Seven Apple

I will start off by saying that finding a «good paint and body shop» is difficult. I have been to many different body shops with different car projects and car restorations and was pretty much resigned to getting average results and average service. And then, I was referred to Makito. Conveniently (?), my wife got in a parking lot accident with her IS and it was a good first small test of his business and skills.
He did not disappoint. The car came out perfectly with a better-​than-​factory paint job and with little delay. Makito was always responsive and accommodating. He is honest and friendly to boot. I think that I have finally found not only an excellent body shop but an artist.
I will be honest that I am a bit hesitant to write this review because I don’t really want him to get too busy for obvious selfish reasons. But Makito is such a good guy with skills to match, that I can’t help it — he deserves recognition and appreciation for his work.

If you want the job done right this is the place.
I don’t trust any other shop except for this place to paint my skyline Gtr

After searching for a body shop to paint my hood and bumper, I came across Makito at Seven Apple. Maybe Makito generally does good work, and I was an oversight, but my experience was quite negative. Makito seemed nice on the phone initially. He quoted me a fair price, told me black would not be too difficult to match, and gave me a one week turn around time. Fast forward to THREE months later, my hood and bumper were finally painted. After I installed the parts, it was clear that the body panels did not come close to matching, and there were swirls and deep marring on the paint. Makito offered to repaint it, but told me that he couldn’t promise a better paint match. He told me that he would let me know when he could repaint the panels, then never contacted me again. I ended up taking the hood and bumper to another shop and had the hood painted and perfectly matched, with a turn around time of one week. See the uploaded photos for the paint mismatch and paint defects.

The rocker panels on fifth generation (and likely subsequent generations) Corvettes don’t unbolt. They’re bonded to the car’s frame. :-(When my car’s rockers fell victim to a ridiculously tall speed bump and an unfortunate incident on ramps, I wasn’t sure where to go.
I checked out Performance Paint and Sterling Autobody, but something didn’t seem right with their prices. A friend Unilocaled fiberglass repair shops, and told me to check out Seven Apple.
Makito’s estimate was far more reasonable than the other shops, and he did an excellent job on the repairs. Everything was masked properly, and my car was returned freshly washed.
Incidentally, I think Makito is an RX7 specialist, so when I finally get around to building my FC with an LS, I know who’s going to do the flares on the car… Give him a shot. You won’t be disappointed.

Makito is the man! I needed my headlights restored and he was the best price around I could find. He was very knowledgeable and very fast. The lights came out perfect and he even was able to give me a ride home since I had no transportation. Only took him 5 hours to complete the job and I could not be more satisfied. I plan on going back to him for all my painting needs in the future.

Makito is very professional and accommodating. He even gave me a ride before he started working on my car. Since he works alone, with no coworker or receptionist, you may need to remind him of things, but all that he did was with great TLC. I highly recommend him, and will return someday.

Makito is freaking awesome! I read all of the glowing reviews for this place, and figured if even half of the stuff I read was true, this place was going to be a winner. Someone was kind enough to hit my car and not leave a note, so I took my car into Seven Apple to have the scraped off paint on the bumper repaired. Before calling Seven Apple, I had taken my car for a quote at another shop that was closer to my house, then called Seven Apple and had Makito take a look and give me a quote. His quote was so much less than the other shop’s that, along with all of the great recommendations from others, I would have been crazy not to go with Seven Apple. My car was ready the very next day, and Makito had cleaned the whole car as well — inside and out! The bumper looks absolutely AMAZING — perfect paint match and the finish is, as they say, like glass. You would never know that anything ever happened. I am so impressed with everything about Makito and Seven Apple — honesty, expertise, attention to detail, promptness, courtesy, and great prices — I don’t hope to have to take my car to him again anytime soon, but if I do need to, I’ll be back in a heartbeat! Thanks Makito!

Great customer service, amazing paint work, and honorable person. Need I say more?

I was on a popular car enthusiast site and I asked «Best Paint & Body Shop in
SoCal» The name Makito of 7 Apple kept coming up. I gave him a call and we spoke for about 45min… finally a Painter who’s passionate about his work! Brought my car to him and a few months later she was totally transformed. He did a Pull, Tuck & Metal Fabrication in addition to a full color change. Let me tell you.
If you consider yourself a car enthusiast, and you love your car, don’t go anywhere else.
This is my first review of any kind, but I had to take the time to say thanks Makito! You truly deserve the title of SoCal’s finest!

have gotten a few things painted by the owner makito. hes a great guy and easy to deal with. the last things i got painted, he went above and beyond to fix the fenders. he could have easily just painted them but he also added structural support so that the paint wont crack again, like it did from another painter. i would definately keep going back to him and seven apple

I’ve been in the car scene for quite some time and let me tell you, it took me over a DECADE to find a damn body shop that does some incredible work at reasonable prices. That place is Seven Apple Works.
I was looking for a body shop in the South Bay that could paint match some exhaust garnishes (they are this ugly aluminum color stock). A little backstory: I tried painting them on my own and it came out too dark and I just didn’t want to deal with having to sand it all off and try it again). Painting sucks, too much time spent watching paint dry, pun intended. Leave the painting to the pros. There’s too many damn layers and sanding involved.
I drove all over South Bay showing the part to local body shops, half of them didn’t know what the hell they were looking at, nor did they understand after I described the part. What it did was irrelevant, I just wanted these damn pieces painted to match my car. Simple as that. Regardless, a majority of the other shops quoted me at prices higher than painting a freakin’ front lip! These exhaust garnishes are no more than 8″ x 6″ x 1″.
Anyway, I randomly found Seven Apple while driving through Torrance and Makito greeted me and took a look at the part. Right away he already knew they were exhaust garnishes. I told him I simply wanted them painted to match my car and I’d give him the paint code, I just wanted a quote. Makito quoted me at half the price of a majority of the shops. He took a look at my car’s paint color and compared it to the shitty job I did on the garnishes myself. He said I got it pretty close, but when held up to a light source you could clearly see the exhaust garnishes came out darker than the factory paint. He started pointing out that the metallic flakes were very strong on the car, and if I sprayed too much basecoat without the flakes it would come out too dark. Got into some technical details with me and that was enough for me to be sold on this guy. Granted I had never seen any of his work prior to this, I trusted him based on his knowledge and technical know how. Makito knew what he was talking about. He said if I wanted to get it perfect, he’d recommend I leave a factory painted body panel with him, but it wasn’t completely necessary. Not having any pieces I was willing to take off the car, I trusted that he could match it based on what he saw on my car.
Flash forward to today, I went in and picked up the garnishes and they looked smooth and shiny. Incredibly shiny as if they came from a factory. I held the garnishes up against my paint and the match was spot on. I could not tell a difference. I would not hesitate to take any future parts to have painted in the future. Makito is the man!
TL;DR: Went to dozens of body shops over the last 10 years, they all sucked. Tried painting some crap on my own, came out worse. Drove around South Bay and found Makito of Seven Apple. He did an incredible job, would return again for future business.
I will post pictures in a future update one I get it installed

I’ve compared the quality of nearly a dozen paint shops around, and have used a couple different shops before… but nobody tops Makito’s work. He’s the only one I trust now to truly do a job «right», and you won’t find another shop that can meet Seven Apple’s high caliber of commitment, quality, and service. Makito has painted 3 of my cars:
1. 1994 Mazda Rx-​7: he breathed new life into a 16 year old car with 200k miles, riddled with dents and dings. Completed extensive repair to the OE panels, and then reinforced/​strengthened my aftermarket wide panels (fenders/​bumpers/​underpanels/​side mirrors/​hood/​wing), gapped all the pieces to OE tight clearances, and provided a full color change with a smooth glass finish to the clearcoat.
2. 2006 Nissan 350z: its one thing to start on a new canvas (like repainting my rx-​7 which was a huge project)…but to paint match a small portion on a car to a complex pearl paint? Seven Apple nailed it dead center by installing Nismo sideskirts on the 350z and getting fitment, paint match, and paint finish spot on so that it blended right in with the OE panels.
3. 2006 Lotus Exige: Lotus is a fickle car, with OE fiberglass front and rear clams (not bumpers) on the car. So when I picked up this car with damage on the rear clam from the previous owner… Makito was the man to bring it to. But I didn’t want my whole rear clam redone… I just wanted a portion of the panel repaired. Sure Makito can repaint a whole car, and sure Makito can paint match perfectly a panel of a car to the rest of it… but can he paint match and blend a repair on just a section of a single panel? SURE CAN. He did a proper restoration of the rear bumper… sanded down the spiderwebbing cracks that reached deep into the bumper to eliminate any chance of crack propagation reoccurring, reinforced with new fiberglass and layered on a top level of putty like the OE piece, shaped and sanded it back to the original shape… and then painted and BLENDED the OE white pearl paint. When I came to pick up the car… it was like it was never damaged and just left the showroom floor. Money well spent to erase damage on a car. It was like a step back in time.
His price is more than fair for the craftsmanship he does. Take your car to a man who loves what he does and takes pride in his work.

Seven Apple is owned by Makito Nakai, the former shop manager and in house painter for a renowned aero kit manufacturer Shine Auto Project, and he is one of the very few people I would trust to paint my car.
I became a customer of him when I purchased an aero kit from Shine Auto Project a few years back. At first, I got my car Lexus painted and aero kit installed elsewhere for cheaper and I wasn’t happy with the work. Unfortunately, the my car was vandalized and finally had took it to Makito to do a complete paint job the second time AND correct the mistakes and oversights that the first shop did, and the result was amazing.
The automotive refinishing industry is a mystery to most people, especially first timers. People often go for the cheaper deals and end up regretting it later. When shops charge a premium, many times they can take increase their profits if of the project by using slightly cheaper materials, and the customer would never notice if the craftsmanship is there.
Fortunately, Makito was very clear with the entire project and the materials that he uses. He is very clear with what to expect at different pricing levels. So don’t come in there and expect a $ 4000 paint job for $ 1500 or expect $ 10,000 paint job at $ 4,000.
His pricing isn’t the cheapest in town but he is cheaper than most other body shops who specializes in aftermarkets. The prices might seem expensive but it is very fair for the attention of detail of the work and especially the materials he uses.
Here is a forum thread of my car being painted: