Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Hi Folks!

I've been absent for some time as my car has been off the road having a bit of a refurbishment - now I'm not sure this is the correct area for my post so apologise if there is a more relevant area.

Firstly I'm holding back names of all parties for now as for the moment I'm just soliciting some feedback on costs and to determine if they are within the realms of reasonable or something else...

My 944 has been around the houses a little bit and started off at a little specialists "Plan A" who specialise in Porsche restoration work. They were suggested to me by another company who at the time had quite a lot of work on and said that their workshop costs would be overly expensive on this project, this company will be known as "Plan B".

"Plan A" were going to strip the car down, repair any corrosion and then get a bare metal respray done. We got as far as repairing the corrosion and then the bodyshop that the specialist usually used said they were no longer interested in doing full resprays as they could make more money doing insurance work (I feel here I ended up as the victim of a personal issue between the two businesses however).

Up until this point the work had cost me £2800 to strip the car and repair the corrosion. During this time my car has been at the specialists for getting on for 5 x years (yes you read that right, most of this was waiting for the owner to find me a replacement bodyshop who would complete the work to his standards, I suggested many to him but he was always concerned they wouldn't do a great job).

So it now became my responsibility to locate another bodyshop that would take on the job. Eventually I found a place locally that had some good examples of previous classic car work and after talking with the owner got my car booked in with them for the prep and paint. They did a great job and the paintwork looks fantastic - cost me £4560.

With the respray completed I got back in touch with the specialist to see if he was able to pickup the car and reassemble it, by this point the front / rear bumpers, head / tail lights, both side doors and both front wings were dismantled from the car along with all of the glass and some of the interior trim (the engine and running gear was all left in place and not touched). Unfortunately he was no longer interested in working on the car citing that the workshop was currently full and he didn't know when (if) he would be able to get around to completing my car.

So now lost I managed to get my car stored whilst I sort out what to do next, I call "Plan B" the original company I spoke to right back at the beginning and they agreed that they could complete the outstanding work on the vehicle -

All parts apart from the ones specified below were sourced and paid for by myself.

Reassemble front bumper
Reassemble front / rear lights
Modify rear bumper and refit (needed drilling for rear tow mount and turbo style rub strip)
Reassemble front wings
Reassemble front doors (electrics, windows and trim)
Refit glass (replacing some of the rubber seals)

Additional work
Replace belts (including belts)
Minor Service (Oil, Filter, Air Filter)
Replace battery

For the above work to date I've been invoiced £5844

I am now a little concerned as the car is still not 100% complete so another invoice is likely to take it upto £7k for reassembly costs alone.

My question of you folks is does this seem reasonable?

Feel free to give me a call 07500 332790

Thanks for your time earlier Sean - I'm going to print out all the invoices and go and discuss them with the owner.

I salute your patience and appreciate you trying to do the right thing by your 944. I am very interested to find out how this all turns out for you.

I really hope you get the car you want after all the time, effort and expense.

Wishing the best.

I might be out of touch, but they seem to be at the top end of what you should be paying, what exactly was done to the body for a bill of £2800, sills (inner/outer) wing bottoms, rear arches etc
Did the respray cost £4560 on top of the corrosion repairs,
And are you saying that a shop has charged you £5844 to refit bumpers, doors, wings and a service, if these figures are what you paid then I'm afraid as far as I'm concerned, they've taken you for a ride, I know shops have overheads but there needs to be a lot of welding for £2800, an absolute basket case to show stopper respray for £4560, but there is no way I can see that £5K+ for refit is possible, I would ask for an itemised bill, then seek legal advice

Hey Folks,

Thanks for the replies.

1. Car was stripped and bodywork was completed by "Garage B" and breaks down as follows -
a. Sill repairs to outers (inners were good)
b. Right side front wing repaired
c. Right side rear quarter repaired
d. 2 x used doors sourced and prepped (existing door skins were rusted)

This was done to a high standard and the guy fabricated metal patch panels which I saw before they were fitted to the car.

Total came to £2800 including £500 to cover storage and transported costs during the 5 years it was with "Garage B".

2. Respray was done by a reputable bodyshop and cost me £4560 all in for prep, etch prime and paint - they did an amazing job with the paintwork and got a mirror finish.

3. Garage "A" took on the refit of the of the parts that were stripped, they have justified some of the costs down to the complexity of refitting the replacement doors with fittings and also the bumper modifications (somehow a previous bodyshop had fitted a standard 944 bumper - this is a turbo) so it needed modifying slightly to fit the towing eye mount and turbo bump strip. As far as I can tell though this should just be a bit of measuring up and drilling of the bumper.

And yes just for the refitting of the vehicle I'm now up to £5844 in invoiced costs, however I've not paid the latest invoice (which is £1800) and told the garage I wish to discuss this invoice and costs to date with them.

Thanks

It seems to me (given your answer) that you are happy with the welding and respray and if they are top notch, plus the supply of the doors etc then, yeah, I can see where they get that figure from (I wish I could have made that sort of money when I was repairing old VWs)
Looks like your beef is with garage A, I don't know what the hourly rate is for garage work these days ( I live in Australia) but say £100 per hour, then nearly 60 hours or a week and a half for one guy to only work on your car, 5 hours to hang a door, 10 hours to modify bumper, 2 hours for the service, if they are taking this long then you'll be right to question their skill level and should you be paying top dollar for it, If it was me, I would remove the car, refuse to pay the remaining amount, find someone who knows what they are doing and get them to do it, either that or go to halfords, buy a tool kit and get your hands dirty, All the hard works been done

£500 storage, no wonder they were taking their time .

I've just gone through the invoices from "Garage A" for the reassembly costs and they are totalling 72 x hours work! ( @ £65 per hour ex VAT )

were you wearing your jacket that says take me for a ride on the back?

Well we had some email exchanges today, I had offered to discuss the invoices with him and the outstanding work when he is available next week but he kept asking for 50% of the latest invoice. I told him to stop work until we had our discusssion to which he then replied that I had 7 x days to remove the car and pay 50% of the latest invoice or I will be incurring storage costs. I replied asking why we cannot discuss it and got 1/2 a page essay back about having to pay bills and overheads of running a garage and in a show of good faith to cut the latest bill in 1/2 but it needs to be paid by the 1st August! and if I do this then he would like to complete the car for me as it would be a shame not to complete the project...

Are you saying, he offered to cut the latest bill in hlf and then he will carry on with the refit and then bill you again for the final amount, I'll garantee that he will put that %50 discount on the final bill, I would seek legal advise and get your car out of there,

P.S NAME AND SHAME!!!!!
P.P.S surely theres a TIPEC member nearby who can help with the refit

OK - not sure if anyone has been in similar circumstances before but he is saying that the bill needs to be settled in full before I can collect the vehicle.

Obviously he is holding all the cards here and I'm pretty much stuck without my car - I've checked the law in the UK and he is legally entitled to hold the car in lieu of payment.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consu ... ar-repair/

Thanks

Pay the bill and take him to court. After that name and shame him.

I think he needs the money

Take cash offer 50% in the right hand
And have a filled out county court form in the left as leaversge

Bet he will take the cash option