Grief Update - Respray & Enhancements
Discussion
Afternoon all,
Having overhauled and upgraded various mechanical items on the car over the years, the next item to receive some attention was the bodywork. The of the car nose had what can only be described as a galaxy of stone chips. The paint on the wings had micro blistered and every panel on the car had some form of scratch, scuff or abrasion.
For me there was only ever one place that the car was going to go for a respray and that is back home to Surface & Design located in one of the ex-factory units in Bristol Avenue, Blackpool. The team is made up of ex TVR staff who as you would expect have detailed knowledge of TVR. David Martin who runs Surface & Design I have had a number of dealings with now and I have always been impressed by his ‘can do’ attitude and the attention to detail of his work.
I asked S&D to fully resprayed in the same colour is it left the factory, Aston Martin Limited Mendip Blue metallic. I also asked for a number of non-standard enhancements along the way:
I will let the pictures that I have do the rest of the talking:
Suffice to say I am hugely impressed by the quality of the work. A huge thank you to David and the team at S&D for completing a superb job on my car, they truly are masters of their craft. I was also impressed with their professionalism keeping me updated on how the works were progressing throughout the project. In total I was sent 144 photographs of the car during the various stages of the works so I even though I was hundreds of miles away I felt like I was much closer due to the detailed updates.
Matthew
Having overhauled and upgraded various mechanical items on the car over the years, the next item to receive some attention was the bodywork. The of the car nose had what can only be described as a galaxy of stone chips. The paint on the wings had micro blistered and every panel on the car had some form of scratch, scuff or abrasion.
For me there was only ever one place that the car was going to go for a respray and that is back home to Surface & Design located in one of the ex-factory units in Bristol Avenue, Blackpool. The team is made up of ex TVR staff who as you would expect have detailed knowledge of TVR. David Martin who runs Surface & Design I have had a number of dealings with now and I have always been impressed by his ‘can do’ attitude and the attention to detail of his work.
I asked S&D to fully resprayed in the same colour is it left the factory, Aston Martin Limited Mendip Blue metallic. I also asked for a number of non-standard enhancements along the way:
- Chimaera style vented bonnet with black mesh vents
- Griffith SE wing mirrors without OEM extension arms
- Griffith SE 7 inch lamps
- Brake Reservoir cover and redesigned clutch reservoir cover.
- Split Roof
I will let the pictures that I have do the rest of the talking:
Suffice to say I am hugely impressed by the quality of the work. A huge thank you to David and the team at S&D for completing a superb job on my car, they truly are masters of their craft. I was also impressed with their professionalism keeping me updated on how the works were progressing throughout the project. In total I was sent 144 photographs of the car during the various stages of the works so I even though I was hundreds of miles away I felt like I was much closer due to the detailed updates.
Matthew
Thank you for all the kind comments, I am indeed very pleased with the car and it looks even more stunning in the flesh.
S&D did a great job with the clutch and brake reservoir covers, they have always been a pet hate of mine. They have done a proper job in that they have fitted rivet nuts into the wings to receive the bolts No more cutting away the sealant to get to the reservoir! Note the pedal box was dropped by around 1cm to accommodate the cover and to ensure it did not foul the vented bonnet. I am not sure if there is enough clearance on the standard bonnet to accommodate a cover without lowering the pedal box. David at S&D would probably know.
The vented bonnet I understand is S&Ds own design.
The wing mirrors, headlights, bonnet and reservoir covers were all done at the same time as the respray while the car was already stripped. Please direct any queries with regards to pricing to David Martin at S&D as I am not sure what is involved on doing those items as individual jobs. I am sure he will be more than happy to help.
I am not that keen on the PPF to be honest and I would want the whole car done which when I enquired was around £2500. I will be getting the car ceramic coated which I am told lasts around 3 years. I have never been a fan of car polishing and apparently with ceramic you just wash it and it looks fresh waxed.
S&D did a great job with the clutch and brake reservoir covers, they have always been a pet hate of mine. They have done a proper job in that they have fitted rivet nuts into the wings to receive the bolts No more cutting away the sealant to get to the reservoir! Note the pedal box was dropped by around 1cm to accommodate the cover and to ensure it did not foul the vented bonnet. I am not sure if there is enough clearance on the standard bonnet to accommodate a cover without lowering the pedal box. David at S&D would probably know.
The vented bonnet I understand is S&Ds own design.
The wing mirrors, headlights, bonnet and reservoir covers were all done at the same time as the respray while the car was already stripped. Please direct any queries with regards to pricing to David Martin at S&D as I am not sure what is involved on doing those items as individual jobs. I am sure he will be more than happy to help.
I am not that keen on the PPF to be honest and I would want the whole car done which when I enquired was around £2500. I will be getting the car ceramic coated which I am told lasts around 3 years. I have never been a fan of car polishing and apparently with ceramic you just wash it and it looks fresh waxed.
yonex said:
Stunning.
Are there still options for the bonnet stay. I'd like to sort mine before paint
Mine is a Steve Heath stay, which are no longer in production. Leven make one now which is a slightly improved design. More info here:Are there still options for the bonnet stay. I'd like to sort mine before paint
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
I have indeed updated the agreed value on the car, thanks for the reminder though I did almost forget. At the time I did think about a figure of around 40k but that is certainly SE Griff money and although mine had 20k miles on when I bought it, the car now has almost 60k on it. I asked for a figure of 36k which has been accepted and I think this reasonably represents the cost for a replacement.
Yes the car will ceramic coated hopefully this month. I have never been very good at cleaning cars, I don't particularly enjoy it as I would rather be driving it. I did give the car a wash (using two bucket method) when I got back home as there was still a little bit of dust on it from the bodyshop. I have already managed to introduce swirl marks in some areas which is very annoying. No idea what I did wrong but there you go.
Rather than let the paint deteriorate further I have decided to get the car ceramic coated. From what I understand this provides a glass coat which protects the paint and does not scratch when washing the car and no need to wax or polish for 2-3 years. Just wash and it looks freshly waxed. Sounds too good to be true! I shall find out.
To be perfectly honest I am looking forward to the ceramic coat as the car finish on the car looks so amazing I don't want to drive it at the moment. Once the ceramic coat is on I should be able to get back out there enjoying the car safe in the knowledge I can easy return it to A1 condition by simply washing it and not getting swirls on it.
I will do a separate report on the ceramic coat when I have it done in case anyone else is interested.
Yes the car will ceramic coated hopefully this month. I have never been very good at cleaning cars, I don't particularly enjoy it as I would rather be driving it. I did give the car a wash (using two bucket method) when I got back home as there was still a little bit of dust on it from the bodyshop. I have already managed to introduce swirl marks in some areas which is very annoying. No idea what I did wrong but there you go.
Rather than let the paint deteriorate further I have decided to get the car ceramic coated. From what I understand this provides a glass coat which protects the paint and does not scratch when washing the car and no need to wax or polish for 2-3 years. Just wash and it looks freshly waxed. Sounds too good to be true! I shall find out.
To be perfectly honest I am looking forward to the ceramic coat as the car finish on the car looks so amazing I don't want to drive it at the moment. Once the ceramic coat is on I should be able to get back out there enjoying the car safe in the knowledge I can easy return it to A1 condition by simply washing it and not getting swirls on it.
I will do a separate report on the ceramic coat when I have it done in case anyone else is interested.
There is a guy in my neck of the woods with a very good reputation for Ceramic / Glass coat who I will be using:
http://www.brcardetailing.co.uk
This is the product:
http://proglasscoat.com
To be honest I know very little about it I am purely going on the recommendations of others. I have never lost any sleep over the condition of the paint regarding swirl marks etc but now mine has been freshly painted I don't want to let it go to ruin as it does look very nice at the moment.
What I don't want to do is become truly obsessive over the condition off the paint and spend every spare moment on my knees buffing out blemishes. I would far rather drive the car. The glass coat does appear on paper to be the answer.
http://www.brcardetailing.co.uk
This is the product:
http://proglasscoat.com
To be honest I know very little about it I am purely going on the recommendations of others. I have never lost any sleep over the condition of the paint regarding swirl marks etc but now mine has been freshly painted I don't want to let it go to ruin as it does look very nice at the moment.
What I don't want to do is become truly obsessive over the condition off the paint and spend every spare moment on my knees buffing out blemishes. I would far rather drive the car. The glass coat does appear on paper to be the answer.
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