Restoration shop?

[Deleted]

I have a MK II Coupé that I thought I should send to a first class restorer. Who is the best restorer in Britain?

Regards

Lars

[Phil Nottingham]

Not such thing - it is matter of who will do the job you want at the price you want to pay.

Its very subjective and you should seek several recommendations but you must be clear what work you do need doing and to what standard - not verything on a P5 (V8 B's especially) was first class.

You also want to find someone who knows about P5's and how they are built.

Waht exactly do you want doing

[Deleted]

Yes I know, thats why I looking for a restorer in Britain. We have a lot of very skilled restorers in Sweden, but they don't know anything about P5:s, I am looking for a P5 specialist. What is your opinion of Richard Spratley?

Lars

[Phil Nottingham]

I have never used him (or anyone else except for windcreen fitment) but he does know his P5's and he has done good body-work on some I have seen and I have heard more good reports than bad but you cannot please everyone.

He did the P5 3 litre convertible and I think the Kendal's 2 P5B cpupe conversion - both excellent but not original!

There is also Ely Motors - same comments

[Deleted]

Thanks Phil, I will ask them.

Regard

Lars

[roverp5b]

I saw Richard a few months ago, he said he has stopped working on cars and only dealing with the wheel re-furb's, he was doing welding work more towards the engineering sector. Sean.

[David]

David Green also restores Rovers - very highly regarded by folks on here.

[Deleted]

Lars,

I bought some wheels off RS of which one leaked. He is certainly very good but I was informed is difficult to control which can result in things taking much longer than expected and becoming more expensive. This is not an unusual problem wherever you have a car restored but becomes more difficult yet if you are not even in the same country.

If he has in fact stopped then you will be exploring other angles anyway. If you do use him I have a previous client who promised me he would get on his case for me if ever I had a problem.I could try and dig up this info again if you needed it.

Best of luck,

Peter

[Deleted]

Richard Spratley emailed me today to confirm he does no more Rover work, only wheels.

I had approached him about changing the sub frame on my car which would have given me some breathing space whilst I search for new garaging.

[Phil Nottingham]

I would definitely trust David Green then - unless you have pulled them apart you cannot understand how to put them back togther!

Was not ware he actually did this work

[Deleted]

OK

Thank you all for the information.

Lars

[jon]

I have had some of the best welding work done on cars that most other restorers would walk away from by Kevin Dent. He knows his bodywork and spends a lot of time getting the door gaps right. You only need to see the photos of the rust bucket cars that get sent him to appreciate his tenacity and undervalued skills. I am sure he will gladly email you some photos of his work. He may not be a so called concourse restorer, but he offers very good value for money and quite frankly after seeing £20,000 jobs done by other restorers, feel that these jobs were only worth half of that-at best. He must be ok as many traders use him such as Dave Green.
Also, he fitted a set of our UK manufactured door seals without any previous experience and they look almost original that no Australian seals will ever look like as the profile sections are not correct and they don't come with the rear door fillets. Each door closes with minimum effort -but this is down to Kev's welding and door gaping skills in the first place.

Try him Lars on 0191 377 3932

Jon-JRW