Golden Gun Panelbeaters - Bad Experience

Golden Gun Panelbeaters in New Lynn, West Auckland sounded like a reputable workshop so I had my car towed there when I had my first collision in 2010. The man I was dealing with was Norm Shadbolt, as I later learned he purchased Golden Gun from its previous owners in 2007 and ran it since (as others say "Golden Gun ain't what it used to be"). I felt ripped off with the money I've paid and the service I've received, and decided to publish this article about my experience to spare others from going through the same.

The frontal collision damaged and bent the front of my BMW Z3 Roadster (radiator, bonnet, bumper, lights) but did not get to the engine. Repair involved replacing front part of right chassis rail and radiator support panel, straightening front of the chassis, and replacing some suspension components. There was also some door edge and hinge straightening to do from earlier minor accident, and removal of a key scratch.

BMW dealer quoted astronomical parts prices so to make the repair viable I've sourced, bought and imported all required parts from Germany myself. I've also located and purchased a second hand bonnet as per Norm Shadbolt's suggestion. Cost of Golden Gun's repair job alone was $7,100 inc GST.

Once the repair was completed, my car was towed straight from Golden Gun Panelbeaters to mechanic's workshop so that he could get it going. I was shocked to discover that the car still looked disfigured - panel gaps were tiny on one side, and over a centimetre on the other. It didn't look like a BMW. In fact I've never seen an old Japanese car with such disfigured gaps. The door hinge straightening was not done at all.

Once the car was mobile, I've taken it back to Golden Gun and gave Norm an itemised list of faults. Norm Shadbolt blamed the aftermarket lights (Google has plenty of photos showing their seamless installation) and his employee for misalignments and accepted the car back to remedy the problems.

Photographs of the car after Golden Gun Panelbeaters second attempt at repair are below. Panel gaps were slightly improved, but nowhere near even. While the door was closing on the correct angle, I discovered that this was achieved by disconnecting the upper hinge and leaving the door hanging on one hinge. There were also screws through bumper supports that should not be there at all. It was clear that no genuine effort was made.







Because Golden Gun Panelbeaters didn't do a proper job twice and have actually gone down the route of breaking things, I've concluded that going back third time would only endanger my car and lower my mood.

Instead I've taken my car to another smaller workshop in West Auckland. I paid $240 and the gaps were adjusted to be pretty much even, result shown below.



I will end with few more "highlights" from my Golden Gun Panelbeaters experience:

- Norm Shadbolt told me that Golden Gun can't repair the bumper, and that I had to purchase another bumper somewhere or find someone else to fix it. Norm explained that the bumper is missing a crucial support part. I knew that it had to have "gone missing" during the stripping at Golden Gun because I've personally collected all the pieces from accident scene. Norm assured me that it must've been thrown out due to being too damaged.

I found a company that does bumper repairs in Onehunga and decided to try my luck with them, and hired a van. As I was loading the bumper into the van, one of the Golden Gun employees said "you'll also need this bit" and brought me the "missing" support piece.

As I was collecting the bumper at Onehunga, the bumper repairer was surprised that I was carting the bumper around - "Golden Gun know about us, and we offer free collection and drop-off from workshops". Back at Golden Gun I asked Norm if he really did know about this company, and why did he not tell me about them? Norm said "oh yeah, but we tend to use different guys on the shore". Why was neither suggested to me?

- During one of the visits when I delivered parts I asked the man working on my car how long it would take to complete putting the car back together. Looking like he hated my guts he said "How long is a piece of string, mate?" and walked away.

- To prevent the battery from dying while the parts were being shipped from Germany I've installed a small mains trickle charger. Norm agreed to keep it plugged in regularly. From what I've learned later the charger was disconnected within a day and never plugged it in again.

- The photograph of this car suspended on the hoist has been featured on Golden Gun Panelbeaters web site - presumably to make it look like they have good expertise with European cars?