Festive Opening Hours

(Cue annual joke).

Not long now till blokes start their Christmas shopping so thought I’d better get our opening hours up and out!

Naturally your booking app will mirror.

Saturday 23rd: Closing at 12 noon.
Sunday 24th: CLOSED.
Monday: 25th: CLOSED.
Tuesday 26th: CLOSED.
Wednesday 27th: 48 HOURS NOTICE.
Thursday 28th: 48 HOURS NOTICE.
Friday 29th: 48 HOURS NOTICE.
Saturday 30th: Closing at 12 noon.
Sunday 31st: CLOSED.
Monday 1st: CLOSED.
Tuesday 2nd: BUSINESS AS USUAL

Thank you again for storing with us and we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Photo credit: Fellow owner Harry out in the ‘Offender’ – 2 trees, as you do.

2023, the year that was.

Grab a mulled wine and pop Bublé up a notch as we review the year that was.

It's been fast, sometimes it's been furious but 2023 has been a vintage year for GQ and we would like to thank each and every one of you for trusting us with your pride and joy or project, including the most recent owners. Take a sneak peek at our new arrivals in our Q4 Movers and Shakers.

Looking back over the year, it’s been a real rollercoaster for many. Climbing Interest rates, financial forecasting doom and gloom and people getting nervous about the future, myself included – thankfully I don’t think I can lose any more hair!

I am a great believer that if people look at the tree they will hit it. Which is why I likely started all the newsletters attempting to spread positivity. “Make the future happen”, a fellow owner once said to me this year, I really liked that sentiment.

So, we rolled the dice and things progressed a little further; more ramps, fresh blood, a scheduling app, enhanced security and you guessed it – yet more insurance. It has also been a year where we stuck to our principles. If we speculated too much, it would compromise what made you trust us in the first place – simply caring correctly for your cars.

Firstly, a love story for the ages. A connection between a man and his MR2. When the MOT failures could have been longer than Santa’s naughty list, some may have lost their nerve. This edition of What’s on the ramp? is a testament that love goes beyond all boundaries. So it was up to us to be the guardians of this re-found love and uncover if she was a keeper. No pressure!

From there I finally traded my 20-year city life for a new desk – the hot desk next to you. (Photo below) Or more affectionately known as Sid.Oh, and Sid also now has a stepbrother, Eric. Who drinks E5 – Le Mans Blue photo below.

Next up is a demonstration of our carbon fibre repair service. When an owner of ours had an unfortunate meeting, and it wasn’t via Teams. Whoops! is our latest story of how we repaired what many think is irreparable damage. Avoiding a replacement part from the dealer which is more often than not either NLA or even better, more cost effective.

From bodywork repairs to your daily driver, we have been helping you with it all. As one owner took his 911 for a spin, we took the opportunity to give his daily some much-needed detail therapy. Day in the Bay covers a reminder not to ignore your workhorse as we address swirls, scratches and dents, all while you are out having your oat milk latte.

As the year wraps up, so do the presents. And this year we decided to start saying yes to those of you who wanted a more enjoyable way to sell your car, often with first refusal to buy back. Check out our Stocking Fillers, is there any room left in yours?

That just leaves me to share our Christmas opening hours and thank you once again for your trust this year, it has been an absolute pleasure supporting you.

So, from myself and the whole team here at GQ, enjoy your newsletter and have a very Merry Christmas.

Hot-desking, GQ Style!

Day in the bay – detailing the daily!

I’m just as guilty – we all pamper the Garage Queen (GQ) and neglect the daily. Or another common one we tell ourselves, “I’ll do it in spring”. We all know that the truth is, most of the damage is done during the winter so we should really be correcting and protecting now!

Our PDR process in action (paintless dent removal).

This post covers the sensible owner of a lovely 997 911 who, during a recent switch, asked us to wave the magic wand over his V90.

Despite the family battle scars, and the fact it’s not an F40, these are among the most satisfying jobs of them all. Throw in a time limit, as you are typically only out for a limited window and the pressure is on!

“I’m back Wednesday, think you could turn it around?” Love it.

Firstly, you can’t just take a polisher to a panel, there are multiple stages of decontamination and paint depth measuring before any machine work takes place. However, we can skip all that as we have covered all that previously.

Top tip, you get more bang for your buck the less you spend. For example, when machining, it’s natural for a detailer to want to remove the scratch and often we take a second pass simply because we can’t help ourselves! This works particularly well when it’s the daily as the bar tends to be lower so our recommendation is our enhancement detail.

As you can see, Torvill and Dean had been to town on this one, there were half a dozen dents and door dings, all coupled with 2 or 3 deep county lane scratches down the N/S. Almost sounds like a bush tucker trial!

Half and half as we help illustrate the impact mid process to the owner.

Given the PDR and curing time on the coating, we actually did this across 3 days. But with a bit of luck, we have been known to complete it in two. I didn’t actually capture shots of everything the enhancement package covers, but the whole car was addressed including the interior, boot and engine bay.

So, if you feel like giving your daily some much-needed TLC, we would love to help. Here’s a link to our detailing packages for more info or just hit the button below.

What's on the ramp?

You know the feeling – It’s Saturday evening, you’re a bottle of red deep, you’ve completed your Auto Trader saved searches and ended up getting lost in Sweden on Collecting Cars.

That’s when it happens.

We’re talking lightning bolts. The sound of angelic harps. When everything else in the room fades away. …and there she (he/her/him) is, your first real car and you’ve got to have it.

I’m not sure if I’ve just aired my typical evening routine but I suspect this is likely what happened to this fellow owner when he spotted his one true love. A Toyota MR2 on eBay.

It’s the perfect Saturday night surf. Two seats, mid-engine, 80’s vents, spoilers, pop-up headlights, you name it. As if all that wasn’t enough, the owner only had a matching spec example in period! Original photo of a photo above. (If you don’t know what that means you should stop reading now).

Another glug of Cab, a click later and she was his.

A week or so later, I get the call, “I’ve done a thing”. Or words to the effect. I’m not sure who was more excited at this point…

Once I got the car on the ramp I could see what we were dealing with and I suspect the previous owner had been a tad creative with the last MOT.

However, the mileage stacked up, the service history was good and there were a fair few spare parts. But the ace card was the doppelganger colour combo which simply pulled every nostalgic string possible. So, we got to work.

As with any car, we discussed the pros, cons and options at length. This stage went on for 3 months in fact. Finally, we align that we’re not aiming to hit Pebble Beach on this one. Simply to recapture nostalgic heyday memories, safely.

What a lovely brief.

I rather like starting with an independent pre-MOT in case we have missed anything so we settled on stage one being an underside refurbishment and general restoration.

The rear of the car had previously been worked on so we inherited a style which helped answer further considerations and kept it easier on the wallet. A real rabbit run can happen under here but most of the bushes were OK so some areas could remain for another day. Post scary stuff came the making good and or replacement of the suspension components and brakes.

One clean MOT pass later and our work here is done. When I say done, I mean nowhere near done. We will now be moving onto the bodywork which I’ll share with you in another instalment.

See you next Saturday!

A few candid photos of the exact car the owner had in period – if anyone knows of it’s where abouts please reach out.

The authenticity of a photo of a photo – also helpful wheel reference for upcoming referb.

Whoops!

We’ve all been there.

That crunching sound and your heart sinks. You brace yourself as you tip-toe around to check the damage. And that’s when it’s your turn to be hit, arguably the harder part to deal with.

“Can you help”, you ask. I scratch my head and think, you know what, I know just the person. And while I would love to say I set out to offer these supporting services, the truth is – you have created them.

It seems that, upon reflection, we have become the go-to for many such solutions, what started as a guide of who not to use, has morphed into “we can do it better”. Our priority is always to give you the best, so when we saw substandard work elsewhere, we expanded our offering.

In many cases, these parts are NLA, so from progressive 3D printing techniques to more traditional crafts persons, please welcome a new blog series called “Whoops!”

In this case, a 360 fibreglass bumper had an unfriendly meeting with a bollard. The fibres of the material aren’t for your average smart repairer, it’s a really specialist job, and it needs specialists to do the work.

Even if you can find someone that can work with fibreglass, most mobile works trip themselves up when it comes to the spraying. However, we have our own ventilated tent which we are able to work inside - it’s pretty standard but has since formed part of our recipe. The photo gallery below will show you every step of the process and how we avoided a huge bill-shaped headache.

It goes without saying that if you ever find yourself in a situation like this, even the odd scratch and scrape to chips and dents, we would love to help. Click the link below or drop us a line to find out more.

Movers and shakers Q4

The warmest of welcomes to our newest cars and owners – thank you for your trust and welcome once again.

Local experience – Hot Numbers

I say local, it’s a 25 minute cruise from the Ware facility and 45 from the Epping branch. However, make sure you come off the A10 soon as pos and take the scenic route up via the B1368. Will see you meandering through lovely villages and out into national speed limits - rinse and repeat as you wish.

The roastery comprises a cafe, bakery and coffee training facility. It has a kind of a rural Shoreditch feel to it with reclaimed furniture and creative folk with facial tattoos pouring your drinks!

So, what better excuse do you need to grab your car? Could even make a day of it and head onto Duxford Aerodrome.

Hot Numbers Roastery - Shepreth
Wrights Mowers,
Dunsbridge Turnpike
Royston
SG8 6RB

Top Tip; they open at 7AM so if you want the B1368 all to yourself you can get in and out before the milkman!

You’re welcome.

Changing hands

The concept of something being available off market first came to my attention back in my commuting days. An E36 M3 (surprise). The owner used to park up each day in a different M Car and head off past me on the platform and into the First Class carriage. I couldn’t help myself but speak with him. (No, it was’t Richard).

You can probably see what’s coming here.... It was a black on black Evo Coupe without the boot spoiler. The whole experience was calm, gentlemanly (if I’m still allowed to say that) and well, easy.

Fast forward 20 years, I still have the car (now affectionally know as ratty) and I find myself being able to offer a similar experience to other GQ Owners.

So, below you will find a selection of examples from fellow in store owners that I haven’t gone to market with, yet.

So, if anything catches your eye feel free to give me a call or ping and I’ll set up a video call or coffee.

1989 Porsche 928 S4 Auto – Genuine Porsche Cup 1 alloys, body-coloured teardrop mirrors and rear spoiler inspired by the later GTS. Full black leather, Porsche 3-spoke leather steering wheel.

1981 BMW E24 635CSi Auto – not seen one in this hue; Saphirblu-metallic with black leather. A useable example providing entry to the sharknose scene without costing an arm and a leg (excuse the pun).

Jaguar XK8 – a bucket list car he tells me. The owner often comes to the facility and we line his cars up while he takes a Le Mans start at them. Classic cream leather.

Audi TT 3.2 – A late 2003 example with black leather and an automatic gearbox. This particular owner loves these so much he has two of them and is lost for which one to part with.

VW Pheaton – A special story behind the specifying and single ownership of this 1 of 1 example. The husband and wife owners are looking for someone that understands the uniqueness behind them.

BMW M6 – Just serviced by us at BMW Sytner this nicely specified example is due up for sale as the owner has since left the country.

To find out more about any of the examples above or if you’d like us to keep an eye out for anything in particular please don’t hesitate to give us a shout.