Ruby's Been Healed!

Finally!  Ruby has been healed!  And what a palaver that has been!

Basically, where I left you was that I had contacted a guy about buying a new bonnet, in the same colour, and then Ken was going to fit it.  The bonnet arrived, and Ken went to fit it - and it was the wrong colour, had a dirty great big scratch down it (worse than Ruby's already was) and wasn't even for the right model Ford.  I wrote back to the guy but he has conveniently gone quiet - so whatever you do people, don't use the Nationwide Car Repair people - they really suck.

So then Ken advised me to go down to the local body shop and ask them to do a 'blow-over' - but the guy quoted me £175 for that - or £20 for a pot of paint to do it myself - and then he couldn't match the colour!  So I was really starting to despair...

However Mat, my mate at work, had a brainwave.  He suggested that I ask Kirk, the fit young Jamaican school-keeper, to take the car to one of the body shops and try to pass it off as his own - therefore more than likely getting a better quote than I ever could.  Kirk actually went one better than this, he had a mate of his own who could do it for me!  Brilliant!

The quote was around £70 or so, which I thought was quite reasonable, and the only inconvenience was that Ruby was out of action for the best part of a week, as this bloke was obviously fitting her in in his spare time (a bit of pocket money for him, I guess).  I didn't mind (well only one day, but that was when there was a problem with the Tube) - and when you see the results, I think you'll agree with me that it was worth it.

Have a look for yourself:  here's the "before" shot:

And the "after" shot:

He's done a good job, hasn't he?  You can't see the scratch at all!  Thanks, Kirk (and Kirk's friend)!