Stone chips...body shop or mobile paint repair?

[The Seer]

Quite a few stone chips on the bonnet, bumper and wings.

Would it usually be cheaper to have a mobile paint repair specialist or visit a body shop? Also will the quality vary between the two?

Thanks

 

[AdamDoug]

Hi mate,
From experience i would opt for a body shop. Will see much better quality in the repair and paint side of the job!
mobile repair's as such use a type of 'gazibo' with a fan on it and they use iv lamps to cure the paint. Iv lamps dont cure body panels on a 'curve' as such because they only cure flat panels as far as i can remeber (someone correct me?)
in a body shop the stone chips with get filled, primerd, flattened, and then painted an cured in an oven .

my advice would be go for a bodyshop mate an remeber, you get what you pay for!

 

[Chip-mk1]

If you want it to still look good in a fwe years time, bodyshop is the best option, "smart repairs" almost always are visible and even more so over time, fine for tarting up a car to flog on though or as a quick and easy fix.

 

[Silent_Scone]

Smart repairs are Russian roulette at the best of times, especially Chips Away being a franchise, you have no idea what you're going to get.

Painting outside in the elements is just bad all round. Avoid like wild fire.

 

[The Seer]

Hi mate,
From experience i would opt for a body shop. Will see much better quality in the repair and paint side of the job!
mobile repair's as such use a type of 'gazibo' with a fan on it and they use iv lamps to cure the paint. Iv lamps dont cure body panels on a 'curve' as such because they only cure flat panels as far as i can remeber (someone correct me?)
in a body shop the stone chips with get filled, primerd, flattened, and then painted an cured in an oven .

my advice would be go for a bodyshop mate an remeber, you get what you pay for!

Thanks for info, much appreciated

I have used a mobile specialist before and was quite happy with the work done. Ok it was a gloss white and simple scratch that was repaired in fine weather conditions. But that's all it was, a scratch on the bumper. I figured it might do well to post on the forum regarding these issues as work required is far greater.

 

[The Seer]

If you want it to still look good in a fwe years time, bodyshop is the best option, "smart repairs" almost always are visible and even more so over time, fine for tarting up a car to flog on though or as a quick and easy fix.

Well, I am planning to keep on to the Ibiza for the next few years and I am quite particular about the paint finish. So with this in mind perhaps it would be best to take the car to a body shop.

 

[The Seer]

Smart repairs are Russian roulette at the best of times, especially Chips Away being a franchise, you have no idea what you're going to get.

Painting outside in the elements is just bad all round. Avoid like wild fire.

As mentioned, I have used a mobile paint specialist years back for a simple scratch on the front bumper. I was happy with the outcome, to the naked eye without scrutinising the job the work was nearly flawless. I used Flying Colours but I think they may have disbanded by now.

But with all the info generally being against mobile paint repair I think I'll go with the body shop option.

Though surely someone has had a pleasant experience from using the mobile fellas? Can't be all bad.

 

[Short Norman]

I've used a local mobile cosmetic guy and he was fookin brilliant. Having said that the car was traded in so not sure how well the repair aged.

 

[Bert3]

I had a "smart repair" carried out by Chips away on a previous car, the results were very poor to be honest. Took the guy all day to repair a scratch on the rear panel, only to find a few weeks later that the paint was starting to peel off. Ended up having my money back and taking it a body shop. As others have said, you get what you pay for. I'd stay clear of smart repairs personally.

 

[Silent_Scone]

As mentioned, I have used a mobile paint specialist years back for a simple scratch on the front bumper. I was happy with the outcome, to the naked eye without scrutinising the job the work was nearly flawless. I used Flying Colours but I think they may have disbanded by now.

But with all the info generally being against mobile paint repair I think I'll go with the body shop option.

Though surely someone has had a pleasant experience from using the mobile fellas? Can't be all bad.

I had a decent experience when I had my corrado rear bumper done. He ended up having to do it twice due to a chemical reaction. End result was fine. But then I've had another job done where it was very orange peelly and lots of overspray. I've also seen them paint over dirt which means it'll just flake off weeks maybe days after having it done.


Unless you know who's going to be doing it as I said before its Russian roulette. Waste of money, cars aren't meant to be painted out doors, if they were car manufactures could save a fair bit of money on floor space.

 

[EllD90]

Where in Essex are you?

 

[JCC]

cars aren't meant to be painted out doors, if they were car manufactures could save a fair bit of money on floor space

This sums it up. If mobile repairers who have had a couple of weeks training could do the job properly, outside, in the pissing rain, there would be no need for bodyshops and qualified painters like myself would be out of a job. "Chips Away" are probably the longest established and most well known of them all, and their video on their own website of how they repair a car shows they're s**t.

Avoid smart repairers, all of them.