What made your day today?

[yippeekiay]

Ka is all done & dusted after a fairly big hiccup when I went to collect it on Friday. Not happy with what I saw in the least. Despite me saying don't rush on at least 3 occasions it looked very rushed. Very little attention to detail or care taken. The quarter panel repair was excellent but the rest was a shambles.

There was several extra scratches & small dents found, the paint was a terrible match, no, terrible is being polite. But the worst thing was that the interior was a bombsite as they hadn't cleaned all the damn dust out. As you can imagine I was pi$$ed off so I rejected it.

I couldn't believe the owner would present that $hitshow to a customer but I later found out he didn't do any of the work, at least that's what he said this afternoon after I saw the fantastic job in front of my eyes - I guess he let his dumb apprentice loose on it but he should have had the initiative to check it himself.

So, I just picked it up this afternoon & it was night & day compared to Friday - absolutely amazing work!!!! He'd redone the whole work, plus the extra damage himself over the weekend. My goodness it was so damn good. I'm beyond happy now & told him so along with asking why he'd let the last abortion happen.

Nevermind, it's done & here are some before, mid & after pictures of the damage (All pictures clickable for bigger view) k:

Damage;-



















The Repair Work











End Result;-



:happee:

And I just realised he took the new door I bought off, resprayed it, then refitted it better than I had :lol:

Car total cost is £3110 - nice :thumbs:

 

[John Woodward]

That looks really good now and excellent value.

 

[yippeekiay]

Thanks John, yeah, it seems the gamble may have paid off nicely. It will hopefully keep me mobile on the cheap for many miles & years to come k:

(Caveat - until I go and do something spontaneous & stupid :lol: )

 

[John Woodward]

It will hopefully keep me mobile on the cheap for many miles & years to come

Seems very good value and should give you many years of cheap service.
I've had one car for 16 years, most expensive repair was this year with the gearbox repair, but I've done 64K miles and it only let me down once when the rear beam axle rusted through and the wheel was at an alarming angle ! And being made of GRP (reinforced sills with steel box section) rust is not a problem.

 

[red]

that's a cracking little car for the price!

Hopefully the repair lasts nicely looking at the job! My wifes Fiat needs to be re-done as I think it was sprayed in a barn, lacquer peeling off and the colour appears to have been matched against it when it was unwashed :roll:

 

[yippeekiay]

Thanks Matt, can't complain :lol:

I lashed the inside of the repair on the quarter and the "B" pillar with Bilt Hammer Hydrate 80 last night, then slapped a crap load of Dynax UB wax over it and along the wheel arch edge from the inside too as the welding/pulling etc melted/burnt/split out the original sealer. I let it dry overnight and I'm going to strip off the interior boot panel today as I couldn't quite get full access to the repair near the fuel filler as I want to make sure I've protected the whole lot - belt & braces approach and all that :lol:

As per your wifes barn spray, the first attempt they did was appauling but as I said earlier the boss pulled a long weekend shift to make amends. It will hopefully last a good while but that is an unknown quantity.

Two of my neighbours came over last night when I was putting the protection on and they couldn't believe how good the repair/paintwork was. They didn't think it could have been done without a full quarter panel replacement - I told them that the price of JUST a new quarter panel alone without the cost to replace/refit & the rest of the work I wanted doing was £150 more than I'd paid for the whole job even incuding the stuff I paid extra for that I could've done myself :lol:

A few of the quotes I got said it couldn't be done without a new panel & they wanted 3 to 4 times what I paid. Trying it on is my guess or incapable of real bodywork repair themselves!

If you get yours redone, take my advice and take pictures of EVERY bodypanel etc around the car before it goes in. Then you have an exact record of how it looked before then after. Just in case k: And get lots of quotes, check reviews, look at any cars in their workshop etc for an example of their quality. I did all of this which was why I was so pi$$ed when I was confronted with the mess last Friday :roll:

:thumbs:

 

[yippeekiay]

Went to see my older sister & family last night. Ashamed to say it's the first time I'd been to their new house as they said they'd been in it 3 years

We were chatting & they (sister & brother-in-law) mentioned they'd bought themselves an electric bike each. Both were Cube bikes which went over my head. I asked how much they were out of interest as I was thinking of buying one myself - NO F'ING WAY!!!

They'd paid nearly as much as the total price I paid for my new Ka - £2800!!! - insane, mental, WTF - and that was EACH!!!!!! Mind blown!!!
They'd also spent a small fortune getting a bike rack & a tow bar fitted to their car to carry them :wall:

I just shook my head & told them they had more money than sense - bloody idiots. They are always good for a laugh :lol:

 

[yippeekiay]

Quickie - Took Ka in for it's MOT today, passed with no advisories. I was still worried what might come up despite it's low past use.

Happy it never had any hidden horrors underneath as I never checked beforehand - was hoping anything would come up in MOT, but didn't :thumbs:

 

[John Woodward]

That's all good news, should last you for many years.

 

[yippeekiay]

I'm easily pleased. Matt fixed the emotes so I'm over the moon :lol: :thumbs:

 

[red]

8) yep I had to modify the size of each one individually as they'd at some point been all set to 15x15px :fists: :bash: :type:

 

[Neil]

Just catching up on all the Ka posts - good choice Yip - far better than one of those pesky Fiat 500's :funny:

What made my day is finally getting stuff done with wedding planning. It's all feeling rather real now...

 

[yippeekiay]

Ka just had it's MOT done again. Of course it passed as I've done less than 250 miles since last years :lol:
I took it for a little run beforehand to blow off the cobwebs (literally :lol & did a mahoosive 17 miles before I got to the testing depot!!!

So much for me getting out & about more - the reason I bought & repaired the damn thing :shock: :hide:

 

[mix2000]

At least its safe for another 250 miles

 

[yippeekiay]

:funny:

It's weird I still worried about it not passing. I didn't say anything to the old guy when he came & said the car is done, I just stood like a clown waiting for the cert & staring at him like an idiot (although the girls in the office said he was a strange old chap :lol, at which point he said, "oh, certs on the seat, it's basically a brand new car isn't it" and I laughed embarassingly. That's when I checked the mileages - shameful :funny: :hide:

 

[red]

Has it actually broken 3000 miles yet

 

[yippeekiay]

Yeah, when I first got it on the road I did "quite" a few just driving around for no particular reason - as you do :lol:

Last MOT was at 3358, this one was 3604, so 246 miles difference. Would have been less had I not done the 17 mile "warm-up" before arriving at the test station :lol:

It's now on 3608, which I guess means I live 4 miles from it :funny:

EDIT: Couldn't be bothered digging out the old MOT's so just did a quick search online.
29.10.18 @ 1731m
05.11.19 @ 2187m
02.11.20 @ 2630m
Then;-
(I bought 24.07.21 @ 2794m, on the road first fill up on 01.09.21 @ 2795m as it was bone dry)
29.11.21 @ 3358m
13.10.22 @ 3604m

Seems I do less than the old biddy before me apart from the first weeks of novelty after getting the car :hide:

 

[yippeekiay]

Holy thread resurrection - just over 1 year since my last post.

Just got breakdown cover for the Ka - I wouldn't normally bother with it's age, mileage & how much I use it but with cashback I got National Recovery & Home Assist for £13.95. Would be silly not to for piece of mind at such a low price, even though I hate spending money.

Also renewed my insurance today as my renewal quote was only £3 more than last year. Could have gotten it cheaper (only with cashback) but to equal the the cover Aviva gave me it'd actually end up costing more overall elsewhere even taking off the cashback so that was a no-brainer too.

Renewal quotes usually end up pricey in my past experience but maybe that new rule has stopped it - where they have to quote same price as new customers.

Either way, Ka is taxed, tested, fully comp insured & breakdown covered for another year for less than £250
(Or in other terms, less than the cost of only 5 months tax on my damn RX8 )

 

[Cubatoo]

Holy thread resurrection - just over 1 year since my last post.

Just got breakdown cover for the Ka - I wouldn't normally bother with it's age, mileage & how much I use it but with cashback I got National Recovery & Home Assist for £13.95. Would be silly not to for piece of mind at such a low price, even though I hate spending money.

Also renewed my insurance today as my renewal quote was only £3 more than last year. Could have gotten it cheaper (only with cashback) but to equal the the cover Aviva gave me it'd actually end up costing more overall elsewhere even taking off the cashback so that was a no-brainer too.

Renewal quotes usually end up pricey in my past experience but maybe that new rule has stopped it - where they have to quote same price as new customers.

Either way, Ka is taxed, tested, fully comp insured & breakdown covered for another year for less than £250
(Or in other terms, less than the cost of only 5 months tax on my damn RX8 )

 

[Cubatoo]

Result!
Got my daily driver insurance for the same as last year, Direct Line.
Puma's went down due to 1 year no claims as It had been off the road for a few years before re insuring last year .
However, in general car insurance is going up so we did well!