Classic Bodywork Recommendations

Boabybooster

RMS Regular
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18,056
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Skip
Wasting their time would be a 999 call.

101 is for
  • General Police Enquiries
  • Looking to speak with a specific officer
  • A Crime or Incident that has already happened and there is no emergency
  • Minor traffic collisions that do not require an emergency response.
  • Passing information on criminality (for example drugs or anti-social behaviour
No harm ringing them and asking for advice.
No crime has been committed though, it’s a civil matter and the cops will tell him that. Citizens advice is an option, not the police. However if he went and took his car back without paying, then it would be a police matter.
 

FM155

RMS Regular
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8,652
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Alfa 155
Part of the reason I'm very careful of getting anyone to do anything for me. None of them want to be tied down to a quote as I guess they are concerned about the job being bigger than they quoted and then being held to the original quote. I get that to an extent but a good written quote protects both the customer and the supplier of services. It seems that very few here want to provide a written quote and if you ask for one, the price doubles because they think you are being awkward. I know of cars that have had 130k spent on them and really, it's a completely nuts figure for the cars in question.

Having said that, there are some people I'd trust with anything and I know I'm not going to get un-neccesarily over charged.
 

Boabybooster

RMS Regular
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18,056
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Part of the reason I'm very careful of getting anyone to do anything for me. None of them want to be tied down to a quote as I guess they are concerned about the job being bigger than they quoted and then being held to the original quote. I get that to an extent but a good written quote protects both the customer and the supplier of services. It seems that very few here want to provide a written quote and if you ask for one, the price doubles because they think you are being awkward. I know of cars that have had 130k spent on them and really, it's a completely nuts figure for the cars in question.
Written quotes are like invoices in a lot of the independent motor trades...... rare.
 

rupertfinch

RMS Regular
Messages
3,296
Location
Bangor
Madness. Visited them 6 years ago with the intention of arch work on my Williams, verbal quote was in region of £2k, then promptly spent that fund on a 306 gti6. Glad I didn’t follow through if that’s their modus operandi. But no doubting the standard of their work - I can see why you left it with then @Chris tii . I hope some solution can be found.
 

chris_b

RMS Regular
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11,657
Drives
A car
I do want to leave a negative review on their FB page but obviously that would t help your case Chris !
I just cannot for the life of me understand who someone thinks this behaviour is acceptable
 

Chris tii

RMS Regular
Messages
1,542
Drives
BMW 2002tii
I appreciate all your supportive comments. I’ll have a go at talking to them on Monday. If they stay firm on their price then I’ll have no choice but to give legal advice a go.
 

Woodcutter

RMS Regular
Messages
31,236
I appreciate all your supportive comments. I’ll have a go at talking to them on Monday. If they stay firm on their price then I’ll have no choice but to give legal advice a go.

I wouldn't speak to them again without taking some proper legal advice Chris. You could do more harm than good. I think you need to be as well versed and prepared before you challenge them again.
 

Cookies

RMS Regular
Messages
832
Drives
BMW
I appreciate all your supportive comments. I’ll have a go at talking to them on Monday. If they stay firm on their price then I’ll have no choice but to give legal advice a go.
Chris
Definitely talk to @NeilMcG on here before you have another conversation with them. He'll be able to tell you what to say, and more importantly, what not to say.
Good luck.
Cooks
 

Dave..

RMS Regular
Messages
10,037
Having done a lot (14 full proper restorations) of them myself between my dad over a number of years, we’ve 2 rare but hard cars to get parts and finish, I don’t want to do another again! That’s with us having a full workshop with a lot of proper equipment except bodywork.

Too many people watch the programs read build pages, that make it look simple and all the parts are off the shelf etc. Normal person will take 5 years to do a car from what I see and can’t understand why there’s 400hours on bodywork for a car at £28hr and some take 500hours to build after that.
I had a mk1 TVR Grantura years ago and thought it would be easy to restore. I had built lots of more modern cars.
It was a nightmare, parts were non existent.
It beat me and I sold it.
Never again.
 

stevieturbo

RMS Regular
Messages
21,096
Location
Antrim
Drives
Old Ford
Initial quote was £1500. Which I actually thought was a lot. But I wanted it done right.

On the 11th of April I went to check the progress. The car was in the paint booth ready for paint. I was asked to settle my current bill which was sitting at £2250. I wasn’t very happy. I reminded them that the quote was for £1500. It was explained to me that it’s been a time consuming job due to lots of waxoil under the car that had to be removed. I paid them £1900 which is all I could afford at the time. I expected that the final bill was likely to reach £3k.
When I went to collect the car I was ready to tell them how disappointed I was that it was costing me so much more than the initial quote. Little did I know, it was much, much worse.
The final bill was £6500 plus Vat! After lots of shouting and swearing, they dropped it to £5900 total. (Another £4K on top of what I’d already paid.) Four times what they quoted me. And I think you all agree, a s**t load of money which unfortunately I don’t just have laying around.

Obviously I never, in a million years, would of brought my car to them if they quoted me £6k.
The work included some welding and rust prevention but all this was discussed when I brought the car to them for the quote. They stripped much of the engine back including the wiring loom. They removed the air con fan and radiator. The front bumper, front side panels and bonnet.
As well as painting the engine bay they also painted phelumn chamber and a few other bits black. They replaced all the vacuum pipes, all the clips, stickers, nuts and bolts etc with new ones provided to them by me.

Their argument was basically, forget about the quote you got, that was a mistake. Instead look at all the wonderful work we’ve done on your car.

I haven’t spoken to them since I stormed out of their office on Tuesday. I can’t face contacting them yet. I’m guessing they will probably read this but I don’t really care.


It's mental that this....and you proceeded with this at the stage of the first payment, without discussing and agreeing further costs ?

By the sounds of things they have done a ****load of work...and time consuming work at that so it would be easy to see costs ramp up if paying a full hourly rate....which any business should expect.

But what was agreed after you paid the first £1900 which went over quote ? surely there were some very serious discussions at that point ? It does sound from the quick description, that £1500 was never going to touch it though....which also should have raised alarm bells with yourself when given the quote, and for work asked ?

There are 2 wrongs here for sure ? Them for charging so much....but you for letting it proceed beyond the first payment ?
 

mayweather

RMS Regular
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8,171
Drives
M3 Evolution
It's mental that this....and you proceeded with this at the stage of the first payment, without discussing and agreeing further costs ?

By the sounds of things they have done a ****load of work...and time consuming work at that so it would be easy to see costs ramp up if paying a full hourly rate....which any business should expect.

But what was agreed after you paid the first £1900 which went over quote ? surely there were some very serious discussions at that point ? It does sound from the quick description, that £1500 was never going to touch it though....which also should have raised alarm bells with yourself when given the quote, and for work asked ?

There are 2 wrongs here for sure ? Them for charging so much....but you for letting it proceed beyond the first payment ?

He had an engine bay painted......

Unless there was a **** load of welding needing done....which isn’t likely, but even at that, how can the bill come to over 6 grand.

Ffs we seen our very own @chopaholic paint the engine bay of his car recently.....I would love to hear his thoughts on the 6k + price tag.
 

Burt2000

RMS Regular
Messages
11,227
Drives
Type RA Ltd
What’s their hourly rate of labour? And when u paid the 1900 was there any mention of further costs or a final bill?
 

BarryPort

RMS Regular
Messages
4,106
Location
Portstewart/North Sea
Drives
Sierra Cosworth
Guys like these truly suck the fun out of playing with cars.

I’m very sorry to learn of this experience, unfortunately the cost of legal advice may dig the hole deeper with little rewards. The only positive I can see from this is that members of RMS take a chance on your word & bare in mind that Classic Marques are not to be dealt with unless correspondence is fully documented.

Part of me wants to suggest we chip in for a rotten Metro, demand a full restoration as it holds sentimental value, then walk away :joy:
 

cauld1

RMS Regular
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5,325
Drives
BMW E34
Absolutely shocking price that, and that's just the initial quote, especially when the engine isn't even being dropped out.

When I got my E34 done I paid just over double that for a full respray including door shuts, boot floor, engine bay and some bits like the sills done with cobra, new windscreen fitted that I supplied. I will admit that I stripped the car at home including doing the chopping and welding and first skim of filler etc for the engine bay and we rebuilt the car ourselves.

From talking to my painter he'd rather paint the side of a car than do an engine bay though haha.
 

stevieturbo

RMS Regular
Messages
21,096
Location
Antrim
Drives
Old Ford
He had an engine bay painted......

Unless there was a **** load of welding needing done....which isn’t likely, but even at that, how can the bill come to over 6 grand.

Ffs we seen our very own @chopaholic paint the engine bay of his car recently.....I would love to hear his thoughts on the 6k + price tag.

He said there was welding done, and lots of stripping of the engine/bay to actually be able to paint it. As well as painting some engine parts.

FFS most cars these days you can barely see any metal to even think about painting it, nevermind getting an actual paint gun in there !
 

NeilMcG

RMS Trader
Messages
150
Location
Belfast and Newtownards
Drives
VW GTe
I appreciate all your supportive comments. I’ll have a go at talking to them on Monday. If they stay firm on their price then I’ll have no choice but to give legal advice a go.
I will draft a letter for you tomorrow @Chris tii i don’t think you should engage with them any further. Please email me neil@boydricesolicitors.com and we can arrange a convenient time in the morning to discuss further.
 
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