Garage problem! Sigh....

[scottyd]

Got a call today that my car has been fixed (the clutch slave cylinder went). The car has been just sitting at my Honda dealer for 3 weeks for the part to arrive.

Went to pick the car up, paid the monies, got the keys, went out to the car and there is a lovely paint crack in the bonnet!

It seems they have been pushing the car using the bonnet instead of using the windscreen pillars, textbook error.

I spoke to the guy and he is going to give me a ring tomorrow to see what/how they will fix the problem.

Has anyone ever had an issue like this before? How did it get solved or how should it be solved?


Thanks for any input,
Scott.

[Beatman]

Sounds like your on the right track.
Thats the risk everytime you drop your car off with a business, thats why your safer with a dealer as they have insurance and will take responsibility for damages incurred.
Alot of garages will actually do a quick body check of your car and note down on a diagram any damage a car has when it arrives to avoid disputes when the customer picks it up.

[scottyd]

Honda got back to me today like they said they would and they were very helpful.

The guy said that they are willing to respray the bonnet but they said that it would look out of place (which it will because i'm stil on original paintwork), I told them that I was planning on getting a respray once I got the funds and they said that they would do that plus minus the cost of the damage they done if I want them to.

They have arranged for a guy from their bodyshop to come out and look at the car at my work tomorrow to give an estimate for the bonnet and the rest of the car.

So hopefully the estimate will be reasonable and I can finally get my car resprayed and eventually get round to puting all of my new shiny bits on it like coilovers and wheels, and a roof which is arriving on monday.

Hopefully this cloud has a silver lining.

[Mylee]

The cost for Honda to respray your car will be high. The bonnet will cost them next to nothing to repair if they are painting the whole car. Get some independant quotes to bargin with. I had my beat partially resprayed when it was accident damaged, without any colour match problems.
Is your car Red by any chance?

[scottyd]

Yes, my car is red haha!

Since the guy is coming out tomorrow to give an estimate I will just take the estimate and not confirm them painting the bonnet or the car until I have asked around.

[LawrenceHarding]

The cost for Honda to respray your car will be high. The bonnet will cost them next to nothing to repair if they are painting the whole car. Get some independant quotes to bargin with. I had my beat partially resprayed when it was accident damaged, without any colour match problems.
Is your car Red by any chance?

The bodyshop that repaired our yellow Beat got the colour right.

[scottyd]

Honda got back to me and said that they can spray the car for £850 for a cheap material job, cheap paint etc, but I told them I want the best materials and I want the car stripped, minimal masking etc.

They said that they will make the car as close to new as possible for £2000, this includes complete strip, taking handles out, trim and bumpers off etc, fixing all of the dents to the bodywork, removing rust and any welding that needs done.

They will deduct £200 for the cost of the bonnet they did damage to, which was more than I thought they would deduct, but I asked them to completely underseal the car as well which is £200 so the cost will still be £2000.

They also offer a 3 year Honda guarantee on the paint job and they will provide me with a courtesy car for the duration my car is with them.

My new roof came today from Euro Trimming so I phoned Honda up to ask if they could do the roof and re-carpet the car with red carpet while the car is in for bodywork, they said that they don't do that themselves but they work with a local trimmer who can do that and use Hondas premesis while the car is in, which by a stroke of luck was a company called Kish Executive Cars which I was recommended to use from Euro Trimming!

I'm going to try to get my car in to them next week to do the car, pretty excited, I can finally get the roof and paintjob fixed because they are the only things that were bothering me about the car, then all I need to do is fit the suspension and my new wheels and the car will be a stunner. I also aim to order some cusco strut braces and then the car will be how I want it.

It is alot of money, and I can probably get the job done cheaper but the guy I spoke to seemed confident and happy to take on the job, plus the guarantee is a deciding factor because chances are a Honda Dealer will be around for the 3 years where a local bodyshop has a higher chance to close at anytime, making your guarantee worthless.

Plus being able to just drop my car off and have all of the trimming and paint done at once saves me alot of hassle.

[TADO]

sounds like a good price and a great outcome - can't wait to see the finished product! :D

[scottyd]

Thanks TADO! I can't wait for it either.

I'm going to give the guy a disposeable camers and ask if he can take pics of the different stages because it will be nice to keep with the history of the car.

I'll keep you posted.

[LawrenceHarding]

Getting back to colour matching when I cleaned up rust on and near the door hinges I found "Hammerite" smooth yellow to be a remarkably close match to the original colour.

[gymm]

Hi Scott, your Beat will look stunning and I can't wait to see some pictures! You have decided well and I agree the expense will be worth it and had you 'gone cheap' you would always be wondering if you had chosen correctly. Cheers, John

[scottyd]

Thanks, gymm! I will definitely post up some pictures once the job is finished.

They gave me a Suzuki SX4 courtesy car, it is a very nice car but it consumes so much more petrol compared to the Beat that I cringe filling it up haha.

The beat has me spoiled!

[unclejemima]

Can't wait to see pictures!!!

What are they doing for the complete underspray? I've had a local shop in Canada do mine and the job was only half good. They used a rubber/asphalt type of spray that we call "undercoating" and they did not do a very complete job. I'd rate it 6 out of 10.

Again, can't wait to see photos!

[scottyd]

I'm not sure what they are doing the underseal with, but when I spoke to the guy and asked about it he said that they use the best stuff for the underseal that will last a very long time.

A question for you all, the holes in the boot for the boot-rack have large dome-nut and washers to put in place for when the rack is not installed, does anyone know where to buy these, what they are called and if I can get them in anodised red?

I have the original rusty silver ones but I cannot find anyone who can do similar fixings and I don't even know if they have a special name. I took them to my local nut-and bolt fixings shop and they said they have nothing at all as big as that dome-nut but I did find out that the thread size is an M6.

I'm also getting the plastic H badges removed and i'm replacing them with white vinyl H stickers. I seen a supercharged beat in japan with white paint and red H vinyl stickers for badges and it looked really smart so I'm going to give it a go but with red paint and white vinyl.

I also bought a red flexible 24cm LED strip that i'm going to use for my foglight instead of the horrible bumper hanging one. I plan on placing it in the rear upper bumper slit, not sure how I am going to fix it in place yet, any ideas?

Thanks,
Scott.

[gymm]

Lots of attention your Beat is getting Scott! Can't wait to see the pictures. All sounds good. My fog light replaces the O/S reversing light bulb but it shines red. The previous owner had it done so it all looks normal at the rear but has only a N/S reversing light that works. I have seen other new cars which appear to have the same configuration. I am sure you can get someone to locate the LED unit in a suitable place - the slit in the bumper seems ideal for your unit.

[Saharasole]

I managed to find a combined LED stop tail light for a motorbike on eBay for around £12. It fits nicely behind the bumper slit pop rivetted to the metal plate covering ghe exhaust and has the benefit of being fully marked up as DoT compliant. I then found a piece of very coarse mesh sprayed it black and stuck it behind the slit and the fog light can now hardly be seen unless switched on!.