Good to hear that Alex's 250SL is finally on the road to recovery!
It's been "in recovery" for some time, though AlexD's not been posting much about it...for those unfamiliar, the car was "T-boned" and aside from the obvious work there was a lot of effort in dealing with multiple insurance companies.
There are parallels to AlexD's situation and that of the original poster: looking for assistance, with body/paint work, initially at least, close to home.
If you recall the original photos, (posted a while back last autumn) the car needed significant mechanical work (including a new rear axle) along with the very obvious and significant body work. There's a well known and respected mechanical shop in the Triangle (Raleigh) area of NC I mentioned, A Better Wrench, that is familiar with this car and other older Mercedes and collectibles. They were able to handle all of the needed mechanical work. The body work was more concerning and less obvious as to where to go, similar to BHaps' challenge in this original posting. AlexD knew of some places in North Carolina that were possibilities but some were too busy (booked for six months to two years); some just wanted boatloads of money (a polite way of turning down work) and would not even begin to provide an estimate, or something else.
Alex knew and discovered some of these places by talking to those respected in the Mercedes community here. So AlexD was forced to cast his net a little wider than eastern NC and even past surrounding states. As a good friend he kept asking me what would I do and I told him to contact the guy and firm that has done work on my car after restoration (Satish Tummala of Motorwerksgroup in Commerce Michigan) Satish flew down to Raleigh, brought his camera phone and laptop, and in a matter of a couple of hours had all he needed to get an estimate together. In a reasonable amount of time after this, the mechanical work estimate from A Better Wrench was incorporated into the Motorwerks estimate and one of the most important parts of the entire debacle was solved: a single solid, trusted estimate encompassing all the work that could be presented to the insurance companies for settlement. It was and it was. One thing that was of concern was whether the car was going to need a complete re-spray or if just refinishing the affected body panels and adjacent panels would be sufficient. Nobody knew the answer to that in advance, but once all the body work is completed, a decision will be made.
That's not "project creep" but the ability to do a respectable job by ensuring it looks like no work was done. If you can tell work was done, well one may always regret not getting it re-sprayed. I've been in this position with Motorwerks twice (though not for crash work) and in both cases they did a fabulous job of blending. Nobody can tell what was fresh paint or that 20+ years old. Isn't that the goal with body work? To make it look like nothing was done?
AlexD was not going to take his car to just anyone and wanted someone he could trust both for mechanical work and for body work. It's all well and good to want a trusted mechanic and body shop in your backyard, but alas few of us are so positioned to have such luxury. One needs to use your network (including this and maybe other forums) often to uncover people and places that can help you. By using his network of friends and asking a lot of questions, he got the truth and found both. The car will be returned to AlexD in a condition far better than it was prior to the crash.
Motorwerks indicated that they could not handle the project until April, which allowed some months for the mechanical parts to be obtained, and the work completed. By March, this work was done, and the car was shipped up to Michigan. Within days after arrival serious work commenced. AlexD has been sent photos regularly and it's clear they are working on it and much progress has been made either in agreement with or ahead of the proposed timetable.
It's a shame that The Finishing Edge, while not exactly in the backyard of BHap, who once worked on Bill Sgros and Peter Lesler's cars, can't or won't work on cars like the Pagoda any more. I suppose you do what you can do to survive; only they know their business in their neighborhood. But it's disturbing that the owner, "Mike" chose to say "the
young guys don't want to work on the
old stuff. That's insulting to the young; it's HIS young guys. Some of the mechanics at A Better Wrench are clearly younger than our cars. I know the owner of Motorwerks, and he's younger than our cars, and his body shop guys younger than him! These two places, doing different kinds of work in disparate locations on 50+ year old cars, are doing fine work with people younger than our cars.
One may have a few stone chips on your car. Names, places and products have been offered here to fix stone chips on a Pagoda. You can fix these with products already mentioned just to do that. If you don't like the results of that (you will see a repair...) you need a pro. If you need to remove chrome trim and a windshield to do that, by no stretch of the imagination is that a "small job" and it won't be priced like that from anyone. For our adventurous and skilled members like Cees Klumper, this may be something he does in an afternoon. For the rest of us, it's take it to a trusted pro.
