Repairing car paintwork

[woody1]

You are Edd China and I claim my five rattle cans of some obscure colour.

If it wasn't for WD I probably wouldn't have had the (possibly misplaced) confidence to give it a go.

Picked up a lot of useful tips from that programme. Like buying cheap used/salvaged parts off a certain internet auction site. Recently got an ABS pump for £79, versus the best part of £2k for a new one from Audi.

The mechanic at the local garage, who installed the pump for me, said that in recent years manufacturers have made it more difficult to do this by tying parts to the ECU. They've even seen this with basic stuff like electric window and wing mirror actuators. When a new part is installed it syncs with the ECU, meaning it won't work in another vehicle. You can still go down the reconditioning route with some parts but in a lot of cases you've got no choice but to pay dealer (aka stealer) prices.

[DoctorStrangelove]

You are Edd China and I claim my five rattle cans of some obscure colour.

[woody1]

I decided to have a go with the rattle cans. It took 3 attempts to get a decent result. I can share how I did it, what worked and what didn't work, if anyone is interested.

I wouldn't recommend trying it unless you've got an old low-value car, or are prepared to pay a bodyshop as a fallback.

[woody1]

Bolt hit my bonnet on the motorway and taken a right chunk out.

Be careful if you use a pressure washer on it. That's what started peeling the clear coat, around the stone chip, on mine.

I've stopped using a pressure washer altogether because I'm convinced it was also what caused peeling on the alloy wheels.

[anonymouse]

Depends on how old the car is, it's value and how many are being broken. I got a replacement bonnet for £50 fitted + £20 gas money. The old one was scratched and dented, not a mark on the new one.

[woody1]

how small an area is damaged?

About 20cm diameter.

It started as a stone chip, and then the clear coat started to peel off. I did get it looked at but was advised the only option was a respray of the entire bonnet, so let it slide. Unfortunately, since then the peeling has spread and the base coat has gone "funny", presumably due to being exposed to the elements.

[northernladuk]

I've got a similar problem. Bolt hit my bonnet on the motorway and taken a right chunk out. Got a custom Nardo Grey paint job on the whole car about 7 years ago I think. Took it to a couple of paintshops and they wouldn't touch a spot spray either. although it's the area of a 5p the paint area would be have to be 6 to 8 inches and the paint won't match. The fact the Nardo is unlikely to match plus the aged paint. They also suggested full bonnet spray but advised even with that there is a good chance the bonnet won't match the car so I'm stuck. It probably won't be noticeable to the average punter the paint guys didn't like the job.

Being a sports car I've got the option of black vinyl line up the bonnet or full carbon/black wrap and I'm still thinking about it. Very annoying.

I'm pretty sure a self fix with spray can is going to look pretty rubbish TBH.

[sadkingbilly]

how small an area is damaged?

[woody1]

Sounds like I might be better off just living with it looking a bit tatty.

There is a slight silver lining though. The damage is less noticeable if I don't wash the car.

[ladymuck]

A grand to to do a full respray isn't unreasonable. They'd have to strip back the whole bonnet, sand, prime, paint, lacquer the entire thing. It's a good few days of effort.

I suspect the £400 quote is to do a patch repair and you then run the risk that, even if the paint is the right colour, it'll look completely different because you'll have brand new paint next to old, faded, scuffed paint. The sprayer will need to be quite skilled to blend it in properly and a keen eye will still spot it from a mile off.

Also: if you did do a full bonnet respray an enquiring mind might ask "what has happened to this car?" The new shiny paint will look different to the adjacent wings.

(I know this cos my Dad used to do this sort of work)

[woody1]

Another option is to look online at breaker websites to see if any of them are selling an undamaged second hand item with the same colour code. The days of the customer clambering around a breakers yard to grab a headlamp from a car three stories up are long gone; they've fully embraced the internet, they take every possible salvageable part from a vehicle and sell it online.

It should cost you a lot less than £1K, without the effort and disappointment of trying to (a) prepare the area well enough to get a good finish, (b) apply spray from a rattle can well enough to get a good finish and (c) have any chance of actually matching brand new paint from a spray can with the existing paint that's had X years to change colour. A bonnet off a car of the same age is quite likely to have a similar degree of colour change and will match better.

Obviously depends on the age and rarity of your car but possibly worth a try.

This did occur to me, and I had a quick look on eBay and there were a couple for around £250 but they weren't in very good condition. The adverts indicated they'd probably need respraying.

[woody1]

Does it really matter?

Probably not.

I've just had another quote come back for £400.

I may change the car at some point, and a dealer would likely use the damage to knock down the part-ex value but probably not by an amount that would justify the cost of the respray.

[Snooky]

Another option is to look online at breaker websites to see if any of them are selling an undamaged second hand item with the same colour code. The days of the customer clambering around a breakers yard to grab a headlamp from a car three stories up are long gone; they've fully embraced the internet, they take every possible salvageable part from a vehicle and sell it online.

It should cost you a lot less than £1K, without the effort and disappointment of trying to (a) prepare the area well enough to get a good finish, (b) apply spray from a rattle can well enough to get a good finish and (c) have any chance of actually matching brand new paint from a spray can with the existing paint that's had X years to change colour. A bonnet off a car of the same age is quite likely to have a similar degree of colour change and will match better.

Obviously depends on the age and rarity of your car but possibly worth a try.

[NotAllThere]

I had my daughter, when she was considerably younger, write her name into the body work of the car.

I've had my granddaughter (aged 2) "draw" with a rock on the rear door. Apparently while giggling...

Frankly, I just used touch up paint. Both times the cars were over 11 years old, with a few dents and scratches already. (The current car bumps courtesy of my daughter and daughter-in-law both reversing out and wondering what the beeping from the radar was. One caused by my son while manoeuvering into a parking space near a pillar... *sigh* ).

Does it really matter?


(Try putting a Barclay's logo on it - then you'll probably get it painted for free by Palestine Action).

[woody1]

A small area of paintwork on the bonnet of my car has suffered surface damage (no dents). I've tried polishing it out with very fine wet&dry and T-Cut but it didn't make much difference.

I contacted a firm that does mobile small bodywork repairs but they said they couldn't do a patch repair in such a prominent location, and the bonnet would need to be resprayed at a bodyshop. I've been quoted just under £1000 for this. I don't know if that's reasonable or not but the car is old and only worth a few grand, so I'm wondering whether or not to have a stab at repairing it myself.

I can get a rattle can of base coat, matching the car manufacturer's colour code, plus clear coat lacquer from eBay for under 20 quid.

Has anyone ever attempted this?

Thanks.