As you will no doubt remember from a previous post, Ruby met some very bad customers earlier this year who decided to give her a nice hair do. Ever since that time, I have been searching for the solution to rectify this situation, but to no avail. I've had quotes to have her 'restyled' (way too expensive), I've tried to get her some mascara (aka "touch up paint") - but it was the wrong colour, and I've even tried a bit of eyeliner (read: wax crayon) but I still couldn't find anything that remotely matched! Ken had a look under the bonnet at the colour code, but when he typed it into the search engine on the internet, her colour came up as 'gold'. Now, have a look at the picture on the left. Does that look like gold to you? I didn't think so!
So the next thing to try was suggested to me by the bloke at Kwikfit Hackbridge. He recommended going on yell.com to the 'find a part' section, type in what I needed, and wait for people to contact me. So I did. He told me that the industry name for this colour is 'cranberry', so I hopped on and advertised for a cranberry coloured 1995 Ford Escort bonnet. I got one response from a bloke somewhere 'up north', who said he had one, which he could get delivered to me in London for a total of £55 the whole lot. I double checked with him, "Is it cranberry coloured". "It's burgundy," he said, "that's the industry name for the colour". I pointed out that the burgundy coloured touch up paint was too red, but he positively assured me this is what I was looking for. I asked him if it was for a 95 Ford Escort - and he said it was. I was however still a little skeptical, so I asked for a photo but for one reason or the other he couldn't provide one.
I wish I'd insisted on it. I got the bonnet delivered to Ken's because I knew I would be away on the USA trip when it arrived, and plus, Ken would be installing it, so it made sense to have it delivered there - plus how was I going to get it from Jean's to Ken's - I mean, the bonnet would be the same width as my car, so it's not like its going to fit in the boot or anything, right?
This then is the background to Ruby's trip to Dr Ken's on Sunday..
We went for lunch first at our favourite place, the Toby Carvery at Epsom, and then it was back to Ken's to try and get the bonnet done before it rained. I drove Ruby around the back, Ken pulled out the bonnet, and we proceeded to take it out of its black plastic bubble wrap packaging. Oh it was so exciting, after so many months Ruby was going to look normal again, I could hardly wait. And then we saw it.
Firstly, the colour was wrong - well, actually, no, the colour was right - for what he'd said. Burgundy. Nothing like 'cranberry', and certainly nothing like Ruby. Crap.
Secondly, there were 2 dirty great big (and deep) scratches on the bonnet. Now I ask you, how can someone sell a replacement bonnet that clearly should be on the scrap heap? The guy obviously was dreaming - but then he's had the last laugh, he's fobbed it off on me.
But the final straw, the piece de resistance - its not even the right shape! It is soooo clearly not the bonnet of a 95 Ford Escort!
And because it was more than a month ago, I don't really have a leg to stand on with the bloke I bought it from, although I'm going to try my best - on the grounds it was 'not fit for purpose' - not a 95 Escort, and in poor condition. But I doubt I'll have much luck!
In the meantime, I took advantage of the opportunity to have a few other things seen to by Dr Ken... including puttying up the muffler (which actually is a brand new muffler, so I don't know why it has a huge hole in it), using the dent pull to pull out a few dents from the last time Ruby faced someone off trying to pass them on the narrow London roads (but that wasn't my fault, it was the other person's!) and have a few light scratches 't-cutted' off... thanks Dr Ken!
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