Any RR Shadow experts around?

[Byteme]

matt5791 said:

I know what you are saying, and I know there are specialists and dealerships with their own excellent bodyshop facilities, but lots of very reputable garages sub out body work on all manner of different vehicles, (many much more complex than a shadow) and there are some utterly superb independent bodyshops around (I used to deal with a lot of them when I sold automotive paint and Facom garage equipment in the 90's). Infact I have a customer who, in the 80's and 90's owned a bodyshop in Cheshire and the Crewe factory themselves used to sub out very complicated accident repairs to them. I was chatting to him about it the other day. Apparently he had some jigs that Crewe didn't - weird, but apparently true. He's retired now.

I accept they're not as complex as some cars however despite the fact what you say should hold true, time and time and time again I have seen work that suggests otherwise.

Prior to its recent purchase, our Brooklands had the door tops painted to remedy corrosion around the door handles. This was sub contracted by the seller to a so called expert with years of Rolls-Royce/Bentley experience, a repair I would regard as simple. He got himself in a terrible mess and ended painting along the entire side of both cars failing to get anywhere near the correct standard of finish. This took weeks and nearly caused the sale to fall through. The seller was equally exasperated and ended up giving us a full tank of fuel and not charging for some leather renovation we had agreed to pay for.

There are specialists out there but it would be far better to deal with them directly. It was only because the seller agreed to cover the paint repairs we didn't look into this painter further. In hindsight it would have been better to have negotiated a discount and arrange for the work to be done ourselves.

The reason Crewe would have sent work out was that they never had the facilities to repair cars. The fixed production jigs the under-floors would have been assembled on would not lend themselves to repair work.

[WelshBentleyBoy]

Some years ago I had the sills on my Continental R done by the local Bentley authorised body shop. I then had to have it done again before I could sell the car, the original job was a disgrace so, chose your specialist with care!!!

[Byteme]

WelshBentleyBoy said:

Some years ago I had the sills on my Continental R done by the local Bentley authorised body shop. I then had to have it done again before I could sell the car, the original job was a disgrace so, chose your specialist with care!!!

I would agree with that.

I was once involved with a nearly new Silver Spirit that had recently had a massive repair completed by an authorised repairer with a very long history with the brand. The entire repair, approximately £30,000, had to be re-done. The insurance company recovered this from the repairer who lost not only their authorised repairer status but also had the selling franchise taken away.

[WelshBentleyBoy]

The problem with bodywork is that it looks ok nicely painted and covered with stone chip paint. I do not quarrel with any "Indie" subbing out bodywork as the investment in proper facilities of booths, extraction and colour matching are considerable and I believe in horses for courses. The problem comes when Bentley lend their endorsement to a sub standard outfit. I still feel I should have expected better

[Byteme]

WelshBentleyBoy said:

The problem with bodywork is that it looks ok nicely painted and covered with stone chip paint. I do not quarrel with any "Indie" subbing out bodywork as the investment in proper facilities of booths, extraction and colour matching are considerable and I believe in horses for courses. The problem comes when Bentley lend their endorsement to a sub standard outfit. I still feel I should have expected better

I think my point was more along the lines that you should develop a deeper and more direct relationship with whoever does body and paint as you would with anyone doing mechanical repair. If the individuals actually carrying out this work can convince you they do work to the correct standard then perhaps you can develop some degree of trust but this is unlikely to happen indirectly.

As you point out "The problem with bodywork is that it looks ok nicely painted and covered with stone chip paint" so why trust a mechanically based company who wont have the first idea of the most basic concepts of trades they have never been trained in? They will only see what you did when you accepted your car back and, presumably, were happy with it.

Mechanical and electrical repairs may be difficult to diagnose and expensive to fix but, generally, once new parts are fitted that is an end to it and once the parts warranty has expired at 12 months that's it! Paint and body are rather different and if, for example, you are looking at properly completed rear wheel-arch replacement in a Silver Shadow I would be worried if a properly executed corrosion related repair failed ten years later.

Edited by Byteme on Friday 5th September 23:11

[WelshBentleyBoy]

I don't have a problem with mechanicals as I have a retired mechanic friend who spent his working life on Lotus, Maserati, Jenson, Astons,TVR etc.I have access to a workshop manual so there is little he cannot tackle.I suspect from his posts that Byteme has a similar background.I fear for the future when these founts of knowledge disappear and we are left with the "computer diagnostic, buy a new part, generation"

[MULLINER]

A few pop to mind depending on where you are in Scotland have a quick word with Derek Mowat and see who he would suggest tel: [phone]

[V8 FOU]

West Hoathly Garage.
Great people, with a wealth of experience. They do all mechanical and body. Well worth a try IMO. Jim is the main man.

[ecurie]

I would look further than just RR specialists for bodywork.
I looked at a lot of options and in the end had my Silver Shadow repaired/restored by the bodyshop of our local Hyundai dealer. They do a lot of work for other garages/specialists.
The head of the bodyshop is an old chap who is completely self taught. Not only is his welding to the very highest standard, he also masters the art of panel beating/forming and lead loading. They also actively encouraged visits to see how the work progressed.

So ask around and you might be surprised with the result.

[Byteme]

ecurie said:

I would look further than just RR specialists for bodywork.
I looked at a lot of options and in the end had my Silver Shadow repaired/restored by the bodyshop of our local Hyundai dealer. They do a lot of work for other garages/specialists.
The head of the bodyshop is an old chap who is completely self taught. Not only is his welding to the very highest standard, he also masters the art of panel beating/forming and lead loading. They also actively encouraged visits to see how the work progressed.

So ask around and you might be surprised with the result.

One of the problems with traditional skills is that your "old chap" can quite legally kill himself working on his own in his "shed" inhaling highly toxic materials used during lead loading while any compliant business employing just person wouldn't be able to use many basic, off-the-shelf products from Halfords.

I would posit that NO authorised bodyshop, ever, uses lead in 2014 or has done so for more than a decade. Where it is was used by Rolls-Royce/Bentley it has usually caused more problems than it was ever intended to solve and was only ever a poor substitute for the poor steel stamped bodies that real coach-builders like James Young had the skill to manufacture.