Help! Need expert bodywork repairer for new Hymer (1 Viewer)

[ruthiebabe]

As a complete idiot I have reversed hubbie's car into my brand new Hymer. Damage might be relatively straightforward to repair (I hit wheel arch) but I want an expert assessment as I want to ensure there is no hidden damage and that all warranties are preserved. Have chatted with insurance who agree this is good plan, rather than them just appoint theirs.They are happy to take claim forward if I instruct them once I've got had quote. I am asking our dealer for their advice but correct person not available till Monday. Can anyone suggest how to go forward with this or give me any other tips and advice.

 

[Detnor]

A long way from you, but I've always found Ian Bowman at Cannock Resprays helpful and has a lot of Hymer bodywork repair knowledge, http://www.motorhomerepairs.co.uk , he may be able to give you some advice by email. Always difficult without anyone actually seeing the problem.

 

[psyfried]

Hi Peter Hambilton just outside Preston can recomend him

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[parknride]

As a complete idiot I have reversed hubbie's car into my brand new Hymer. Damage might be relatively straightforward to repair (I hit wheel arch) but I want an expert assessment as I want to ensure there is no hidden damage and that all warranties are preserved. Have chatted with insurance who agree this is good plan, rather than them just appoint theirs.They are happy to take claim forward if I instruct them once I've got had quote. I am asking our dealer for their advice but correct person not available till Monday. Can anyone suggest how to go forward with this or give me any other tips and advice.

Not near, but can recommend West Yorkshire caravans, they are appointed repairer for caravan guard.

 

[peterc10]

I have some accident damage on my nearly new Hymer so will watch this thread with interest

 

[Baldeagle7470]

Oh dear sorry to here you both have damage,hope they can be repaired swiftly and well executed.
Must be that Hymers prove a fatal attraction to cars!

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[Cal54]

YOu could try Crossley Coachcraft at Leyland. Not a million miles from you, why not take a loot at their webpage. Not used them myself, so can't comment on quality but been around a while.

 

[peterc10]

Must be that Hymers prove a fatal attraction to cars!

In my case it was a Belgian towing a large trailer who decided to reverse it into me whilst I was parked on a motorway Aire in Belgium. No towing mirrors ..... doh .......

 

[ruthiebabe]

In my case it was a Belgian towing a large trailer who decided to reverse it into me whilst I was parked on a motorway Aire in Belgium. No towing mirrors ..... doh .......

Commiserations. At least mine was my own silly fault....though I'm not sure which is worse as I have no one else to blame or claim on...

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[canopus]

No experience of this company but have heard that many motorhome dealers and insurers send their motorhomes here :-

http://www.motorhomebodyrepairs.co.uk

 

[Lenny HB]

A bl**dy great big stone seat jumped out and attacked me. A neighbour who has a boat maintenance/repair business is going to do mine.

 

[Larrynwin]

I will not remark or tempt providence.

Good luck each

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[bellabee]

Cannock Resprays are very good. They did some repair work on our Burstner, and I know that they do Hymer work too.
As a matter of interest, how do you go about ensuring that your warranty is preserved, following body work damage? It's something I've been wondering - just in case we damage our Hymer! I was never a Girl Guide, but I do like to 'be prepared.'

 

[laird of Dunstan]

@Lenny HB if you have all the parts of the bumper it can be fixed using plastic welding ,i had my own body shop business for 8 years ,i remember one saturday morning a customer picking up their car ,i had a short cue of people waiting so i attended to them,the customer with the repaired car came back a few moments later and i thought here we go they are going to complain about something ,the guy came walking up to me and asked me for another quote ,followed by the words "the stupid bitch has pranged the other side" it took all my self control not to laugh,she had managed about 20ft reversing before striking the only lamp post in the square.

 

[Robert Clark]

I have some accident damage on my nearly new Hymer so will watch this thread with interest

I thought that was meant to be a closely guarded secret?

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[ruthiebabe]

As a matter of interest, how do you go about ensuring that your warranty is preserved, following body work damage? It's something I've been wondering - just in case we damage our Hymer! I was never a Girl Guide, but I do like to 'be prepared.'

Bellabee, coincidentally that is just what I was starting another thread about, how to ensure I preserve my warranties is my biggest concern.

 

[MR. FUSION]

Maybe some reversing sensors and/or reversing camera for the car too. My car reversing sensors saved many a bash!!!

 

[peterc10]

I thought that was meant to be a closely guarded secret?

SSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHH

It was all the time we were away, because we were so annoyed it would wind us up even to talk or think about it. Now back and am having to talk about it to get it sorted!

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[peterc10]

Has anybody got any recommendations for a good GRP bodywork specialist in the South East??

 

[Lenny HB]

Has anybody got any recommendations for a good GRP bodywork specialist in the South East??

I can let you know how good my man is once he has done mine, he can't do it for a few weeks too much work with boats owners wanting their boats in the water at this time of year.

 

[Lenny HB]

@Lenny HB if you have all the parts of the bumper it can be fixed using plastic welding ,i had my own body shop business for 8 years ,i remember one saturday morning a customer picking up their car ,i had a short cue of people waiting so i attended to them,the customer with the repaired car came back a few moments later and i thought here we go they are going to complain about something ,the guy came walking up to me and asked me for another quote ,followed by the words "the stupid bitch has pranged the other side" it took all my self control not to laugh,she had managed about 20ft reversing before striking the only lamp post in the square.

It is GRP, damage is a bit worse than it looks as there is a split going right around to the wheel arch. Easy enough to glass the missing bit back in but it needs a lot of grinding out and Gel coat finishing and of course the Gel coat needs to be colour matched, so decided not to do a DIY job.

About time they bolted these concrete slabs down to stop them jumping out in front of us.

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[peterc10]

It is GRP, damage is a bit worse than it looks as there is a split going right around to the wheel arch. Easy enough to glass the missing bit back in but it needs a lot of grinding out and Gel coat finishing and of course the Gel coat needs to be colour matched, so decided not to do a DIY job.

Is it Gel coat? I was told that my Sierra Grey one was paint and not Gel coat.

 

[Lenny HB]

Is it Gel coat? I was told that my Sierra Grey one was paint and not Gel coat.

Don't have a posey grey one, nice bright white.

 

[Glandwr]

All the skirt level panels on my 2005 hymer are changeable with a screwdriver and/or pop rivet gun. Maybe check yours, easy for anyone with a modicum of practical ability. No need to traipse very far.

Dick

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[Lenny HB]

Front ends are one piece Gpr moulding these days, backward step.

 

[Glandwr]

Front ends are one piece Gpr moulding these days, backward step.

As ours, sorry my mistake I thought it was rear wheel arch.

Dick

 

[TheCaller]

No experience of this company but have heard that many motorhome dealers and insurers send their motorhomes here :-

http://www.motorhomebodyrepairs.co.uk

When I bought our van from the m/h dealer next door, these people did one of the mods to make the van interior more usable by someone with limited mobility.

It was only a small job, but it was done well & they thought about the best way to do it - improving on the original brief. I did get an opportunity to look round their workshop & they gave every impression of being a professional bunch who knew what they were doing.

They would certainly be on my short list.

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[ruthiebabe]

Update: ( and apologies that it's almost the same as on the other post about warranties but might be useful to someone)

This has proved awkward as Hymer don't appear to have a list of approved repairers and I have gone from pillar to post being given different advice - would you believe that all the Hymer dealers I spoke to said something different? Hardly with repeating all the different responses.

Basically it is looking like you need to ensure that the repair carries its own warranty as a Motorhome manufacturer may void their warranties if it is felt that a problem arising is traceable to the repair.

I preferred a repairer that we found but have in the end opted to use one of the insurers approved repairers. This was partly as it was going to be much quicker - our preferred repairer hasn't availability for a while and we'd also have to wait for approval from the insurers, then parts order which could put it back even longer. However any doubts about not knowing the repairer is perhaps offset by the fact that the repair is covered by the underwriters for as long as we own the van.

Luckily it probably looked worse than it is, with no breach of any of the panels evident, so hopefully this is a reasonable course of action. If the damage had turned out to be more serious I might have decided differently. In that scenario if I had chosen my own repairer I guess I would need to be confident about the warranty given on their work and that they weren't going to go out of business.

During the course of my research however I would certainly have felt very confident about DMR repairing it, though they are not local, or Adventurelv at Tebay (Airstream) who impressed us.

 

[StitchesnFluff]

Thanks for the update

 

[laird of Dunstan]

ive repaired a few bumper scuffs on MH,s trying to match the gell coat is a tough one,it may look like white but it contains other colours in very small quantaties

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