Body repair shop recommendations - Warwickshire

[Laura-x]

Good Evening

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good body repair shop, unfortunately, someone backed into my car and cracked the rear bumper today
I live near Leamington Spa, so ideally somewhere local, but willing to travel for somewhere decent.

Thanks

[bungle]

Manhattan Motors in Earlsdon, Coventry, isn't too far.

[PositronicRay]

bungle said:

Manhattan Motors in Earlsdon, Coventry, isn't too far.

This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

[Laura-x]

Thanks i'll give them a try

[Tex]

ATD in Rugby are very good...

[mustdash]

Spa Garage on the Old Warwick Road are quite good. As is Greg Howell over in Southam ( http://greghowell.co.uk/ )

[Laura-x]

Thanks all Southam is on my doorstep as I'm only up the road, may give them a call in the morning.

[Craikeybaby]

PositronicRay said:

bungle said:

Manhattan Motors in Earlsdon, Coventry, isn't too far.

This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

What they said!

[havoc]

Greg H has a very good reputation, but I would add a word of caution - he did a bumper / spoiler respray some years ago on my NSX after a crawling-speed rear-ender, and got the colour match very badly wrong.

No big deal...it's fixable, you say. Except he argued the toss big-style, and I think it was only because I had a mate with me who was (a) tall/imposing; and (b) a detailer that Greg finally agreed to re-do it (it's now ~98% there - colour is spot-on, pearl is a little strong). Spent well over 15 minutes arguing back and forth with him not interested and claiming it was "good enough"!!!


(I much later discovered that one of the bumper brackets was lightly bent, but instead of replacing it he decided to adjust the fit using a washer, which subsequently slipped...but that's a different story...)


So even the pro's make mistakes...the key is in how someone deals with it...




I'm just having a full respray done on my Civic down in Evesham (some rust to sort on arches and roofline, plus a full front-end due to stone chips / poor respray before I bought it, so figured no point leaving the front doors and bootlid unsprayed and risk colour mis-match)
...picking it up at the weekend, so I'll report back if they do a good job...

Edited by havoc on Wednesday 18th April 12:38

[carjerk]

Prestige used to be the best in Rugby, but haven't used them in years.

https://goo.gl/maps/rxnUVbApKky

[havoc]

Quick update to this - got the car back on Tuesday from Classics 1963 in Evesham.

Very good job on the paintwork, straightforward to deal with...definitely worth a look.

[Laura-x]

havoc said:

Greg H has a very good reputation, but I would add a word of caution - he did a bumper / spoiler respray some years ago on my NSX after a crawling-speed rear-ender, and got the colour match very badly wrong.

No big deal...it's fixable, you say. Except he argued the toss big-style, and I think it was only because I had a mate with me who was (a) tall/imposing; and (b) a detailer that Greg finally agreed to re-do it (it's now ~98% there - colour is spot-on, pearl is a little strong). Spent well over 15 minutes arguing back and forth with him not interested and claiming it was "good enough"!!!


(I much later discovered that one of the bumper brackets was lightly bent, but instead of replacing it he decided to adjust the fit using a washer, which subsequently slipped...but that's a different story...)


So even the pro's make mistakes...the key is in how someone deals with it...




I'm just having a full respray done on my Civic down in Evesham (some rust to sort on arches and roofline, plus a full front-end due to stone chips / poor respray before I bought it, so figured no point leaving the front doors and bootlid unsprayed and risk colour mis-match)
...picking it up at the weekend, so I'll report back if they do a good job...

Edited by havoc on Wednesday 18th April 12:38

Shame I didn't read this post earlier, I ended up going to Greg based on the recommendations and fact it was 5 mins down the road so made life easier, but the colour match was awful, I know metallic is difficult to match, but there is way too much flake in the paint and stands out like a sore thumb to me, not at all what I expected, plus it looks like they damaged it slightly on the corner, perhaps when getting it back on the car, nightmare! Stuck with it now, keep telling myself it's better than a bumper with a crack in it, but I actually think i'd rather that!

Anyway, I was re-visiting this post as some numpty grazed the front bumper in a hotel car park (parked as far away from everyone as I possibly could too!), but to be fair I intended painting the front end at some point anyway as it's 10yrs old and littered with stone chips, some pretty big ones too!, so was looking for the other recommendations people suggested as I will not be going back to Greg.

[mcg_]

funny how some of the people who have an amazing reputation on the surface, aren't also as good as they should be

Going back about 8 years, I had a car of mine resprayed in places and modified slightly by one of the most well know names in the vw scene. Bad colour match, polished with a brick and where the rear boot handle was removed and plate welded in, the reflection was distorted. Once I dug deeper my experience wasn't uncommon.

[havoc]

mcg_ said:

funny how some of the people who have an amazing reputation on the surface, aren't also as good as they should be

I think in some instances it's a case of working hard to establish yourself - lower rates / going the extra mile / networking well...and dare I say expectations being lower for someone 'new'.

...then after becoming a name within the local scene they go and believe their own hype / rep. They up their rates, stop trying so hard, and possibly weren't THAT good to start with...


Not isolated to bodyshops / mechanics - the same can apply in any industry where you're only as good as your last job.

[BUG4LIFE]

Hi,

Thought I'd jump on this thread as I have a similar request to the OP.

My wife had a small accident with some railway sleepers yesterday and has damaged the rear bumper on her 2016 BMW 1-Series [cue many tears].

It was at a very low speed, so the damage isn't huge but perhaps a bit more than a 'smart repair'?

So bodyshop it is. We're in the Solihull, Coventry, Warwickshire area. I see Manhattan Motors in Nov have been mentioned a few times. These guys are close to us so I guess a call has to be put into them?

I think I'm going to get a quote from BMW [just need to find out if the supplying dealer has a bodyshop on site], just as a benchmark?

Cheers

[Condi]

Solus Accident Repair based at Cov airport have done some amazing work in the past, but Im not sure if they do anything other than insurance work now. They're owned by Aviva, but did used to do retail work as well.

[mustdash]

Laura-x said:

Shame I didn't read this post earlier, I ended up going to Greg based on the recommendations and fact it was 5 mins down the road so made life easier, but the colour match was awful, I know metallic is difficult to match, but there is way too much flake in the paint and stands out like a sore thumb to me, not at all what I expected, plus it looks like they damaged it slightly on the corner, perhaps when getting it back on the car, nightmare! Stuck with it now, keep telling myself it's better than a bumper with a crack in it, but I actually think i'd rather that!

Anyway, I was re-visiting this post as some numpty grazed the front bumper in a hotel car park (parked as far away from everyone as I possibly could too!), but to be fair I intended painting the front end at some point anyway as it's 10yrs old and littered with stone chips, some pretty big ones too!, so was looking for the other recommendations people suggested as I will not be going back to Greg.

Sorry you didn't have a good experience with him. I can only recommend on my experiences - the 2 times I've used him, he's been spot on. An alternative is Manhatten Motors in Coventry - I used them fairly recently to do some plasti-welding and a re-spray and they did a good job too

[BUG4LIFE]

mustdash said:

Laura-x said:

Shame I didn't read this post earlier, I ended up going to Greg based on the recommendations and fact it was 5 mins down the road so made life easier, but the colour match was awful, I know metallic is difficult to match, but there is way too much flake in the paint and stands out like a sore thumb to me, not at all what I expected, plus it looks like they damaged it slightly on the corner, perhaps when getting it back on the car, nightmare! Stuck with it now, keep telling myself it's better than a bumper with a crack in it, but I actually think i'd rather that!

Anyway, I was re-visiting this post as some numpty grazed the front bumper in a hotel car park (parked as far away from everyone as I possibly could too!), but to be fair I intended painting the front end at some point anyway as it's 10yrs old and littered with stone chips, some pretty big ones too!, so was looking for the other recommendations people suggested as I will not be going back to Greg.

Sorry you didn't have a good experience with him. I can only recommend on my experiences - the 2 times I've used him, he's been spot on. An alternative is Manhatten Motors in Coventry - I used them fairly recently to do some plasti-welding and a re-spray and they did a good job too

Just spotted this thread [again] from a good while ago. I'm [slowly] looking into who to use to hopefully sort the rusty arch issue on my Jaguar STR. Being Midlands based, Greg Howell's name does pop up a number of times when I've searched for recommendations. The only bad reviews I've spotted are the couple on this thread.

Have any of you guys heard of/used a chap called Ted Whitehall [his company name is The Devil is in the Detail]? He's got a YouTube channel and really does seem to go above and beyond with the cars he gets in for detailing etc. The only reason I mention him is because I think he's also linked to a bodyshop. Think I'll have to give him a buzz, as well as Greg.

I also found a place called Big Bear Kustoms. I'm kind of liking the idea of finding a place that can not only sort the rust but can perhaps refurb alloys, paint calipers and even fab a custom exhaust etc [might as well get it all done at once]!!

[anonymous-user]

Greg did the front wings on my S2000 recently and the work is excellent. They had surface rust on them in all the usual places that they go on S2000s. His main concern was the colour match (he mentioned it so many times) but what they did is amazing work. I’m chuffed with the transformation. Honestly I think the match couldn’t be better, and people that know me say I go OTT on perfecting anything I’m working on.

[Althalus]

Any other recommendations in Cov/Warwickshire? I'm loathed to try Greg with the mixed reviews and a tricky to match paint. Manhatten has shut.

Just got back to the Alfa Guilia QF and someone has reversed into the rear bumper crazing the lacquer and denting the rear bumper... Gits didn't leave a note.

Considering PL bodies in Warwick and TheBodyShop in cov.

Edited by Althalus on Wednesday 16th February 01:05