There are two main ways to have a car body repair carried out, by a smart repair service or the use of a body shop. There are differences between the two mainly that the smart repair service is mobile and cheaper than the static equivalent body shop.
If carried out by professional personnel both services can provide fantastic repairs on most types of damage. But if care is not taken and the job is rushed the repair finish can suffer as a result.
If you have some form of damage on your car and need a repair it's always best to research your preferred repair service before you go ahead and book in with them, for instance get references from previous jobs and view there before and after photos on their web site. Some repair services might not have websites or photos of previous work carried out, it's these that generally offer cheaper prices for jobs, and that's usually for a reason.
Experience and training is the most important aspect you should look for when you are looking at repair services, for if they as a business have been running for a fair few years then they must be good at what they do for if not they would have gone bust. A Smart Repair service relies on a good customer base both private and trade so check if they services garages and if so get some references from them.
Now you know what to look for in a repair service you will next need to have some basic knowledge of car body repair finishes, so that when you receive the car back you have a good idea whether the repair is of a good standard or not.
Many things can go wrong when a car body repair is carried out and can be costly for the repair service to re-fix, so most will try and disguise the problem or even just leave it, hoping that you won't notice. Below are a few things you should look out for on your completed repair.
- Orange peel occurs when the lacquer layer is applied at the wrong pressure and distance from the work surface. It can easily be fixed by rubbing the lacquer back and re polishing it. Some services will leave the orange peel effect at corners and edges fearing that they might rub through the top coat. If left the repair can have a distorted finish so if you see the orange peel effect ask for it to be removed.
- When you check your finished repair check the colour match, see if it's the same as your original paint work. If the car is within 3 years of age there will be no colour difference, if the car is older than you might get a slight colour change. Usually the repair service will blend in the paint over additional panels so there is no major difference. So check, and if you see a big difference get them to do it again.
- If the repair service sprays over an area of the work surface that is not been cleaned properly the lacquer will separate on impact and leave fish eye like marks on the affected areas. This is easily caused when care has not been. To fix this would require the areas to be rubbed back, cleaned and resprayed.
- If the service has used substandard lacquer then you will notice by the repair finish looking slightly duller than the rest of the paint work, if this is the case with yours you should demand they repaint it with a better quality of lacquer.
If you car on return has none of the above defects then you have done your research perfectly. If not and you have problems like the ones above demand to have it fixed before you pass over any form of payment.
