C16RKC Daimler Super V8

[griffin1907]

oh my. Glad you're OK. We've all done something as a knee jerk reaction to later think "ermmmm, why did I do that" at least no one was injured.

(I've read the entire thread & only just noticed you're a Norfolk boy too !)

[neilb62]

At the end of the day you are upright and walking. Onwards and upwards and all that


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[CoOkIeMoNsTeR]

Sorry to read about this, the Jag was a lovely example and a credit to you. Don’t beat yourself up about your actions, if you’d have stayed on the road, more cars might have been involved.

It could be worse (here’s a laugh for you at my expense), you could have run an auto scan on your daily driver, say a nice white Audi SQ5 with a big towbar on the back and during that auto scan the car might test the acutation of the electric handbrake. While this is happening you might have the genuis idea of having the automatic gear selector in Neutral instead of Park for no readily apparent reason and you might not have your foot on the brake pedal because in your grand old age of 34 you’ve forgotten about the handbrake acutation test. The car then might, or might not have rolled down the drive and into the house with the aforementioned towbar puncturing a hole through your 3 week old front door.

The Jag may look worse, but your wife may have sympathy for you. Mine didn’t I also have some lovely pebble dash scars on the rear bumper that need painting. Fiddlesticks

[tommyboy40]

What a nightmare Chris. I can only echo what everyone else has said and be glad no one was hurt. Seeing the Jag like that breaks my heart!

[Andyblue]

Gutted for you, but you’re okay which is the main thing !

[Overdoser]

Glad you're ok mate.

[carrera2s]

Great thread and car, keep going its fab!

[slim_boy_fat]

Firstly, as the others have said ^^, glad noone inc you were injured

Originally Posted by c16rkc

as you say buying another car to fix would probably be a step to far... not sure what I'll be doing really.....

That quote to fix will be based on using all new parts - you could buy the 'remains' from the Insce Co for probably peanuts and repair for a lot less if you were of a mind to.

[c16rkc]

Good news this weekend!

I phoned the Kings Lynn body shop, as recommended, but alas they doo not want to undertake the kind of work my car needs. I think the problem is most body shops only want to do accident repairs for insurance companies; which consists of replacing bits and painting them. Car restoration, it a totally different type of work, so I needed a classic car restorer.

Saturday morning, I had two new bodyshops to try. This time both were small independants that had been recommended to me as better with my sort of thing. They were Pride and Joy in Wisbech (only 10mins from my house) and the Lutton Body shop in Lutton, near Sutton bridge.

I called both Friday afternoon, but could only get hold of Pride and Joy. The owner, Dave, said pop along in the morning and he would give me a quote. I was there at 08:30am sharp, when they opened Saturday morning, and met Dave and one of his lads, Calumn. They took a look over the car and we had a good chat. He was very pleasant to talk to, and gave me lots of confidence. He seemed to know exactly how he'd tackle everything and gave me what I considered was a very reasonable quote. He had another Jaguar X308 in the spray booth, was well as an American muscle car having a bare metal restoration, and an American stretch limousine!

Although Dave definitely seemed the guy for the job, I'm a fan of always getting at least 2 quotes, and this was my first successful one. So I decided to try the Lutton body shop too. It was just before 9am when I was finished, and I had looked on the internet and saw it opened at 9am, so I decided it was too early to call, but I would instead risk it and take a ride down there. It would be around 9:15am when I arrived; just right.

When I arrived I was surprised to see it was actually a small bungalow with sheds in the back and cars everywhere. They looked busy; though I must admit it did look a bit of a mess. It looked a little quiet, so I decided to give it a call.

A man simply answered "Hello", so I said "Is this the Lutton body shop?". He barked back "We're closed", so I apologised and said when were they open. He simply repeated "We're closed today" in a rather unamused voice, and added "We open Monday". Either he was taking the day off, or the opening times are wrong on the website. Either way I did not enjoy our brief conversation, and together with the messy yard I saw it did not fill me with confidence...

So I have no intention of having a quote from them...! I have no tolerance for rude idiots. If you don't want calls on a Saturday morning, don't advertise you are open on a Saturday, and don't use your home landline for business!

So Dave at Pride and Joy it is. I booked it in later that afternoon, and Dave has already taken the car tonight so he can start looking at it in the morning and make sure he knows what he is doing. Do you know what, one of his lads even opened the place up on a Sunday evening just so I could drop the car off and hand the keys over safely. Lets hope their work matches the pleasantries!

So I finally have my body shop sorted!!

The work will actually take place in January, so come February I should have a decent looking car.

Only bad things to report:

- The drivers side tyre has had a slow puncture, and I decided to top it up. Afterwards I could hear air hissing out... so I suspect there is a problem with the valve. I had to change over to the spare pretty quick.

- After the tyre was changed, a 'Suspension fault' light came on. This might just be because I jacked the car up, we shall see.

Thanks for reading!

[jbenekeorr]

Excellent. The people you have found sound really good so far. Looking forward to hearing how it progresses with them!