Spray or not Spray that is the question
 

Looking for some opinions.

To cut along story short, my Silver MY04STi got about 30 stone chips on the area of drivers wing, mirror, front panel & bonnet when it was only 2 days old. Had a fight lasting several months with local authorities as the paintwork damage was caused by a broken up road surface where water had damaged the road & it had been left unrepaired while the Council & the Water Board argued over who was liable.

They have finally agreed to pay & I have quotes for a repaint of the whole bonnet, front panel, drivers wing & mirror.

My Question is: Would you have the paintwork repainted? Have the chips touched in by Chipsaway or similar? Or leave it?

Considerations: Trade-in value if painted, touched-up or left
Body & paint warranty as above

I have been assured by both coachworks who do work regularly for Subaru dealerships that the repaint won't show even under artificial lighting. One of the coachworks also does work for Porsche, BMW, Bentley, etc.

Opinions on a post card please.

Den

Get it done!

A) I bet it looks crap at the minute
and
B) you've got all the documents to show what happened and therefore why it was painted so if anyone asks when you come to sell you'll be able to show them
and of course
C) it will no longer look crap :D

Thanks for that Bgood

Any more opinions folks?

Den

Den

I'd personally get it done by a good bodyshop and that's the end of the matter............ :)

I've recently had a few bits and pieces sorted by "Colour Technik" here in Carlisle who do jobs for the local Scooby dealer and you would be amazed how they can colour match body panels better than sorting out the individual paint chips !!

Midlife.....

Do not use a chipsaway style company, you will definetly see the repair if they do it, especially on the bonnet (they did my rear bumper after a scrape and it was cr@p!). Get it resprayed by a good bodyshop, then get it armourfended or similiar. I really wish i had done mine when i had it, but now its a few months old and there are stonechips it doesn't seem worth it.

Does anyone know who the name of the company who was at the autosportshow (opposute Tein i think) that sold something similiar to Armourfend?

I have my own......I hate saying these words, 'Chips Away' style company, Attention to Detail. Get it sprayed properly!

The nature of metalic paint especially silver will always touch in very slightly too dark, as the aluminium particles in the paint sink allowing the other tints in the colour to come to the surface. So your touch in will look slightly grey, brown or blue depending on what it in it.

When I get a silver car to repair, it really depends on where the damage is as to if it can be blended well enough. i.e the corner of a bumper allows alot more scope the than dead centre of the rear bumper as you have 2 original corners to compare the repaired area to.

Hope this helps,
Skelly

Just to say i didn't mean to offend any 'Chips Away' style company, i just don't think it is possible for them to repair such high visibilty areas such as bonnet with their lack of equipment i.e. spray booth;)

I agree with all the above, a good body shop will be able to do a perfect colour match that's nothing to worry about, so go for it. My old car (DBM) went into body shops three times for partial resprays for one reason or another, but you'd never know to look at it. The only clue was that because the bonnet had two coats of paint on it, it wasn't nearly as badly chipped by the time I sold it at 70k miles as you'd expect.

You may need to check for overspray or point blemishes caused by dirt, so make sure you collect the car in daylight and point them out straight away, but there's no reason to worry about ending up with an unsaleable multi-coloured car.

Thanks for the opinions guys.

Think I will defo go ahead with the repaint - was clever enough with the quotation process to make sure there was a little bit extra for some additonal bits lile a front grille or similar. Hehehe! :D

Den

Good work there Den, I would certainly follow the advice from AndyC_772 about picking it up in daylight, just cos it's not gonna be your hard earned cash but the insurance companies is no reason to accept inferior work, give it a good check over before you accept or more imprtantly sign for it, I'm sure it will look great though :)