Experiences with "Invisible scratch repair" firms?

colin_e
colin_e Posts: 2 Newbie
in Motoring
We're about to buy a new (to us) car from a dealer. There are a couple of surface scratches on one door, but annoyingly the dealer won't fix them before delivery as they say they don't want to take a chance on the door colour not matching the rest of the car.

Does anyone on the forum have experience with using one of the scratch repair firms that come out to your house?

Any experiences (good or bad) you#d be willing to share would be very welcome.

Comments

  • EdGasketTheSecond
    EdGasketTheSecond Posts: 2,558 Forumite
    First Anniversary Photogenic Name Dropper First Post
    I couldn't see them
  • EdGasketTheSecond
    EdGasketTheSecond Posts: 2,558 Forumite
    First Anniversary Photogenic Name Dropper First Post
    Why not use a scratch repair pen. Search on Amazon and read reviews. Alternatively a light scratch will most likely polish out; use G3 if you have to but go lightly with it.
  • Frozen_up_north
    Frozen_up_north Posts: 2,420 Forumite
    First Anniversary Name Dropper Photogenic First Post
    colin_e wrote: »
    We're about to buy a new (to us) car from a dealer. There are a couple of surface scratches on one door, but annoyingly the dealer won't fix them before delivery as they say they don't want to take a chance on the door colour not matching the rest of the car.

    Any experiences (good or bad) you#d be willing to share would be very welcome.

    Sounds like a back street dealer that can’t be bothered, I would make sure the rest of the car is up to scratch (ouch - sorry about the pun).

    I’ve had a dent fixed by a mobile fixing service, local guy who doesn’t fix paint/scratches but did a marvellous job on a dent... arranged and paid for by a main dealer on a second hand car that came with a minor dent.
  • IanMSpencer
    IanMSpencer Posts: 1,517 Forumite
    First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    The problem I've had on paint repairs is on the rear bumper of a Merc estate. An ex-Merc management car (what I take to mean, a let's inflate sales figures by using a few of our own) the rear bumper was scuffed, so it failed the dealer inspection and they repainted. It didn't last very well and there was some peeling.

    Then I managed to reverse in the dark into an unlit delivery of breeze blocks (that's with warning beeps which I'd assumed were from the high kerb). Minor scuff, so used a local franchise.

    He spent ages prep'ing but paint has peeled. Wouldn't know whether to blame the original paint or the franchise (hence not naming them) but since then I've heard a lot of comments about the difficulty of painting plastic bumpers.

    Back in the day, you used to be able to by a set of paint stickers, which were literally matched paint which you stuck on. Easy to apply but the end result was it looked like you'd stuck a patch of paint on.
  • MataNui
    MataNui Posts: 1,075 Forumite
    I have used chipex on my last car and will use it after picking up a few stone chips on this one. I had mixed results but the mixed was between quite good and a totally invisible repair (and that was on a metallic silver). Thy guy who inspected the car for PX couldnt pick them out so it must be pretty good. Works better on proper chips rather than scratches though.
  • AdrianC
    AdrianC Posts: 42,189 Forumite
    First Anniversary Name Dropper First Post
    They're mostly a franchise. Your local guy is as good as... well, the local guy. All you can say for certain is that he's been on a course, and has paid a lot of money to use the logo and rent his van and equipment. That might have been last week.
  • MrsNubs
    MrsNubs Posts: 99 Forumite
    I've used Chipsway twice but as Adrian says, they're only as good as the local franchisee. The first guy was great. The second guy (different area) painted my door the wrong colour! To be fair, he did take the car back and re-spray it in the correct colour, but it was a 2nd day I was without my car for 1 repair.

    My advice would be to find a local franchise which is a 1 man band, as that 1 man has done all the training. The 2nd franchise I used he had several staff, but none of them have to be trained by head office, they just get on the job experience, it was one of them who painted my blue car purple and didn't even notice!
  • deanos
    deanos Posts: 11,219 Forumite
    First Post First Anniversary Uniform Washer
    surface scratches can usually be polished out as long as you cant feel it with fingernail, personally i would do that rather than someone touch it with paint as it will never be same again

    a local valeter who specializes in scratch removal quoted £60 to go over my sportage to give an idea of cost (i havent got round to doing this yet) to remove some surface scratches
  • colin_e
    colin_e Posts: 2 Newbie
    Thanks to everyone who has replied so far. The scratches in question are not down to bare metal, but they have gone through the colour coats to the primer below, so I don't think polishing them out is an option.

    They are quite short (3-4" long max). Ideally i'd like a repair that filled-in the colour in the scratch itself, but didn;t involve a large area of respray, because i'm wary of colour matching issues.

    I agree it comes down to the skill of the individual practitioner. Tricky thing to judge except by talking to someone who's had work done by the specific individual.
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