For anyone thats interested, I met this crowd today, at the Stoneleigh bash.
Although they were there to make money by re-gassing peoples systems, their advice was free, and I saw two instances where they turned down work, as they didnt think it would be in the customers best interests.
Case 1 was an E30 320i soft top, the advice was to change the drive belt ( owner reported noisy aircon).
Case 2 was my own E34 525i, 17 years old, covers less than 5000 miles a year, aircon has never worked since I've owned it, advice was not to bother, as they thought I didnt use the car often enough to justify the expense of getting the system working, and it was unlikely to stay working with the veryy little use it would get.
Honest advice indeed.
The company : Cool It, Four Barrows, Eweleaze Dairy, Dorchester, Dorset, DT2 9JN, tel office 01395 889843, tel workshop 01305 889234, It is run by two people, Noel Marsh mobile 07968 727095, & Alan Brown mobile 07971 890285.
http://www.coolit-ac.co.uk
Hope that helps someone.