Repairing car paintwork

[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]

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.

[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.

[DoctorStrangelove]

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

[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.