Chch Panel beaters for restoration recommendations?

[sopachrga]

Hey All.

I've got an '84 AW11 MR2 which I'm restoring. It has a little rust a few dents and needs a full respray.

Has anyone in Chch got any experience with getting restoration work done and can recommend (or warn against) a local panel beater?

Thanks

[Al]

How deep are your pockets?

Iconic Restorations on Falsgrave Street are good

[RS13]

Don't use Hesson and Bowry in Addington.

[sopachrga]

How deep are your pockets?

Iconic Restorations on Falsgrave Street are good

Hmm, that may be overkill.

Price-wise, I'm expecting to spend between $3k-$5k. Does that sound about right?

[Dell'Orto]

Depends how rustfucked it is. 5k might do it?

[sopachrga]

Not too bad with rust luckily.
I’ll go get a few estimates this week and let you know what they say.

[Ismart120]

Don't use Hesson and Bowry in Addington.

Just checking, have these guys gone out of favour? I've had them recommended in the past so keen to know if I should look elsewhere

[RS13]

Yes. Personal experience with our wagon. Did such a shoddy job the first time (I've got pics), I had to take it back and get it re-done. Still not 100% happy with it. I was the same, had a car fixed there back in 2009 and they did a perfect job, but this time round it was completely half-assed. Not going back and wouldn't recommend them.

[Ismart120]

Yes. Personal experience with our wagon. Did such a shoddy job the first time (I've got pics), I had to take it back and get it re-done. Still not 100% happy with it. I was the same, had a car fixed there back in 2009 and they did a perfect job, but this time round it was completely half-assed. Not going back and wouldn't recommend them.

Shame to hear that the quality has dropped - I inquired about a job about 18 months ago but didn't find them amazingly helpful (thought the guy may just have been having an off day when I went for a quote) so went elsewhere at the time, but now I'll be even less likely to look there

[RS13]

The foreman seemed alright until I bought the car back, made me feel like I was being picky and tried making excuses. I wasn't being that picky either btw - when I got it back the first time there was a 5mm gap between the boot floor and rear panel (could smell fumes driving the car!), a tear on the boot floor where they'd pulled a crease out, gouges down to bare metal from the puller teeth.. just stupid sh*t even a basic quality check would have picked up. They'd offered to repair a few scratches on the rear left kit (which was accident damaged and getting painted anyway) as well for an extra $80, but when I got it back it was pretty obvious they'd just sanded them out and sprayed it, no contouring or anything so I've got an annoying sunken bit on the corner of the curve. When I pointed that out he tried telling me that I "only paid $80, what did I expect".. well you said you'd fix it, not half-fix it, so I expected it to be fixed! Really pissed off, the car was immaculate before the crash. Wasn't going back a third time, they've had two goes at it already so I'd rather just tell people to steer clear.. just because they're a "gold standard" insurance repairer doesn't mean they're any good!