Where to find a reliable garage that does paintwork?

cickly

Hi,
I have a quite large section of paintwork that needs repairing on my car. The trouble is, the garage I usually use don't do body repairs and everyone I ask seems to have paid over the odds to have their paintwork done. Obviously I don't want to get ripped off, but I do want a good job done.

Basically my question is, how to find reliable garages when you don't have any word of mouth connections. I have looked on the good garage website and found one near enough to me, but when I went on qype, they had bad reviews. Should I just go there and hope for the best?

Thanks!

Ionkontrol

Car forum recommendations.

Daz2009

Surely the garage you use will know a reputable body shop ?

cickly

Daz2009 wrote: »

Surely the garage you use will know a reputable body shop ?

I've already thought of that. The place they recommended also had bad reviews!

GAZ237

cickly wrote: »

I've already thought of that. The place they recommended also had bad reviews!

You tend to find people go out of their way to leave bad feedback.

Where as good feedback is not posted.

So bad reviews often stand out because of this. Just go with the one your garage recommended.

Rain_Shadow

How far are you prepared to travel? I had some excellent work done on my Jaguars (multiple panel replacement and full resprays) at Triangle Garage in Warrington (I see you are in Manchester). That was a few years ago but they were very good.

londonTiger

Bodywork jobs are expensive because it takes a lot of time to get right,

vikingaero

cickly wrote: »

everyone I ask seems to have paid over the odds to have their paintwork done. Obviously I don't want to get ripped off, but I do want a good job done.

Car paint repairs can be astonishingly expensive and people still have the perception that they can buy a spray can from Halfords for £6.50 so it can't be that much can it?

For example I asked my trusted garage for a quote for a strip of paint the size of a matchbox that had come off the roof of Mrs V's Corsa. He had a look and said it wasn't worth doing and to save the £500 towards our next car. The car is worth £2k and it would cost £500 to fix. He didn't think that paying 1/4 of the value of the car was worth it and I agreed. He outlined that the biggest cost was labour and paint and primer for £200 for a quality paint.

He told me that if I was that bothered about it then to buy a spray tin from Halfords (which is where I found out it was £6.49!), sand the exposed primer and 5mm on the good paint, mask off a massive area and spray it. The repair is obvious 2 feet from the car but invisible when you are standing at the kerb.

kelevraz

its easy to find a good paintshop place, aslong as your willing to pay what they ask for good quality work

but if your trying to find it as cheap as possible however, then you may find that most of the places you get sent to will have 'bad reviews', and ultimately, you may be better off just buying your own spray

londonTiger

vikingaero wrote: »

Car paint repairs can be astonishingly expensive and people still have the perception that they can buy a spray can from Halfords for £6.50 so it can't be that much can it?

For example I asked my trusted garage for a quote for a strip of paint the size of a matchbox that had come off the roof of Mrs V's Corsa. He had a look and said it wasn't worth doing and to save the £500 towards our next car. The car is worth £2k and it would cost £500 to fix. He didn't think that paying 1/4 of the value of the car was worth it and I agreed. He outlined that the biggest cost was labour and paint and primer for £200 for a quality paint.

He told me that if I was that bothered about it then to buy a spray tin from Halfords (which is where I found out it was £6.49!), sand the exposed primer and 5mm on the good paint, mask off a massive area and spray it. The repair is obvious 2 feet from the car but invisible when you are standing at the kerb.

ehh £500 for a matchbox size. It's not THAT expensive. Probably £100-£150 yes. Not £500.

colino

Find out where your local taxi boys take them. Rules around here are universally daft and while they've dropped the age limit for the car, they, like many others, are focusing on bodywork. For example, two new reasons for paintwork failure:
"Any dent where the paint has not been broken which is longer than 30mm at its widest point" and
"is scratched or otherwise blemished e.g. flawed, defective, stained (tar etc.)