Every September for many years I would go down to the NOPI Nationals in Atlanta. I would leave early on a Thursday morning *2am* to meet up with the SuperStreet Tour on the way down.
About 8 - 9 years ago, I ran into the back of a Buick with my SL2... at around 4pm the day before I was to leave. I called the Saturn body shop and asked how long it may take to fix. Obviously they had to see it first.
I was thankfully able to still drive it, so I took it over to the shop. The estimator said it would take about 5 days to fix if they had/could get all the parts (hood, headlamps, bumper cover, cross beam, etc). I mentioned my rush, and they said they would see what they could do... but could not promise anything.
They started working on it first thing Thursday morning... and Friday at 3:30 in the afternoon, they called me to let me know it was complete. I picked it up and drove straight through to the show in Atlanta... about 18 hours. As soon as I parked, the car was judged... and I placed 2nd in my class.
Long story short... some body shops can and will work magic.