien endangered my entire family and my small children and created a significant financial loss to me. I noticed there have been other complaints to BAR about this shop. I was not aware of until this issue happened. Had I known I would not have had Damien work on my Vehicle. I would really appreciate some assistance from BAR to hold this shop accountable. I am a general contractor and if I worked on someone's home and then the home burned down. I would be the responsible party. This is why we all carry liability insurance. I have asked Damien to give me his Insurance information. He told me he would, but he has not sent it to me. I want to resolve this as quickly and peacefully as possible.
DO NOT TAKE YOUR VEHICLE THERE. My experience with D and J was incredibly frustrating and excruciatingly long. I have a 1977 fully restored bus that had the right side of the cab crushed in. When I took it to D and J, the owner Damien told me it would require a new clip (front end) to be installed and the time to do so would be 3-4 weeks. My insurance adjuster came out to look at it with him and he was given a work estimate for approximately $7000. The estimate also indicated the work would take that amount of time. In addition to that work, we had some rust working through in the rear quarter panel that I asked be taken care of at the same time. I was assured that after the work was complete, we would never even know it had been in an accident and "Once we get going on it, our attention will be on it and it will go quickly," he said.
It took a couple of weeks for him to find a suitable clip and they were running behind on another similar job so, the beginning of the work was delayed a few weeks. Skip ahead to week 17 when I finally got it back and fully functioning. That "3-4 week" estimate was not even close. After the fifth week when nothing was being done on it, I started stopping by once a week to check in and a few weeks later it turned to twice a week just to try to keep things moving along. The work dragged until my wife and I had a sit down meeting with Damien after the 13th week. At that time, he told us he had an additional $2000 into it and was fighting with the insurance company for payment. The irony is that he did not use the full clip so I'm not sure what justified the additional $2000. In addition, the painter wanted $1500 to paint the rear quarter panel and Damien was charging us $350 for the work his shop did to prep it. What! $1850 to fix a rust spot that was the diameter of a baseball? Really?!! It was then that he promised to get the cost of that reduced and to have it done within a week...which it was not until a few weeks later.
When I went to pick it up, I noticed that the paint tint did not match. Damien agreed and he sent it back to the painter. I had the feeling that he knew it didn't before I got there but waited for me to point it out.
The second time I picked it up, I found a lot of over-spray as well as a lot of rust spots on the roof that I missed the first time. These were from D and J's cutting and grinding of the bus frame. (Those little metal flakes fly everywhere and rust quickly.) It had to go back to the painter again and Damien said he would have the top taken care of by his detailer.
The third time, the top was better but it still had rust spots on it and was not back to the condition I brought it to him. He insisted that there was already rust spots in it which there were not. We had it painted a few years ago and I keep garaged and in immaculate condition and I know for a fact they were not there. In addition, the detailer had torn the sun roof seal and it was hanging down. (I am not sure how Damien missed that but, he did.) So, it went back into his shop for the sun roof seal replacement and I again went home without my vehicle.
The fourth time I picked it up, the seal had been replaced and he instructed me to take make an appointment with his detailer to have the roof color sanded at his expense and that "we were done." I had to drive it 40 minutes to the detailer, leave it for half a day, and 40 minutes back to pick it up.
After I got it back from the detailer (this would make the fifth time) and was able to spend a few days to thoroughly examine it better I found that D and J took short cuts when it came to reassembling the interior and I had to take a day and a half to do the work myself. It is slow, overpriced, not nearly as detailed oriented they said they are. We found Damien to be condescending and unable to fulfill his promises. His service and attitude were so bad that I filed a complaint with the State of California/Department of Consumer Affairs Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR).
18125 Euclid St, Fountain Valley, CAAuto body shop
17481 Newhope St, Fountain Valley, CAAuto body shop
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