Jason Reynolds gritted his teeth as he stepped out of his car, surveying the damage under the dim afternoon light. His usually pristine silver Ford F-150 now sported a crushed front bumper, a casualty of an unexpected patch of black ice on Highway 2. He had managed to keep control enough to avoid the ditch, but not enough to avoid the back end of a stopped sedan at the intersection.
Now, standing in the parking lot of his house in Floodwood, Minnesota, Jason ran a hand over the twisted metal and scuffed paint. The impact had left a nasty dent, and the paint had cracked, revealing the bare steel underneath. He knew that if he didn’t get it fixed right—and soon—rust would set in, making things even worse.
He wasn’t just looking for any repair shop. He needed one that could match his truck’s factory silver paint perfectly. Jason had seen enough bad repair jobs to know that some places left cars looking patched together, with mismatched shades and visible seams. That wasn’t an option for him.
After scrolling through reviews online, he sighed. A few shops in Duluth had decent ratings, but he didn’t want to drive that far unless he had to. He called up his buddy, Mark, who always seemed to know a guy for everything.
“Hey, you ever get body work done around here?” Jason asked when Mark picked up.
“Yeah, after that deer wreck last year. You want someone who actually cares about getting it perfect? Try Clean Affair Auto Repair right here in Floodwood. They matched my paint so well, you’d never know anything happened.”
Jason made a note and decided to check them out the next morning. He wasn’t about to settle for a half-done job—he wanted his truck to look like the accident never happened at all.
As he locked up and headed inside, he took one last glance at the damage. Soon, if all went well, this whole mess would just be a bad memory.