OUR INDUSTRY LEADING SERVICES
From minor dents to the total replacement of a Lotus Elise chassis, The Beaconsfield Workshop’s bodywork skills know few bounds. What highly-experienced panel beaters Martin Hawes and Leigh Birch can’t purchase off the shelf, they have the skills to manufacture from scratch. Craftsmen of the old school, for them every job is a labour of love.
Head painter David Redrup is as comfortable re-creating the finish on a vintage Bentley as that of a contemporary Continental GT – The Beaconsfield Workshop has the knowledge to refurbish cars of any era and make them as new. Said David: ”Most modern bodyshops are satisfied with a few coats of paint and a finish straight from the gun. We add sufficient extra layers to allow for lots of hand finishing, which is what makes our work a cut above the rest.”
A pastime that began in the ‘30s and was made famous by the Californians of the ‘50s and ‘60s, customising lives on in a different form these days, and many wealthy owners of current performance and luxury cars are prepared to invest in body and/or paint upgrades to place their own stamp on their pride and joy. Such tasks are meat and drink to The Beaconsfield Workshop that’s expert at re-forming bodywork and the colour coding of all surfaces from steel to fibreglass and plastic to aluminium.
The South-East of the country is a hotbed of collectors’ cars of all ages, many owners of which beat a path to The Beaconsfield Workshop for minor or major restoration work. Substantial rebuilds of recent times have included such period gems as the Gulbenkian Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith that once transported the Queen through the streets of Nigeria, a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III Continental, and a Jaguar XK150, plus a far more contemporary BMW E30 M3 Evolution. No job is too large or too small for The Beaconsfield Workshop, and no challenge too much trouble.
Most bodyshops shun fibreglass-bodied cars as they don’t have the requisite knowledge or understanding of the material. The Beaconsfield Workshop has both, which is why it is one of only 6 Lotus-approved body repair shops, to which the Lotus fraternity understandably travel long distances to take benefit from. Owners of TVRs, Ginettas, Marcoses and even a Gordon Keeble are among those to have beaten a path to the company’s doors for the same reason.
It makes sense for owners of recent Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars to have them maintained within the franchise. But once they are out of warranty, the expense can be hard to justify, and most people then prefer to rely on a more cost-effective garage with whom they can create a long-term relationship. The Beaconsfield Workshop boasts many such customers, for whom they can handle any requirement from general servicing and maintenance to major overhauls. Expect to see everything from a Bentley MKVI Special to a Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph being attended to at The Beaconsfield Workshop, where ‘the possible’ is the norm and the ‘impossible’ merely takes a little longer!
This service is headed-up by Chris Marriott, who was sired by a motoring journalist and cut his automotive teeth with such main dealer operations as West London Audi and Hofmanns of Henley. All key detailing options are offered, based around the following three packages:
- Wash – for cars that have already been ceramic coated or would just benefit from a great valet
- Enhance – for new or nearly new vehicles that suffer from light swirls etc
- Correction – for cars suffering from more major defects
A wide choice of ceramic coatings is also offered, along with the application of paint protection film. The company even markets its own range of hand-picked detailing products to allow its clients to prolong the effect of the work carried out.
The Beaconsfield Workshop’s staff have several decades experience of the car market, and its extensive range of contacts allows the company to source pretty well any type of vehicle to order, be it new or used and classic or modern. It will also handle all aspects of the sale of anything from the smallest Volkswagen to a Rolls-Royce Seraph. All sale cars are prepared to the highest standard and marketed via the full gamut of appropriate channels, allowing owners to avoid the hassle of readying and advertising their cars and then having to deal with potential buyers.
As part of The Beaconsfield Workshop’s declared role as a one-stop automotive shop, it also has an in-house finance arm. Primarily created as a facility to support the company’s car sales department, it can in fact source competitively-priced funds for virtually any requirement from boats to aeroplanes, and even business ventures. The complete suite of products can be fully tailored to each customer’s requirements and provides access to over 65 lenders.
