Garage near Oxford

[teo]

Hi Everyone,

As this is my 1st post, let me quickly introduce myself. I'm a French guy living in Oxford (unfortunately going back to France soon). I own a 2001 1600 K-series that I bought in 2006 in the UK and imported it in France.
It's a lovely car, but I have a bit of a problem... With today's snowfalls, my flat's car park was really slippery and a neighbor crashed into my Caterham, luckily at very low speed, but the nose is heavily cracked and the radiator is damaged. I would like to have the car inspected to get a quote for the repairs.

Would anybody know of a garage with some Caterham experience in the Oxford area ?

Thanks a lot for the help !



PS: if any of you lives near Oxford, I would gladly meet some mates to go for a blat once the weather is a bit nicer ;-)

[markiebabes]

Hi Teo

have you tried lotus seven club ? here >> http://www.blatchat.com/

also try http://www.millwood-mc.com/ not to far away :-)

Mark

[OJ]

Hi there,

A quick look around Blatchat (the Lotus 7 Club Forum for your future reference!) brings up this place in Bicester...

http://www.brooke-kensington.co.uk/

If the damage is limited to the Radiator and the Nosecone, then it would be really, really easy to repair yourself, especially if you have a Gel-Coat colour nose cone!

If the chassis is damaged, there is really only one place to have it repaired, and that is Arch Motors in Huntingdon, but you would still need to have the front of the car stripped for them to carry out the work.

[Ian P]

I would use Peter Young of Spy Motorsport in Stoke Row, Henley-on-Thames. He does all the work I am unable to do on my 2002 Roadsport.

Hope this helps: http://www.spy-motorsport.co.uk/

Cheers,
Ian

Edited by Ian P on Tuesday 3rd February 17:43

[teo]

Thanks guys

Brooke Kensington is only 20min from home, I'll give them a ring tomorrow.

I should indeed be able to do the work myself, but I'd like to have a quote for my neighbor's insurance.
And also, having no garage, I'd need a nice day to be able to do the job

Thanks again for the help



PS: I knew the Blatchat but I believe you need to be a member of the L7C to be able to post on the forum...

[OJ]

Generally speaking they just talk about the same old crap over and over again... a bit like on here only more personal with the insults!

You don't need to be a member to search and it usually turns up some good info if you can wade through the bhing!

If you think you can fix it yourself then you almost certainly can, but make sure they have a good look at the chassis, they're quite easy to tweak if struck in the wrong place.

Obviously if you're not a perfectionist then a few bent tubes around the front will be easily spotted and don't make any difference to the car, but if it's extended to the geometry then it needs to be sorted... if only with a crow bar and a few ratchet straps

Can you tell I was a Caterham racer?

[fergus]

OJ said:

if it's extended to the geometry then it needs to be sorted... if only with a crow bar and a few ratchet straps

Agreed. For small geo changes, this method is a good way of realigning things and can achieve results to within minutes for toe and camber. Just make sure the bronze welding hasn't cracked. This needs a proper repair. Hairline cracks are very hard to spot in most cases w/o specialist kit.