Localised paint repair

J

James_G

Member
 Guildford, Surrey
Not on my Z4, but alas, getting the GF's 125i out of the garage this weekend I see she's suffered some moron :evil: swinging into a space and clipping her rear bumper on the driver's side. No damage to the structure of the bumper, but the paint's been removed in two thin streaks, each about 4" long. Luckily it's Le Mans blue so it doesn't show that bad, but it's only done 15k and it's her pride and joy.

I don't think it warrants a bumper off job, so I am tempted to go down the route of a localised paint repair. I hear that ChipsAway can be very variable, as they are franchised, so has anybody got any recommendations for a repair in the Surrey area, centred on Guildford.

Thanks

James
 
The swines!

Depends how local you want... this lot are less than an hour away:
http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=14807

I put that photo up as they'd completed resprayed the front bumper - very good job too and not too expensive!

Just to add, for a 4" scratch I'd probably get the bumper done - I did with mine. How deep is it? Do you have pics?

Good luck!
 
Not meaning to sound negative on Smart Repairs, but I've seen some pretty bad work previously, so be careful who you use.
In a lot of cases where I have investigated it, its not been much more expensive to get a proper bodyshop to do the work.

I have a friend who runs a bodyshop and will usually respray a bumper for around £120. When you consider a bodge-job smart repair is likely to be £80 ish, I'd always rather just pay the extra few quid.

If your interested let me know, if your based in Guildford his bodyshop isnt far, only in Fleet. So he would most likely collect and drop the car off for you.
 
I would sooner get the whole bumper sprayed, you may even have to blow it in to the rear wings for a perfect job.

Saying that, the Chips away chap i know is very good and can blow in marks on bumpers as long as they are near the corner as its easy to hide repairs on rounded areas.

Cheers

PaulN
 
I'm with Elliott on this one and have little faith in localised paint repair. Although some have good experiences, ithas a place imho on low down out of sight areas, but for obvious areas, get the panel part sprayed and blended in properly. The volume of paint is usually thin and in areas where you polish and clean regularly it'll probably soon show.

Bumper off is usually 10 minutes work and not that expensive.

My wife damaged the X5 bumper and local bodyshop blended it in and a decent depth of paint and clear coat all while still on the car, for £50.
 
I know of a very good chipsaway type person in Norfolk - but would only ever use him to get a car tidied up to sell on. He does a great job, and you can't see the repairs - but when you see the same car in a year or so, the repair will be starting to show.
As said above, for a P&J I'd just pay the little bit extra to get the bumper sprayed properly. :thumbsup:
 
Not that you asked... but one thing about getting it sprayed properly (which was what my local ChipsAway guy recommended for something similar) if she has a lot of stone chips (possibly not at 15K) then it may be worth paying to get the whole thing done - shouldn't be too expensive. Main reason is that you can end up with say one third of the bumper looking pristine and the rest with nicks in it.
(I saw a post by someone who had done just part of the bumper and regretted it afterwards, depends very much on condition though)
 
£50 for a bumper repair sounds extremely good. The repair I had to get done on the X5 last year (bumper) was almost £300 at the dealers.
 
elliot_holder said:
Not meaning to sound negative on Smart Repairs, but I've seen some pretty bad work previously, so be careful who you use.
In a lot of cases where I have investigated it, its not been much more expensive to get a proper bodyshop to do the work.

I have a friend who runs a bodyshop and will usually respray a bumper for around £120. When you consider a bodge-job smart repair is likely to be £80 ish, I'd always rather just pay the extra few quid.

If your interested let me know, if your based in Guildford his bodyshop isnt far, only in Fleet. So he would most likely collect and drop the car off for you.
Click to expand...

Sound advice.
 
pvr said:
£50 for a bumper repair sounds extremely good. The repair I had to get done on the X5 last year (bumper) was almost £300 at the dealers.
Click to expand...

Not much of a reciept for the work done :wink: , local bodyshop, used him a few times for various things, booked in for when he was free, etc.
 
Chaps

Thanks for the responses. I'll take some photos at the weekend as I'll be cleaning it and my Z4 and we'll go form there. Looks like it'll be a bumper respray though.

Why can't people park - the morons :headbang:
 
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