So, my initial off the top of my head reaction that it would add about another £10k on top of the work and repairs I knew about/wanted done was about accurate. Looks like it will add about £9000 including the panels, labour and VAT extra for the repairs. I always add extra so I'd say it could be close to £10k. Beetween the repairs previously known, the unknown ones, my modifications and to get it ready for bodywork and paint its estimated for 280hrs of labour.
I still believe its no more expensive than re-shelling though. When you consider a decent shell will be about £5500-£6500k, it would then need stripped, blasted, coated and then would almost certainly require some rust repairs (could even be hiding bad damage or repairs if you get unlucky) plus the chassis modifications already carried out on my car.
How many different prices did you get for the work before it went to the UK? I find it hard to believe there is no-one where you live who could have done it. Seems you went from one extreme (local) to the other (in a different country)!
Quite a few, but I didn't go with the cheapest, I went with who I thought would do the best job, there were two more expensive, but there work was no better or worse. Just handing your car over to any shop without checking their work quality first is how you end up with repairs like those seen on mine.
There was a about 3 places who could have done the work here, one was about double the price, one I would have had to wait well over a year before they could even start the project and the other may have done a very good job for less cost but I couldn't be sure his work was as good, especially considering I have quite a lot of fabrication required with some of the strengthening mods I am having done. I think he was probably pretty skilled but his facilities were lacking a bit.
There were of course plenty of local body shops, but what you see on my chassis is what often happens when you get a normal body shop to do a restoration. None of them would have a chance of being able to do the panel work now required on mine, they would rely heavily on filler.
Its still the same country technically, just a different jurisdiction.