Lack of Progress

Sadly I have reached a point where the estate project is going to slow down a lot, and there's nothing that I can do about it.

Since I have had the Vehicle Assessor's report on the paint work, and sent a copy to my paintshop for comment, nothing, nada, silence from them, for 2 long weeks. A second copy was sent to them earlier this week via recorded delivery, and I am now wondering if I will get any response at all.

So it looks as if I now need to locate another paintshop that is sympathetic to classics, suggestions please.

Its a real pain, as I cannot add anything else to the car, as it will then need removing when the paint work is fixed, and then replaced afterwards.

Also, if it goes to another paintshop, I know that they will want to bare metal the car to be able to offer any sort of warranty on their work, thats going to cause a lot of dust and dirt to be deposited over the existing items already fitted, suspension, engine, gearbox etc, so even more work and delay, even if they can take the vehicle immediately, and if they are any good the most likely situation will be a delay while they fit the car into their existing schedule of work.

The paintshop still have a few items off the car, that they never painted, I have asked for their return if they don't intend to fix the paintwork, but if they don't show, I have the added issue of having to source door check straps (I have asked arround and none of the usual suppliers appear to have stock), the plenum grill in front of the windscreen, and the door closing plates on the rear estate doors. Fortunately they never had the bonnet because I hadn't completed the lead loading at that time.

As to the money involved, I will have to pay the new paintshop in full, and then recover the cost from the first paintshop and or my credit card company - fortunately I paid by card to get protection under the Consumer Credit Act, if things did go wrong, and they certainly have.

This is supposed to be a hoby to enjoy, now its just hassel, I get enough of that at work.

On a brighter note I took the rear load area panels, and rear seat backs to Aldridge Trimming today, who are going to remake them and carpet them.  They have also agreed to make me a new headlining, so I can get a few jobs in progress. The chrome trim items from the seats have also been sent to a local plating firm.

I suspect this will be my last blog posting for a while, although I may put a copy of the vehicle assessors report up.