Quote:
Originally Posted by Insome
Just a word of warning far as RAC. Everyone so far has said they're great, I'd disagree. Years ago when a truck decided to use my gc8 as a cushion my gc8 got sent to an RAC approved panel beater. Even after taking the car back to RAC and the panel shop, the back bumpers clear coat went to shit after a few months and the back door was never re hung properly. Even after chasing it up with RAC a couple of times, no joy. Good luck with your claim, maybe RAC are better these days.
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That sounds more like a problem with the repairer, and not so much the insurerer. Although RAC should have organised additional work if the original was shit.
I actually had quite a few problems with my repairer when my Foz was repaired.
Firstly, they didnt set the spot welds for the front panels correctly and i actually found the metal loose at some joins. I riveted it myself becuase i dont own a spot welding device.
They left the drivers side front subframe bolts finger tight. I did them up myself. Luckily it didnt fall off.
They left the power steering piping at the resivoir leaking, and not full. I fixed the leak and topped it up.
There were a few runs in the paining, and even visible unpainted parts. I dont much care as its very minor and you wouldnt pick it, unless its your own car.
Some of the panel gaps are artificially aligined by slight oval-ing of the bolt holes etc to allow the panels to sit nice together. I dont think there is much you can do for this.
There were a number of grille clips missing. Although these are a known problem on foresters and i actually keep spares of most of them.
But i didnt bother going back and whinging. Pretty much all that stuff i can sort myself. And i got them to paint my whole body kit (grille, front bar, headlight surrounds, side skirts, lower door panels, rear wing, 4 x pods, rear bar, roof rails and caps etc) in exchange for supplying (and converting to sti at the same time) all the front end parts needed for the repairs, including headlights which are expensive. I saved them a good few thousand in parts value, and they painted my entire body kit and made it so i didnt even pay the 500 excess in exchange. So im happy with that as far as an off the books trade goes.
I only found it as i pulled everything apart afterwards to check the quality of repairs. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND DOING THIS AFTER ANY PANEL BEATER TOUCHES YOUR CAR. Panel beaters are panel beaters because they lack the frontal cortex capacity to be a higher echelon motor trade. Its expected that they will forget things or bodge stuff. And they are under tight financial pressure from the insurance companys to meet the quotes.