Mike’s Body Shop vs Stone’s Collision Center: How Jackson Drivers Should Choose

Here is the fact worth having in hand before you compare anything else: Mike’s Body Shop opened in Jackson in 1973 and has repaired collision damage in this same valley ever since. More than fifty years, more than fifty Jackson winters, at 1705 Martin Ln.

That is a statement about us and not about anyone else. Jackson is fortunate to have several capable collision shops, Stone’s among them. What fifty years in one valley produces is accumulated local knowledge, and in a place this remote that knowledge translates directly into fewer surprises on your repair.

Fifty years means we have watched what road treatment does to a rocker panel on Highway 22 over a decade, and we know where corrosion starts on the vehicles people actually drive here. It means we know which parts suppliers hold their delivery dates into Teton County, so the completion date we give you is grounded in experience rather than optimism. It means we have written claims with every major carrier operating in this county many times over, and we usually know what an adjuster wants before they ask for it.

And it means the shop behind the lifetime guarantee is still standing at the same address. A guarantee is a promise about the future, and ours has been kept from the same building since 1973.

Stone’s Collision Center is the body shop of Stone’s Auto Group, the Jackson dealership group formerly known as Teton Motors. Its published body shop address is 405 Powderhorn Lane, Jackson, WY 83001, its phone number is (307) 733-6600, and its published hours are Monday to Friday, 7:30 AM to 5:00 PM. The shop handles collision repair along with scratch and dent work, and its site references rental and towing assistance. If you drive a brand the group sells and services and you would like the collision repair handled inside that same dealership group, Stone’s is set up for exactly that, and it is worth calling them directly.

One point of clarification, because it genuinely confuses people searching online: there is a separate and entirely unrelated business called Stone’s Collision Center in Morehead City, North Carolina. Some comparison pages on the internet have mixed the two up. Nothing on this page is taken from the North Carolina company.

Neither model is better in the abstract. A dealership collision centre and an independent shop are simply different structures, and drivers reasonably prefer one or the other for reasons that are personal to them. For most repairs the real decision comes down to communication, timeline honesty, and what a shop will put in writing. The rest of this page is about what we put in writing, because that is the only part we can stand behind.

Here is the positive case for bringing your vehicle to us, made on its own terms.

We know what actually lands in Jackson, and when

Teton County is a long way from every major parts distribution centre in the country, and transit time is often the largest single component of a repair timeline here. Fifty years of ordering into this valley means we know which suppliers hold their dates and which ones do not, and that goes into the completion date you are handed rather than being discovered halfway through the job. Our guide on how long collision repair takes covers this in detail.

We have worked claims with every carrier operating here

We write every estimate in CCC One, the same estimating platform most insurers use, so our line items reach the carrier in the format it already reads. That removes a whole category of back and forth about labour times and part descriptions. Decades of repetition on top of that means we know which carriers want photographs at teardown and which want a particular note on a supplement. We bill all major carriers directly and handle the paperwork, so you are not left project-managing your own accident. Our insurance claims page walks through it.

There is a shop here to bring it back to

Our guarantee covers all body and structural repairs performed at our shop for as long as you own the vehicle. If something we repaired does not hold, bring it back and we will make it right. A warranty is worth what the business behind it is worth, and this one has been at the same address since 1973.

One shop, start to finish, working on every make

The estimator who writes your number works in the same building as the technician who pulls the structure and the painter who sprays it, so when you call to ask how it is going you are talking to someone who can walk over and look at your vehicle. Because we are independent, we also work on everything: Toyota, Subaru, Ford, Chevrolet, Jeep, Ram, GMC, Honda, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus and Tesla. Whatever is in your driveway, and whatever your household drives next, it is very likely a make we work on every week.

Most people find out what a collision repair involves while one is happening to them. Here is the arc in plain language, so you can ask any shop in town better questions.

Damage assessment and teardown

A first estimate is written from what is visible, which is genuinely limited, because a bumper cover hides the absorber, the reinforcement bar, the radiator support and the sensor mounts behind it. The real assessment happens at teardown, when the damaged area is disassembled. Anything found then is documented and sent to the insurer as a supplement. Supplements are ordinary on almost any repair of size. We write and submit ours for you.

Structural versus cosmetic damage

Cosmetic damage stays in the outer skin: a creased door, a scuffed bumper, a dented quarter panel. Structural damage reaches the components engineered to manage crash energy, such as rails, aprons, pillars and floor sections. Those components are designed to deform in a specific, predictable way in the next collision, so a repair that restores the shape without restoring the geometry has changed how the vehicle will behave when it is hit again. Structural work should be verified against factory dimensions with computerized measuring equipment rather than judged by eye, which is how our frame straightening work is done. I-CAR, the collision industry’s training and repairability organisation, maintains the technical support and manufacturer repair procedure information the trade relies on for these decisions.

Unibody versus body-on-frame

Most modern cars, crossovers and many SUVs are unibody, meaning the panels and the structure are one welded assembly with no separate frame underneath. Most pickups are body-on-frame, a bolted body sitting on a ladder frame. They deform differently and they are repaired differently. On a unibody vehicle, a hit to a front rail can shift dimensions at the cowl and change how a door closes on the opposite side of the car, which is why measurement matters even when the visible damage looks contained.

What a wildlife strike does differently

Animal strikes are an ordinary part of the collision workload in this valley, and they produce a damage pattern unlike a car-to-car impact. The Wyoming Game & Fish Department reports that drivers are involved in more than 6,000 wildlife collisions on Wyoming roadways annually, and that 80 to 85 percent of those crashes involve mule deer, with risk concentrated at dawn and dusk and rising during the spring and fall migrations. Locally, the Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation reports that after exclusionary fencing and wildlife underpasses were installed on South Highway 89 between 2018 and 2022, collisions on that stretch dropped by at least 30 percent. Their tracking draws on Nature Mapping Jackson Hole, WYDOT and Wyoming Game & Fish data covering 2011 to 2023.

For the repair itself, a large animal loads the vehicle high and often centrally. Radiators, condensers, cooling fans and hood latches take damage a low-speed bumper hit would never reach, airbags may deploy, and sensors mounted behind the grille frequently need attention afterwards. Cooling system integrity has to be checked, not just body panels. Our animal collision repair page covers the process, and our guide to what to do after hitting a deer covers the first hour.

OEM, aftermarket and recycled parts

OEM parts are made by or for the vehicle manufacturer and carry the brand. Aftermarket parts are made by an unrelated manufacturer for the same application, and quality varies by part and supplier. Recycled parts, often called LKQ for like kind and quality, are original manufacturer parts taken from another vehicle, and for a door shell or a tailgate they can be an excellent option. Which category gets used is usually governed by your insurance policy language rather than by the shop. Ask to see the parts line items on your estimate. We will show you ours and tell you which category each falls into. More on our OEM versus aftermarket parts page.

Computerized colour matching and blend panels

Matching paint is not a matter of looking up the code on the door jamb. Factory colour varies between production batches, and a vehicle that has spent five Jackson summers at six thousand feet has faded unevenly depending on which panels caught the most sun. Matching properly means reading the actual panel, mixing to it, spraying a test card and comparing that card to your vehicle in daylight first. Then there is blending: rather than stopping new colour dead at a panel edge, where the eye is very good at catching a hard line, the painter carries a little of it into the adjacent panels so the transition disappears. That adjacent panel is a blend panel, and when it appears on your estimate it is craft, not padding. We refinish in a climate-controlled booth, because dust becomes a permanent defect in the clear coat and cure quality depends on stable temperature. See our paint refinishing page.

Sensors behind the damage

Many vehicles carry cameras and radar in bumpers, grilles, mirrors and windshields for lane keeping, blind spot monitoring and collision avoidance, and they are part of the vehicle’s safety architecture. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration publishes guidance on how these systems function. If your damage is anywhere near one, ask whichever shop you choose what recalibration your specific vehicle needs and how it will be handled.

We are at 1705 Martin Ln in Jackson, open Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Walk in for a free estimate during business hours, or call (307) 733-6461.

• Collision repair, from minor dents and creased panels to major structural damage.
• Frame and structural repair using computerized frame measuring, so structure is verified against factory dimensions rather than judged by eye.
• Paint and refinishing with computerized colour matching in a climate-controlled booth. More on our car painting page.
• Insurance claims handled for you. We file the claim, talk to the adjuster, submit supplements when hidden damage turns up, and bill all major carriers directly.
• Free written estimates in CCC One, the same estimating platform most insurers use. About thirty minutes, no appointment needed.
• Animal collision repair, one of the most common jobs in this valley, and what to do after hitting a deer.
• Hail damage repair, rust repair, fender bender repair and truck bed repair.
• Pickup and delivery, with complimentary interior detailing often included, so the vehicle comes back clean as well as fixed.
• All makes. Toyota, Subaru, Ford, Chevrolet, Jeep, Ram, GMC, Honda, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus and Tesla all come through our doors.

Our lifetime guarantee covers all body and structural repairs performed at our shop for as long as you own the vehicle. If something we repaired does not hold, bring it back and we will make it right. More about the shop on our about page.

Mike’s Body Shop is one of four locally owned shops under the same ownership in Jackson. The Garage Jackson Hole handles mechanical repair and maintenance, Auto Spa by Detail Driven handles detailing and ceramic coating, and Windshield Doctor handles auto glass and windshield replacement. That matters more than it sounds, because one impact in this valley rarely stays in one category. A wildlife strike commonly takes out a bumper, a windshield and a cooling fan in the same second. Instead of three shops, three estimates and three drop-offs, it can be one conversation, one vehicle handoff and one set of people who already know your repair. Call (307) 733-6461 and we will coordinate the rest.

Mike’s Body Shop is an independent business and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or partnered with any other shop named on this page. Everything stated here about another business comes from that business’s own published information as of July 2026, and we have kept it brief and factual. We do not comment on another shop’s workmanship, pricing or reviews, and we would rather you called them directly than took our word for anything about them. Shops change what they offer. Call them, call us, and confirm whatever matters to your decision.