O/T panel damage

[C7JFM]

Dinged my audi front wheel arch on a gate post in my excitement to get to cadwell yesterday. It is a metallic silver. The body shop says it can knock out the dent but the WHOLE wing needs painting. I dont mind the cost (much) but do not want a mismatched colour on a whole wing.

 

Does anyone know if you can sucessfully paint a small part of a panel in metallic and get away with a reasonable job. Or am i being paranoid about the likelihood of poor paint match.

 

Any ideas ?

 

ps. cadwell was great....roll on curborough.

 

[Buda]

after some idiot opened a door on the wifes mitsubishi she had the dent knocked out and the whole door painted, its a 2 year old metallic paint finish, there was a very very slight mismatch in colour - you cant tell now (3months on), but then again its dirty and your not 'looking' for it.. does that help? no? didn't think so.

[Ian B]

I was recommended to Chips Away here when we needed to get small dents and scratches repaired on Co cars.

 

They are a franchise operation and the result ENTIRELY depends on the local operator, so try to get some references.

 

Ours was OK but not wonderful, other person I know said theirs was absolutely brilliant (but I can't remember who it was and where they were 😳).

 

Ian - MI 5EVN - Slightly Vider 😬

[Bare]

Metalic Silver, along with White is Very Difficult to paint match... prolly the worst possible.

Painting the entire panel merely moves the missmatch out to a body separation..you entire Fenfer will then be the wrong colour.

but it's still problematic. I would seriously think about not having it 'repaired if it's only a minor Ding.

Nothing lowers Resale like a missmatched Fender, especially Galling for a small bruise.

[Dickie Normuss]

I've heard good things about chips away too. A friend had them do some work on his metalic MR2 (is that swearing?) They used an airbrush to touch up and "blend" the paint, you couldn't tell after.

 

Seek forgiveness, not permission.

Is it easy to rob a bank and get away with it???

[Julian Thompson]

Got to disagree a bit here, especially with Mr bare.

 

White isn't a difficult colour at all. In my experience the simple fact that it is a non metallic base colour makes white a total piece of cake to match; a decent bodyshop can even paint half a white panel and cut it in.

 

Silver, and any other metallic, is a tricky cookie for 2 reasons.

 

The first surrounds the amount of metalflake in the paint mix which I understand to vary depending on your gun distance from the work and the second is the fact that the colour is "clear over base"; ie has a lacquer over the base coat to give a gloss finish.

 

The big issue is that you can't cut it in like a solid so you are left with painting more of your car.

 

The idea of painting "the whole front wing" upto the door is suicide. You absolutely do not paint up to the edge; this will for sure result in a poor job. You have to blend into the door and clear lacquer the door as well. I'm not sure about the bonnet; because this is on a different light plane I think it is okay.

 

I am no expert but have seen/done quite enough over the years to know that a really good paint man nowadays WILL get you perfection. You've just got to find him and when you do take him beer every Christmas!

 

Good Luck!

[Sheds Moderator]

Julian, dead right. I dinged a rear corner on a metallic burgundy car, and the bodyshop painted it so well that a car refinishing friend of mine admired it. Sadly the rest of the job was pants, it took them 3 months to work out why the car leaked (answer- they had tied up a sunroof drain tube) and I had to strip out the boot and Seek n Seal every mastic joint 6 months later because all the joints had cracked and in wet weather they o-o-o-o-zed water.