A Cautionary tale regarding body repairs.
Discussion
Apologies that should read Tale 
, I don't seem to be able to change the title now
Sorry that this is a rather long post, for those of you interested but with a short attention span there is a brief summery at the end.
Some of you may recall that in March 2007 I had someone drive into the back of me whilst I was parked and then drive off without leaving their details. There was a nasty smash to the spoiler part of the rear clam (S1 Elise) and extensive crazing to the gel coat from the lights to the rear wheel arch.
I notified Norton Insurance (Heritage) who were fantastic, taking the details over the phone, [ay with a very defensive garage owner after which I agreed, to take the car over so that sensible discussions could be had face to face.
When I showed him the problems I was informed that this was nothing to do with him and that the problems had occurred due to previous repairs, as it had been hit up the back before (from what I have read on here it does seen a fairly regular occurrence especially if parked on the street). He said the bit they did is ok, the rest of the problems were because old paint has reacted when the car was in the heat booth. Whilst remaining skeptical I agreed that we would get the insurance company's engineer out to have a look. The garage owner said he would have to be the one to organise this, (which I thought was strange as it is my insurance). He mentioned it may not be immediate but would contact me.
After 2 weeks and no call, I tried phoning a few times but got no answer so sent a fax asking him to call me to confirm if he had arranged a date for the inspection. I received no call and after a week and a half I contacted the insurance company and arranged the re-inspection myself (I believe if he did really intend calling the engineer, he was waiting to be paid first)
This time it was a bit more painful making the arrangements and after a couple of weeks I managed to get the engineer, garage owner and me together. Unfortunately the Engineer was not from the same company as the one who had done the initial inspection (the insurance company uses at least 2 independent companies) After a thorough look at the car it appeared that the engineer agreed with me, he asked why the whole rear clam was not painted as he would have authorised this. He also asked why they did not inform me of the problem rather than leaving me to find it for myself.
The attitude from the garage owner was pretty poor, basically saying the bit they did is ok, the lines under the lacquer were nothing to do with them, at one time stating that they had not done anything to those sections of the car, later stating that they had blended the lacquer in over the areas in question but had not touched the paint. He said that he did not feel that he should have done anything else and said that if the whole clam had been repainted that would have been betterment..
The next day I was asked to meet the original engineer, he agree with the previous one that the repairs were not well done and did not think that the paint had reacted, rather that the car had not been rubbed down properly, he was surprised to see paint runs and pointed out flat areas of lacquer and dry spray in several areas.
The good new though is that my insurance company agreed to get the work re done, they thought the reaction from the darage was so poor that the work would be best done by another company. I therefore followed the recommendations posted by others and have taken it to Specialised Paintwork in Reading. I have to say that very helpful.
They asked who had done the work and were surprised when I told them as they thought they would have done a better repair than they did.
On collection of the car they did say the repair was good it was just the paintwork that had not been done properly.
I am now happy having had the who rear clam and bootlid repainted, Specialised Paintwork proved to be a good recommendation.
Short Story
Car damaged
Heritage approve repairs quickly
My usual garage to the East of Chichester do a poor repair job
Heritage approve re-repair
Specialised Paintwork prove to be much better
Car now back fully repaired
Conclusion
Norton Insurance Broker (Heritage Policy, insurance company is Chaucer) are very good.
Despite good reputations everyone can have a bad bad and completely cock up a repair.
The garage owner is an odd character on a good day, get him on a bad day and suggest that he may have done something wrong and he is just plain nasty.
I have now started taking my car to Sportomotive for servicing etc. Although more expensive they are much more helpful, have done a good job so far and have a loan car, which for make makes my life much easier. They also open at 8.30, at the other garage I had often waited well after 9.30 for him to arrive.
Specialsed Paintwork prove to be much more helpful and do a good job.
Always inspect your car thoroughly before taking it away, this didn't make much difference in this instance, but if it had been only the star crack that that I had found it would have been difficult to prove how this occurred.
Finally always make a fuss if you have not received you car back in a condition comparable to how it was pre accident. Had I accepted the initial response I would have had a car worth less due to poor paintwork to much of the rear of the car.
, I don't seem to be able to change the title now Sorry that this is a rather long post, for those of you interested but with a short attention span there is a brief summery at the end.
Some of you may recall that in March 2007 I had someone drive into the back of me whilst I was parked and then drive off without leaving their details. There was a nasty smash to the spoiler part of the rear clam (S1 Elise) and extensive crazing to the gel coat from the lights to the rear wheel arch.
I notified Norton Insurance (Heritage) who were fantastic, taking the details over the phone, [ay with a very defensive garage owner after which I agreed, to take the car over so that sensible discussions could be had face to face.
When I showed him the problems I was informed that this was nothing to do with him and that the problems had occurred due to previous repairs, as it had been hit up the back before (from what I have read on here it does seen a fairly regular occurrence especially if parked on the street). He said the bit they did is ok, the rest of the problems were because old paint has reacted when the car was in the heat booth. Whilst remaining skeptical I agreed that we would get the insurance company's engineer out to have a look. The garage owner said he would have to be the one to organise this, (which I thought was strange as it is my insurance). He mentioned it may not be immediate but would contact me.
After 2 weeks and no call, I tried phoning a few times but got no answer so sent a fax asking him to call me to confirm if he had arranged a date for the inspection. I received no call and after a week and a half I contacted the insurance company and arranged the re-inspection myself (I believe if he did really intend calling the engineer, he was waiting to be paid first)
This time it was a bit more painful making the arrangements and after a couple of weeks I managed to get the engineer, garage owner and me together. Unfortunately the Engineer was not from the same company as the one who had done the initial inspection (the insurance company uses at least 2 independent companies) After a thorough look at the car it appeared that the engineer agreed with me, he asked why the whole rear clam was not painted as he would have authorised this. He also asked why they did not inform me of the problem rather than leaving me to find it for myself.
The attitude from the garage owner was pretty poor, basically saying the bit they did is ok, the lines under the lacquer were nothing to do with them, at one time stating that they had not done anything to those sections of the car, later stating that they had blended the lacquer in over the areas in question but had not touched the paint. He said that he did not feel that he should have done anything else and said that if the whole clam had been repainted that would have been betterment..
The next day I was asked to meet the original engineer, he agree with the previous one that the repairs were not well done and did not think that the paint had reacted, rather that the car had not been rubbed down properly, he was surprised to see paint runs and pointed out flat areas of lacquer and dry spray in several areas.
The good new though is that my insurance company agreed to get the work re done, they thought the reaction from the darage was so poor that the work would be best done by another company. I therefore followed the recommendations posted by others and have taken it to Specialised Paintwork in Reading. I have to say that very helpful.
They asked who had done the work and were surprised when I told them as they thought they would have done a better repair than they did.
On collection of the car they did say the repair was good it was just the paintwork that had not been done properly.
I am now happy having had the who rear clam and bootlid repainted, Specialised Paintwork proved to be a good recommendation.
Short Story
Car damaged
Heritage approve repairs quickly
My usual garage to the East of Chichester do a poor repair job
Heritage approve re-repair
Specialised Paintwork prove to be much better
Car now back fully repaired
Conclusion
Norton Insurance Broker (Heritage Policy, insurance company is Chaucer) are very good.
Despite good reputations everyone can have a bad bad and completely cock up a repair.
The garage owner is an odd character on a good day, get him on a bad day and suggest that he may have done something wrong and he is just plain nasty.
I have now started taking my car to Sportomotive for servicing etc. Although more expensive they are much more helpful, have done a good job so far and have a loan car, which for make makes my life much easier. They also open at 8.30, at the other garage I had often waited well after 9.30 for him to arrive.
Specialsed Paintwork prove to be much more helpful and do a good job.
Always inspect your car thoroughly before taking it away, this didn't make much difference in this instance, but if it had been only the star crack that that I had found it would have been difficult to prove how this occurred.
Finally always make a fuss if you have not received you car back in a condition comparable to how it was pre accident. Had I accepted the initial response I would have had a car worth less due to poor paintwork to much of the rear of the car.
Edited by fatwomble on Sunday 12th August 21:55
for Specialised Paintwork. Not "saints" but certainly know their business and do not feck about. They do a good job which is a damn sight more than most!Sorry to hear all this - however in the interest of balance and to avoid the usual problem of only hearing negatives which are then assumed to be the norm (K-series head gaskets, for example), I would like to add my experience. When I owned my Elise this same garage did all the work on my car including some paint after I removed some laquer with a competion number and they were always first class.
There are probably "horror stories" about every garage if you speak to the right person - I know a few myself.
There are probably "horror stories" about every garage if you speak to the right person - I know a few myself.
tricky 100 said:
Paul RN said:
Well I can guess who that garage might have been.....
Is it FS ?dgr said:
Pleased to hear that you have got the car fixed finally. Hope to catch up with you at Goodwood or somewhere soon...
Thanks, we seem to have been lacking in Goodwood runs lately, I will try to get one organised for next time.Gassing Station | Elise/Exige/Europa/340R | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff