578 replies to this topic

[Ben_O]

Mill Road garage in West Wight is a small independent garage that undertakes general mechanical work and repairs, MOT's and has a body shop with spray booth.

 

I have just been employed by Mill road garage body shop as a panel beater to join the existing painter/panel beater and we are keen to run it as a classic car restoration company.

 

We both have lots of experience with Mini's and enjoy working on them so the body shop would primarily specialize in the restoration of classic mini's

 

As we are on the Isle of Wight, we understand that this limit's our customer base somewhat so are discussing a collection and delivery service from the mainland. we would also plan to visit the car in person prior to this to prepare an estimate.

As well as this, the whole restoration process would be documented here on the forum in the projects section so that the customer can see exactly what is being done and this would be updated daily.

 

We can offer anything from a few small repairs to a major restoration and everything in between. Our painter can offer partial re-sprays right through to full resprays in standard colours or full custom paint jobs.

 

I take a lot of pride in my work and would treat any car as if it was my own and no detail would be left out.

 

We will be offering a payment plan so big jobs would be split down into sections and each set of jobs would be billed as they are completed to ensure that the customer is happy with each job as the restoration is carried out.

 

This is still very much early days. we have the premises, the facilities and the staff but just need the work to get it off the ground.

 

If anyone is interested in discussing any work or has any suggestions then please do get in touch.

 

I will update this thread as things progress and hope to see some of you soon

 

All the best 

 

Ben 

Mill Road Garage

[Ben_O]

Here are some photos of some of the work carried out at Mill Road garage Body shop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ben

[Montytom]

Good luck with your new job mate.

Is this the garage opposite the garden centre heading towards Totland?

I only ask as I used to deliver Tesco shopping and a unit had austin rover signs up

[mk3 Cooper S]

Are you quoting by photo's or planning to view work to give an accurate price?

[Ben_O]

Good luck with your new job mate.

Is this the garage opposite the garden centre heading towards Totland?

I only ask as I used to deliver Tesco shopping and a unit had austin rover signs up

No, it's not the one mate. we are in Norton Green just up the road from there

[Ben_O]

Are you quoting by photo's or planning to view work to give an accurate price?

Initially, we would like to see photographs to give a rough idea of pricing but ultimately we can't give an accurate figure without looking at the car in person.

Obviously viewing a job in the Hampshire area is not much of a problem but the costs involved in travelling further afield to see a job with the possibility of the customer not wanting the work done once receiving the quote would be quite high so i think discussions with the customer initially to get a feel for what is required and taking a look at some photographs would give each party a good idea of what is going to be involved before we go and make a visit.

 

This won't be so much of a problem for customers who know their Mini and can photograph the problem areas but for someone who doesn't, it would be to easy for lots of quite major things to be missed in photographs.

 

We can always advise on how photographs can be taken and what we would like to see, even if we can provide a photographic list to show.

 

If it is going to be a full restoration for instance, then i think both we and the customer can pretty much expect the worst case and overprice the job accordingly and then make any necessary adjustments/reductions once we start to strip the car.

 

This is the idea behind the live build threads which will go into detail on each job so that everyone can see that we are doing exactly what we have quoted for unlike some who charge for panels/labour on parts that don't need any attention and just leave them.

[Carlos W]

Are you quoting by photo's or planning to view work to give an accurate price?

Initially, we would like to see photographs to give a rough idea of pricing but ultimately we can't give an accurate figure without looking at the car in person.
Obviously viewing a job in the Hampshire area is not much of a problem but the costs involved in travelling further afield to see a job with the possibility of the customer not wanting the work done once receiving the quote would be quite high so i think discussions with the customer initially to get a feel for what is required and taking a look at some photographs would give each party a good idea of what is going to be involved before we go and make a visit.
 
This won't be so much of a problem for customers who know their Mini and can photograph the problem areas but for someone who doesn't, it would be to easy for lots of quite major things to be missed in photographs.
 
We can always advise on how photographs can be taken and what we would like to see, even if we can provide a photographic list to show.
 
If it is going to be a full restoration for instance, then i think both we and the customer can pretty much expect the worst case and overprice the job accordingly and then make any necessary adjustments/reductions once we start to strip the car.
 
This is the idea behind the live build threads which will go into detail on each job so that everyone can see that we are doing exactly what we have quoted for unlike some who charge for panels/labour on parts that don't need any attention and just leave them.

Good luck mate. You've got your head screwed on so it should be great

[Ben_O]

Good luck mate. You've got your head screwed on so it should be great

 

Thank you Carlos.

 

Fingers crossed it will work. All it takes is one customer to kick things off.

 

Ben

[sledgehammer]

Good luck 

 

I hope it all goes well

 

also a good idea posting projects on here , everyone gets to see the progress & quality

[Ben_O]

Good luck 

 

I hope it all goes well

 

also a good idea posting projects on here , everyone gets to see the progress & quality

Thank you.

 

We are very excited about it and hopefully it will mean a new lease of life to the body shop there

 

Ben

[mk3 Cooper S]

PM me your email address and I will send some photos and details of the work required

[Ben_O]

PM me your email address and I will send some photos and details of the work required

PM sent

[Mini Manannán]

Good luck with the project Ben, you seem like right sort of bloke to kick some life into it

[mk3 Cooper S]

Photos sent

[Ben_O]

Photos sent

Just waiting for them to come through and ill take a look.

 

Thanks

 

Ben