Bodywork damage

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coogee

Bodywork damage

Post by coogee »

Good evening all,
Today I was reversing my VW polo and wasn’t concentrating and I have scraped and dented the lower side of the car on a brick wall :evil:.
Would any one Know what sort of cost I would be looking at to repair the damage.

Thanks in advance
Phil
coogee

Post by coogee »

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polo-sib
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Post by polo-sib »

Looks like a minor dent which would cost you about £70 to undo and the paint work another £100 possibly. I'd personally get a professional to un-dent and do the paint work myself its not to hard just can get frustrating to perfect.
coogee

Post by coogee »

polo-sib wrote:Looks like a minor dent which would cost you about £70 to undo and the paint work another £100 possibly. I'd personally get a professional to un-dent and do the paint work myself its not to hard just can get frustrating to perfect.
Thanks for the advise, I am not overly handy so I think I will properly take it to a garage/body shop and get all the work there done.
I was thinking it was going to be in the £400 mark :shock:
coogee

Post by coogee »

a.
Last edited by coogee on Mon Jul 07, 2008 9:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Tim_GTi
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Post by Tim_GTi »

It'll cost more than £170 I reckon.

Its the rear wing and bumper just damaged yeh? After re-shaping both those panels they will need to be completely resprayed, plus blending the door also. and new plastic bump strip.

i'd say around £200-250?
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Post by coogee »

Thanks for the reply, and yes its the rear wing, bumper and the bump strip.
I know I depend who I get the work done by, but should the finished repair be noticeable.

Thanks
Phil
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Post by Tim_GTi »

No not at all. A decent and proper job is one where it looks like it was never there.

When looking around for people to carry it out, make sure it's someone who will carry out the job properly ie. spray the whole panels and blend surrounding ones, not just spray the damaged sections. Otherwise it'll look gash and obvious that there was damage there before.
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Post by coogee »

Tim_GTi wrote:No not at all. A decent and proper job is one where it looks like it was never there.

When looking around for people to carry it out, make sure it's someone who will carry out the job properly ie. spray the whole panels and blend surrounding ones, not just spray the damaged sections. Otherwise it'll look gash and obvious that there was damage there before.
Thanks for the advice, I guess I should find someone to do the job now rather than later, to prevent rust forming, etc.

Phil
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Post by Tim_GTi »

Yeh definitely get it fixed asap. I kept meaning to get a dent sorted on my old car and left it so long it never got done! I still see it driving round with that hideous scratch lol
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Post by coogee »

I have decided to have ago at repairing the scrape my self as I was getting quotes of around £400.
I have sanded it down and sprayed it with primer and ordered a spray can of surf blue paint and lacquer. I am now not to sure what to do next and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Phil

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Post by polo-sib »

some bits look deep.

1) On a sunny day I'd say give them a clean with a ethanol based substance (eg vodka, spirit etc).

2) If rust has developed, remove it using "rust remover" made by hammerite.

3) sand around the dented scratched area using low grit paper (not good with grit numbers).

4) Depending on the dent damage/scratch depth you might need to use body filler, basically apply, smoothen and let dry. Sand down and repeat if needed be several times.

5) Now get more ethanol based cleaner out and clean a bigger area up around the damaged area.

6) Now you can start to apply primer, to the filled up/damaged area and surroundings to prevent rusting. The primer once sprayed well let you see if your new surfaces area needs sanding or not or additional filling. If so fill/sand and then re-prime till happy. Generally a few coats of prime are needed just 2-3 but you might end up with more depending on the surface which is not a problem.

7) Once this is done painting and blending can begin, but whilst blending make sure to clean all the surfaces where you will blend the paint in. I'm no good at describing blending but basically you will want long streaks across the surfaces (not just the damaged area) of sprays opposed to just blodging the paint on the area needed be. (several layers of paint will be needed again)

8) once happy apply several layers of laq over the newly painted surfaces.


Also I have always been recommend never to spray paint unless the surrounding temperature is above 20c.

Better if you can do this in a garage which would make a huge difference between getting dust on the car as well as give you longer drying times opposed to the usual 15min on each coat quickly outdoors; to a good few hours drying instead, as this will ensure a better finish.
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Post by Tim_GTi »

I'd strongly reconsider getting a pro to do it mate, it's a very large job for someone that isn't a specialist at it.

How many palces did you get a quote from?
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Post by CTR »

As Tim_GTi said, I would recommend you get a pro to sort it. Its not impossible to do it yourself provided you have the patience and knowledge but if you're after a good job you really do need to pay someone to do it.

Polo-sib has given you an outline of things you need to know. But as with everything in life, it is not that simple. Things like the colour match of the paint (I use specialist auto paint mixers but even they get it wrong sometimes as its done by hand) then theres primer, have you used the correct primer? What about the lacquer, is it suitable for your base? Have you done a good enough prep? Oh and theres the problems with overspray, orange peel, dripping etc.

From your photos, it looks like you'll need to lacquer pretty much most of that panel if not all of it otherwise you're looking at a lot of elbow grease to get it consistent again.

I'm not a pro, but I've done quite a few repairs now. I very rarely use cans unless I don't have access to a compressor/HVLP system as cans give a pretty poor finish and is not very consistent.

So my recommendation would be to find a pro and offer to pay cash.
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Post by Tim_GTi »

Exactly, it's an expensive market for a reason!
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