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smart car repairs



  pimp mobile Zafira
I've had a couple done in the past. Depends who does it. I've seen some shocking jobs done. One of which was on a civic rear valance. Where they tried to paint the whole thing and ended in disaster. The car ended up in the body shop because they tried to paint too big an area. If you've got scuffs and scrapes on lower body panels then go for it. Just shop around look at previous work if you can and find out how long they bag been painting/repairing as there are loads of people flooding the Market who have been on a 3-4 day course and think that's all they need.

Cheers
 
  Astra GSI, 172, Golf
as andywa says.. there are good ones about but there are also so many bad ones. as he says they go on a quick course paint a few bits here n there then think they can do the lot. your best bet is just go to a decent bodyshop, it wont cost much more but its so much more worth it.. and your car will get fully masked out or the trim taken of, that way your car wont be covered in overspray either.

so unless you know some one who is consistantly good , i would avoid
 
  3 Series xdrive
To work for them isn't it something like a 1 week course or something silly ?

Depends what company you get a franchise from, 'chipsaway' is a 4 week training course and a minimum 30k franchise fee.
 

Gally

Formerly Mashed up egg in a cup
ClioSport Club Member
I'm sorry but all this about good workmanship and depends who you get is utter tosh!

I've yet to see one good smart repair. I seen a guy in a tent in the snow trying to paint a ladies bumper. In the f**king snow!!!!!!!!!

Hmmm I always wondered why bodyshops spend 50-100k on booths when they can just use a tent!

Avoid like the plague! Avoid the job like the plague unless you have no sense of pride in your work and are happy taking money of people for a job that will last a week tops.

Utter scam merchants if you ask me.
 
  Astra GSI, 172, Golf
gally-
at the bodyshop there was 2 guys there who were very good at it, but they had been painters inside many years and would only do it if the conditions were right... the other 6 were shocking and there failed attempts were always coming back into the bodyshop to be sorted. in the end he laid them of and let the vans that he leased sit in the yard as he actually lost less money that way.. the decent 2 guys carried on with smart repairs but spent most there time doing proper repairs inside.

i will agree tho, iv seen many many many smart repairs and techinicians .. there the only 2 iv ever known to be good at what they do
 

Gally

Formerly Mashed up egg in a cup
ClioSport Club Member
gally-
at the bodyshop there was 2 guys there who were very good at it, but they had been painters inside many years and would only do it if the conditions were right... the other 6 were shocking and there failed attempts were always coming back into the bodyshop to be sorted. in the end he laid them of and let the vans that he leased sit in the yard as he actually lost less money that way.. the decent 2 guys carried on with smart repairs but spent most there time doing proper repairs inside.

i will agree tho, iv seen many many many smart repairs and techinicians .. there the only 2 iv ever known to be good at what they do

Makes sense mate, bodyshops utilising the idea is fine, they have the products and the facilities. Outside the ladies house in winter is not the condition for painting.
 
  200 with booost
I guess its like any trade, you get your cowboys and you get your diamonds.

My wife had a scuff repaired on her bumper last summer by a man in a van. Couldn't fault the job and even better it only cost me 80 notes. Mazda quoted us over 200. Mad thing was the guy informed us that he had a contract with most of the garages in the area including our local dealer for this type of work. So I would have paid Mazda £225 for a job done by the same bloke!!!

On top of that, my Clio was delivered with a chip on the door trim, this was promptly an efficiently repaired by a couple of lads with a van and tent in the car park of Renault in Stockport. I think you'll find that most main dealers use these SMART technicians as its easy money for them. Agree that winter is not the best time to try and spray someones car but I would happily use them again on for any chips on my 200, beat being ripped of by a main dealer.
 
  none :(
this is what im thinking, i only have a couple of tiny chips so im guessing a smart repair wouldnt be that noticable anyway, i suppose i can always get a quote anyway and see what they advise.
 

Herr Flick

aka Herman Ze German
I'm sorry but all this about good workmanship and depends who you get is utter tosh!

I've yet to see one good smart repair. I seen a guy in a tent in the snow trying to paint a ladies bumper. In the f**king snow!!!!!!!!!

Hmmm I always wondered why bodyshops spend 50-100k on booths when they can just use a tent!

Avoid like the plague! Avoid the job like the plague unless you have no sense of pride in your work and are happy taking money of people for a job that will last a week tops.

Utter scam merchants if you ask me.


lol, because every smart repairer is s**t! i have 1000's of customers and a handful of dealers that would disagree.
i have seen shocking work from various bodyshops but as said, its down to the sprayer.
 
  Clio 182
Smart repairs are a waste of time! Body shop job all the way if you want a proper job. A smart repair company in Birmingham had 5 attempts to rectify a few scratches on my front bumper but in the end ended up making it look awfull with severe paint runs everywhere! Took it to a good bodyshop, they painted it and I gave to the smart repair company to foot the bill.
 

Bluebeard

ClioSport Moderator
  Whichever has fuel
I can't agree with Gally.

I use a guy at the minute who is 'adequate'. Nothing more. The guy I used prior to that who is now unfortunately retired was so so good. Unbelievably good infact.

So I also stand by the others that say 'Depends on the technician'.
 
Some c@nt keyed the side of the clio, down the whole thing. It's never worth having the whole side painted, as these cars are worth so little now, so was concidering smart repairs.

I have never seen any of their work so not sure whether it's any good or not. I am unfortunately quite picky, so if it is going to be the kind of job that only a 70 yr old would be happy with, I may aswell just rock the keyed look and not bother at all. Opinions? I'm waiting for a call back for a quote from a Chipsaway geezer, but tempted to go to a few bodyshops, as they must surely offer the same sort of localised painting service opposed to painting the whole side.

Clio cup blue metallic FTL.
 

Gally

Formerly Mashed up egg in a cup
ClioSport Club Member
I'll pay for you to take before and after pictures.

Lets think of it from another angle. Why would a garage like the one I work in spend 100k on a booth and equipment if I can get the same level of finish in a tent in the rain with circa 5 degrees heat?

Utter waste of money, I swear 25% of outr jobs these days are fixing smart repairs.

The reason they get away with it is because people are not expecting the paint to be perfect, they think with it being resprayed it'll always look different. The fact is if you go to a decent bodyshop the paint will come back better than when it left the factory.

Sadly cost cutting in the industry has lead to substandard repairs and people are now wary of getting their cars painted.
 
Because the scratch covers the rear quarter, door and wing, I am going to have to have the whole 3 panels painted. Which at a rough guess I am thinking probably several hundred for a decent job. The car isn't worth much more than double that so I can't justify it. Probably better off living with it and taking the hit come resale.
 

Gally

Formerly Mashed up egg in a cup
ClioSport Club Member
The vibe i'm getting is you'd rather do half the job because you don't have the money to look after it. Don't bother in that case. It'll just look worse.

Or do what most people do and put it through your insurance.
 
Having had one done recently, I'd like to add my opinion.

I can see where it's been done, but only due to the marring in the paint on the rear bumper. I deliberately corrected the rear bumper so I could see exactly how the colour matched - if it wasn't 101%, he would be back to do it again and I made that abundantly clear. To be honest, the guy looked scared before he started and took an age to complete.

However, the colour match is spot on. The lacquer has not sunk and as mentioned, the only reason I know it is there is because of the surface spiderwebbing.

This was the area, and in my opinion it's a PITA as it's small but deep and right up against the rear light/boot.

View attachment 58127
 

Gally

Formerly Mashed up egg in a cup
ClioSport Club Member
In your case you were wanting a quick fix for selling/tarting her up.

Most people want gold for peanuts. You knew the risks involved. Other people assume a guy in a tent will reproduce bodyshop like quality, i'm sorry. It just isn't possible.
 
  Guilietta 2.0 JTDM-2
IMO smart repairs are not worth the hassle!

I've never had a good one on my previous cars, from shrinking filler, wrong colour matches, peeling laquer. You really are better off going to a proper bodyshop, it's worth it in the long run!
 
  Listerine & Poledo
It's been said before, but worth reitterating.

A bodyshop will probably only charge a little more but leave a better result.
 
The vibe i'm getting is you'd rather do half the job because you don't have the money to look after it. Don't bother in that case. It'll just look worse.

Or do what most people do and put it through your insurance.

The money isn't a problem. The problem is it's a cheap clio. If it was a valuable car I would pay the money. But as it's cheap car, I am pissing in the wing paying half the value of the car to paint it because some lowlife has keyed it creating the problem for me opposed to maintenance.

I'm not going through insurance as I have several years NCB, which isn't protected AFAIK, so again, would prefer not to have pay over the odds for years to come to get the car back to the same stage it was at last week.

In your experience Gally, what would you guesstimate for a bodyshop job to replicate the problem?
 

Gally

Formerly Mashed up egg in a cup
ClioSport Club Member
To paint a full side including sanding the Key mark (extra work) circa £600 inc vat. I can trsut that price as I know you're guaranteed it to be right.

I could get the same job done 30 seconds from our garage at another bodyshop for £400 inc vat. You save the £200 but you risk having to get the car re-done or taking it somewhere else to get redone.

The problem I have as an assessor is I have to convince people why we're more expensive without bad mouthing competitors because 9 times out of 10 even if the job isn't 100% right from the other garage the customer will never notice and they'll have saved £200.

It's not until they get a decent job they say "wow", "I had it painted at xxxx and it didn't look as good as that." Sad state of affairs but fact all the same.

My car isn't worth a lot but people still pay 2-3k for full glass out resprays. All about personal value. 5k is a lot of money to me so i'd like to look after it!
 
I was personally expecting 700 odd for an average job, but if you are saying £600 will return a finish that is not going to look like its been repainted then it's not thaatt bad. I am quite picky and never happy with cars once they have any marks and lose entusiasm with them. I dont know a particular bodyshop from Adam, so finding and trusting a good bodyshop is going to be the hardest part. Picking the dearest to hope they are the best isn't hand in hand in that business I am sure?
 
  Astra GSI, 172, Golf
Gally, isn't the Performance Bue of the FRP a bit of a special sod to re-do anyway?
paint is paint.. there are only a few types like shadow chrome etc which are more hassle to do ... sp tbh.. no its no harder
 

Gally

Formerly Mashed up egg in a cup
ClioSport Club Member
It is Imperial Blue. It's just a straight forward mettallic.

Paints differ when you start getting into complicated mica's and pearls. Like LY and Focus St Electric Orange. Red pearl on the mazdas also.

It's colour matching/blending that's the problem and that's where the talent comes in imo.

I forgot to say that £600 is a Scottish price it could end up double that in England!
 


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