Bongo Fury

Hi all,

After a rather wallet-punishing MOT which required a lot of sill welding, it was also revealed that my factory arch covers were also hiding a load of rot and some rather crusty arches.

I would like to get them repaired and wondered if anyone had any experience of somewhere in Bristol to get my arches repaired and can offer any recommendations?

My Bongo had the sills repaired by ADS Automotive in Bristol and the welder (who was probably a bit sick of all the welding he had to do mine to get it through the MOT) recommended Jake's Autobodies on Hartcliffe Way but I don't know much about them.

As long as they can do the repairs effectively, I'm not that fussed (read: cannot afford) with getting it all resprayed nicely but it would be good to go somewhere local where they have the experience of what needs to be done.

Thanks!

Best repair is to replace rusty arches with new arches. Having them patched and filled is, as somebody else put so well, like treating gonnoreha with aspirin. Merc sprinter arches work well. Readily available, also from forum member Kloonsy.
Dont know Bristol bodyshops but expect to pay £500-£1000 for both sides, depending on the quality of the work and how much they want the job.

You could always give it to the Bristol dealer, who would put a reflector on the rusty arches for you. Seems to be good enough for him to self them on!

roosmith wrote:You could always give it to the Bristol dealer, who would put a reflector on the rusty arches for you. Seems to be good enough for him to self them on!

I better invest in some sparkly cushions and remember to always leave my headlights on while I'm at it, then!

After spending so much to get the sills repaired, I'm prepared to have new arches welded in to get the job done properly but the additional costs of respraying are a bit beyond my budget. I want it to be solid first - pretty later!

As we all know, there are no shortage of Bongos in Bristol. The ones that aren't rusty (or being flogged by con artists) must be getting welded up somewhere...

Paul Horsfall supplied these pictures of doing such a job, click the thumbnail below for the full thread;

Thanks g8dhe. I'd love to have the skills to repair the Bongo myself, and to the standard that Paul has achieved. Is he based near Bristol?

Well he is in Hampshire, self-employed normally found at one of the garages that way that deal with Bongo's and similar!

Just to follow up on this from ages ago.

Had my old arches cut out and changed for Sprinter arches and some paintwork done by Jake's Autobodies in HoneyField Business Park on the Hartcliffe Road.

They were recommended to me by ADS in Bristol (who I'm sure many of you are familiar with), so know Bongos well.

They seem to be very busy with big contract stuff so I had to be patient with when they could fit in the work, but I was very happy with what they completed.

They added an inner arch and undersealed properly, so fingers crossed the repairs last a long time.

Thanks for the update, really useful for us round here.