Repair/Bodyshops - experiences/timescales?

[MrChips]

Ok, so someone's car may or may not have introduced itself to a hedge/fence this morning
Not myself driving but no-one hurt and just a minor accident but the bodywork will need a fair amount of repair and the front wheel looks a bit buckled.

So the hunt will be on for a decent bodyshop for a very very high quality finish (no orange peel please!) but just as importantly one who is confident/capable of checking over the chassis and other bits for any damage that isn't immediately visible/obvious and repair fully, so they have to know their TVR's
The search function is down but i've managed to dig out quite a few names which seem to be recommended but the couple of initial questions are:

- Have I missed any good ones off the list below?
- Anyone care to share their experience with similar situations? It'll have to go through insurance so looking for a bit of advice in terms of timescales that these things can take, and anything I can do to ensure it's back on the road as soon as possible.

Here's the people so far i've been recommended:

Surface and Design
Central TVR
Bee Gee Coachcraft
Spectraflare Sprayworks (local to me)
Salford Service Centre (ex Revival bodysop guy)

Any others that I should consider?

[Lone Star]

I took my motor down to Sportmotive this morning. Ian had a few TVR's there in various states of repair. ( And now including my own. ) You could give him a try.

[richtvr]

TVR Power

[magpie21]

Rick At Salford for me

[alex_gray255]

Here would be my recommendations based on my experiences and what I have heard.

Not a complete list of who is available, but I only comment from what I have
personally seen, so I'm not including folks I've not used or seen.

Brenden up in Sheffield (Company name changing) - High quality work, good timescale management, ability to adapt and get creative. I always use him for my Sagaris body work. Highest recommendation as I know his work extremely well.

Hilton Coachworks in Bishop Storford - High quality work, but timescale management is not always the best sometimes if I was to be honest. I've used them in the past with no issues as have other people with TVRs. Highly recommended.

T.V.R Bodyshop in Stoke on Trent - Building a couple of TVRs from scratch. Very high quality work from the various threads that have been posted. Did some work for me, very high quality. Highly recommended as able to do just about anything you need by the sounds of things that John and the team have tackled in the past.

Salford Service Centre (Rick) - Heard good things about them and seen their facilities which do look very good. I cannot personally comment however as I have never used them myself, but I have spoken to some people that have and they are more than happy with their work.

Bespoke Performance in Ware - They use Hilton for their crash repair works I
believe, so see comments above.

Edited by alex_gray255 on Sunday 3rd March 13:51

[captain slow 82]

I am looking around for a body shop for a full respray and so far I have seen work from option 1 and the work looks great and the owners seem happy, I have also seen the work from central and it looks terrible, the one I'm on about was a full respray that should have been like a pearl orange but in most lights it looks pink and after a few months not only has the car got chips on the front, it has them on the side and rear!

[BCA]

Quick but great fibreglass repair (also suprisingly reasonable costs too!);

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/profile.asp?mem... - Plasticman/ Dave Hillis.

Got our car sorted after a little off at Shelsey Walsh and we were able to compete again at Castle Coombe within two weeks IIRC. The only reason it was two weeks was down to the rear screen we sourced taking slightly longer than expected! Great guy, great knowledge, happy to recommend.

As for a respray, not got that one sorted yet... will be looking at doing that soon.

[MrChips]

Thanks for all the advice, Alex with the new names. I'll have a look into them as well. Anyone got Brendan's contact details? I thought he was with Raceproved?

BCA.. I had thought of Dave but as this'll be an insurance job I suspect it'll get complicated if the repairer/painters are not one and the same!

Edited by MrChips on Sunday 3rd March 21:16

[alex_gray255]

MrChips said:

Thanks for all the advice, Alex with the new names. I'll have a look into them as well. Anyone got Brendan's contact details? I thought he was with Raceproved?

Edited by MrChips on Sunday 3rd March 21:16

I'll IM them to you tomorrow. They are on my mobile.

RP under went a structural change last year. Brendan used to contract for them, but it now going indie. Had a chat with him yesterday,
some interesting plans in the offing.

Btw - He's running an open-day on the Saturday of Chatsworth with a few people - including Joolz and Dave The Trimmer.

I think Kevin is posting the details of it when fully arranged, but I have them as well if people are interested.

[jonesy]

Sorry to hear that Dave. I've used these for an accident repair and they were pretty good. They found/matched my colour and did a good job. They are a Lotus authorized repair shop and so are used to fixing fibrerglass.

http://www.specialisedpaintwork.com/

Their work is of great quality and a friendly and local service.

j.

[Getsis]

MrChips said:

Here's the people so far i've been recommended:

Surface and Design
Central TVR
Bee Gee Coachcraft
Spectraflare Sprayworks (local to me)
Salford Service Centre (ex Revival bodysop guy)

Any others that I should consider?

One of those I had a bad experiance with, it all got sorted in the end but It took them 4 attempts to get it right. I'm very happy with the end result but 4 attempts is shockingly bad for a "Proffesional" body shop to do a relatively simple task of getting rid of stone chips.

[V8 GRF]

Surface and Design for me all the way. All ex TVR and very fastidious about their work, used by many dealers and I've not seen better.

They did a repair for me well over 4 years ago now and it's still invisible.

[alex_gray255]

MrChips said:

Thanks for all the advice, Alex with the new names. I'll have a look into them as well. Anyone got Brendan's contact details? I thought he was with Raceproved?

BCA.. I had thought of Dave but as this'll be an insurance job I suspect it'll get complicated if the repairer/painters are not one and the same!

Edited by MrChips on Sunday 3rd March 21:16

Hi Dave, sent you Brendan's no.

Thanks!

[MrChips]

Update time: following a few phone calls and emails to people, the car is booked in to see Rick at Salford service centre.
Not sure on timescales yet as it'll be going through insurance but I'd love to set sights on having it back for chatsworth.

Just so happens that Rick is next door to dave the trimmer who has 11m of the original factory colour carpets sitting ready to go in the car.
Due to a previous respray being a poor colour match on some panels, we'll be pushing for a full respray in the original Spectraflair Topaz.
I can foresee some insurance arguments potentially as not ever single panel is damaged...let the fun begin!!

[magpie21]

Great choice Dave.

I'm sure you won't disappointed, hopefully we can catch up in the next week or so.

Cheers

[alex_gray255]

Dave, forgot to mention this, but at one time, Ron the owner, whose a TVR owner, said that any members of H&B can get a discount.

Not sure if that is still the case, but might be worth asking.

[alex_gray255]

Ron owns a Tuscan as well from memory.

[Toady1]

Oh no Dave sorry to see this! I hope you get your car sorted soon as wasn't the exhaust and mapping to be done around now?

[MrChips]

Yep.. we were literally on route to the drop the car off at the exhaust place! That, plus mapping is now on hold until early May.
So onto the good news, and that insurance company has agreed with the estimates from Rick which includes a full respray as the Topaz is difficult to colour match so it's all systems go. New parts have been ordered and in the next couple of weeks i'll head over to go through the colour choices as we might tweak it a little.

Aiming (fingers and toes crossed) to be back on the road for Chatsworth as we've already booked a cottage to stay in.

[Andy Pandie]

Just caught up with this thread, sorry to read about the hedge incident Dave, but glad to read it's all getting sorted. She will be like new when you're done with her