Stuart’s GoldWing Blog

Oh dear, hit a tree

In a previous Article on this Blog I wrote about my adventures using a motorhome as a base for GoldWing touring, towing the bike in a trailer in order to enjoy exploring the Alps or some other distant motorcycling area with the advantage of sleeping in your own bed every night.

Unfortunately my motorhome, a Hymer, suffered minor damage a while ago and I had to get it fixed.  The firm who did the repair, Motorhomes UK Ltd,  did such a good job at such a reasonable price that I thought they deserved a bit of public praise.

My “van” has a fibreglass moulding across the top rear and, not uncommonly with production mouldings, must have had an air bubble under the gel coat on the corner, where the underlying woven rovings had not been pressed firmly into contact when it was being constructed.  The result was a very thin and fragile gel coat skin over a hole which was prone to damage.  From feint witness marks near the hole it was probably contact with a tree branch which broke the gel coat “roof” of this hole.  Whatever it was it needed repairing.

Beautifully repaired

I took it to the Hymer Dealer and they quoted £282 but explained that they would probably not repair it themselves; they passed “small” repairs like this to a “specialist” outside firm.

I also rang another Hymer specialist, who had done a repair on our last motorhome, when the stump of a tree branch dug a groove in the side of the van as I turned too tight.  He filled and textured the repair to match the dimpled surface very cleverly indeed.  It had been an expensive repair (over £1,000) but the alternative had been to replace the whole side of the motorhome with a new skin, so I was more than happy.  This time,  without seeing the damage, he estimated £450.  Even allowing for the fact that he hadn’t seen the damage and might therefore be rounding things up a bit, this seemed expensive.

Proprietor Andy outside his workshop

My ever-useful friend Bill reminded me about MotorhomesUK Ltd, which specialises in repairing accident damage motorhomes and caravans, although they also do other bodywork and interior modifications and repairs.  Quite a lot of their work is done for the motorhome and caravan trade but their expert sprayers are pretty versatile and they painted my trailer to match my motorhome and Bill even trusted them to re-spray his bike.

Skilled contouring in progress

They operate from a large unit on an industrial estate in Bamber Bridge, near Preston, so only a few miles form my home.  Their quote was also less than half the Hymer Dealer’s, for whom it turned out they did quite a lot of body repairs.

I don’t know why I didn’t go the them in the first place – oh yes I do, it was the vague prospect of getting the repair done under guarantee by Hymer because it was a collapsed air bubble, which of course tunred out not to be covered. Guarantees aleways seem to turn out to be riddled with exclusions these days, although in this case there were marks suggesting physical impact, so I couldn’t really complain.

Behind the caravan is the huge spray booth and "cooker"

As you will see from the pictures Motorhomes UK did an excellent job.  You really cannot see where the hole was, nor any trace of the edges of where they re-sprayed with matching paint.  It looks just as good six months later.

Big workshop, plenty going on

Once upon a time oil-based paints were used for autorepairs but not these days, all paints are water based.  This makes them much safer to apply but they require “cooking” to cure, so specialist spray booths are needed.  There can also be problems matching colours but Motorhomes UK achieved a perfect match.

Premises in Bamber Bridge

The specialist nature of getting a good and durable colour match explained why the Hymer Dealer would have passed the repair on anyway rather than attempt it themselves; only specialist bodyshops have these facilities to do a proper job these days.

So, if you are unlucky enough to suffer damage to a motorhome or caravan, it will pay to shop around rather than accept the first quote and also to look around for a specialist repairer, like Motorhomes UK Ltd.  I was extremely pleased with the repair which Andy Degnen and his Team did on my Hymer.  It would be worth talking to them, even if you live some way away.

The quality of their spray painting work is first class.

Andy’s number is 01772 626908.