Often we read people asking for recommendations for a bodyshop on here, and more than often this is normally followed with the phrase 'local to me'
Well, I'm in a very fortunate position to live near some of the best Transporter businesses in the country, but that should really be irrelevant because these things are not just a daily driver, or a runaround. You should be prepared to hunt out the best businesses and to travel if you want what everyone else raves about. Businesses like Bognor Motors, Transporter HQ, Absolute Audio, VW T5 Upgrades and many others that get constantly mentioned on here and loads of other forums or social media. These businesses get this respect because they aren't just a garage, or a parts website, or a bodyshop. They are specialists that have a passion for Volkswagens and more importantly they understand the way we are about what everyone else just thinks is a 'van'
I've been using the same bodyshop since I left school, and most of the paintwork on my van was done by these guys, but during this last year, Covid has hit them hard and they still have their staff on furlough and their oven hasn't heated up for almost a year.
So twice now, I've had to use a different shop, and for me and my paintwork it's not easy to trust a job will get done to how I want it. This isn't because a different bodyshop would do a poor job, it's more because many bodyshops are used to doing 'just' the job required, nothing more. You damage a wing, they repair and paint a wing, you damage a bonnet, they repair and paint a bonnet. Nothing wrong with that, this is just how this industry seems to have gone with the constant squeezing from insurance companies giving unrealistic timescales and no extra budget for 'anomalies'
This is where you need to be using businesses that are highly recommended, because they don't charge extra for the 'anomalies' They already know through experience that painting a wing might need the door blowing in to match the paintwork, painting a bonnet might need the wing tops blowing in to match the paint (you get my point) So they've already anticipated this and added that to the overall price, which by the way, doesn't automatically mean they will be more expensive.
It goes without saying, that Paint-worx Loughborough do the job right, actually 'right' is the wrong term, because that implies that everyone else does it wrong, when they don't. It's better to say the team at Paint-worx know we can be fastidious and they naturally work to that parameter. Not as a one off, but as a standard. You only have to take a peek at their Instagram to see they've been instrumental in some of the most famous show vehicles in the scene, both here in the UK and in Europe.
My van was in for what I'd call maintenance paintwork, but that's not strictly accurate. Being low has drawbacks
as is obvious. One of these being factory front mud flaps don't work because they just drag along the floor and that novelty quickly wears off. So if you want mud flaps to hopefully stop some of the potential damage caused by our delightful roads, you need to look at aftermarket. Sadly the front flaps I had were definitely not suitable, and they still caught on driveways or speed humps. This in turn, makes the flaps move around and that in turn removes any paint in contact with the flaps, down to the bare metal. Also, if you combine a front flap with the extra door seals we all know and love, the adverse effect of this is stones get jammed between the seal and the flaps, and this destroys the paintwork inside the door shuts and mine were terrible. This is why my van was in the bodyshop.
Paint-worx not only removed both doors, so they could paint right underneath the doors, also allowing plenty of access to the door shuts, but they also repaired and painted a deep scratch on the top of my door caused by me catching it with an airline by mistake. I never asked them to do this because all of the actual flap problems were right at the bottom corner, nothing too obvious, but the thought of bare metal is enough to need it fixing.
I didn't ask them to repair a few other chips and scratches on the other door, but they did because why wouldn't they.
This is the second time these chaps have worked on my van and both times they've done way more than I expected, all within the price they quoted. I have a strong moral loyalty to certain businesses that I've used for years, and my original bodyshop is one of those. But I might just keep letting Paint-worx Loughborough do the paint work on my van, and my other bodyshop can do my 'runarounds'
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I know my reviews and generally my answers within the forum can go on and on and on, but it's the only real time my brain gets exercise and I genuinely enjoy reviewing good businesses with a little more detail.
Good luck!!
