27/09/2026
My name is Gareth and I fix cars.
And sometimes, stuff happens, like a misjudgement in traffic, and thats what happened to Shannon's Fiesta ST recently.
A lucky escape however, as the crash bar did its job and there was no deformation of the chassis legs, it did make a bit of a mess behind the bumper and required a number of replacement parts and some close attention to detail to make it look like it never happened.
After a strip down and assessment, we replaced the crash bar, radiator surround, radiator, condenser, upper bumper panel, rad pack shrouds, replacement front bumper, front grille, lower grille, both headlights, a new genuine Ford bonnet, and Airtec Stage 3 intercooler .
There was movement on the NS wing which had to be addressed before aligning the new bonnet.
The new bonnet was prepared and primed with Novol 385-00 epoxy primer before the seams were sealed, and then painted inside and out using Mipa basecoat and Novol 560 clear.
Spray out cards were used to determine the correct shade and number of coats required to achieve the right opacity and match as closely as we could without blending adjacent panels.
After reassembly and final gap tweaking, some quality control on the bonnet to refine the finish and remove any defects found.
The eagle eyed will note I didn't completely cover the primer inside the bonnet- Neither did Ford, so we replicated that.
Any bolts disturbed were also touched in afterwards.
As a little treat, her partner Stephen treated her to the BC coilovers she had been after for a while, alignment done post fitment and finally, a replacement sunstrip.
Getting this car back to a high standard was no issue, paintwork and repairs has always been a part of what I do, and if I'm going to do it, I'm doing it properly.
She was over the moon when she collected yesterday, its heart breaking having a mishap in your pride and joy and fortunately we were able to help here, keeping the cost sensible and replacing parts with new where we needed, and some good quality used in the mix, which is good for the environment, right?
Shannon and Stephen are both lovely people to do work for as you know its always appreciated, thank you again to both of you for letting us look after your cars!
