A little scuff repair on a wheel arch, it may be minor but for the customer sometimes these can be the most annoying. Having a body repair shop do the job can be pricey and often not justifiable for something so small. However this is where a SMART repair makes the most sense. We come to you so its convenient and we can repair the scuff for a fraction of the cost. The paint is blended in perfectly and lacquered to give it a nice new look again.
This was an interesting job to do as the van had damage on both the wheel arch and the door. Usually a door repair is outside the scope of SMART repair, but the damage was very much on the far right and not breaching into the middle of the door.
The first thing to do was to remove the sign-writing as spraying over or around this is not an option. Luckily the writing was due to be updated anyway, so it was not a problem for the customer to have it removed, if anything it was beneficial.
Once the stickers had been removed the panel is wiped down using solvents to remove the sticky residue left over from the sign-writing. As the van colour is a solid it was also important to machine polish the panels before being sprayed, this is to ensure the fading is brought back to the original colour as much as possible so fresh paint will match. The SMART system allows colour to be tweaked anyway, but its good to have as best a match as possible to begin with.
Repairing the damage to the wing with a variety of panel beating tools and flat edges was used to get the bent metal back into shape as much as possible. As for the door, this required the door card inside to be temporarily taken off so tools can be used to push dents back out from behind.
Filler is then used to fill in any dips and and regain some shape. This is rubbed down and filler reapplied a number of times until the shape is correct and the overall surface is smooth.
I used masking tape to contain the work area, this prevented any reduction paper from scratching areas further away from the actual damage causing the repair to creep into a larger area.
The door and wheel arch is then sprayed with undercoat and rubbed down with Wet & Dry paper. Again, this process may be repeated a number of times until the area is smooth, scratch and blemish free.
The final coat of primer I add blue, this helps the colour coat to cover better and require less paint.
Unfortunately on this particular van I had some problems matching the colour. All the non-metallic blue’s Ford produced did not come close to the colour of this van! I finally concluded that the van was not a standard Ford colour and so must be an ex-fleet van. This can be a problem as there are so many fleet colours to choose from. However, it looked suspiciously like a British Gas blue colour and after mixing a little paint up and trying it, the match was perfect – ta da!
After spraying on a thin coat of British Gas blue, all that was left to do was spray on some lacquer, and blend out using special materials so no feather line is left.
The final result was a perfect repair on a blue van that has been re-purposed for life outside British Gas. Its always good to see vans have a long busy life.
Dents in wing on this blue rover. Even though the dents where fairly minor the actual wing had been pulled out by a large margin. Putting a straight edge along side it showed how far it needed to be banged back into place. If only the dents where repaired then it would look ok looking at it straight on, but from the side it would have looked odd.
A common problem with a Ford Focus are rusty lower wheels arches. However, they are easy to repair and blend.
This is a typical example of a scuffed bumper that Smarter Cars repair all the time.
Once its finished, its as good as new. Took less then 3 hours and it can already be polished up.
All four wheels on this Honda were fully refurbished. The damage was minimal but rust patches and paint flake was consistent over the surface.
The effected areas are sanded and rubbed down ready for priming with undercoat.
The wheel is then sprayed with silver and lacquered. We use high quality 2K lacquer that is durable, ideal for the abuse roads give to wheels.
Ford KA rust around the petrol cap is very common, though we can not guarantee rust it can be repaired and paint matched and blended out.
The repair certainly makes the car look smarter.
You park on a narrow street only to return and find your wing mirror hanging off! It happens….narrow country lanes also seem to be a culprit for poorly wing mirrors. Using specialist techniques wing mirrors can be re-attached and repaired. Dont resort to parcel tape! Give Smarter Cars a call.
Here a wing has been badly crushed in, damaging the front indicator too. Most garages will want to replace the whole wing with an expensive cost attached.
Using special SMART techniques and tools the majority of the dent is pushed back into place. A flat surface is used to check for high spots which are also tapped back into place.
A special filler is used which will be rubbed down a number of times to regain a nice smooth surface.
Once the wing has been repaired a thick undercoat is applied. This will be rubbed down and re-applied a number of times until the surface is very smooth, scratch and blemish free.
A base coat (colour) is then applied taking care to ensure the paint blends in perfectly with the existing paint.
Finally a high quality lacquer is applied and blended in perfectly to hide any joining seams. A new indicator light is also fitted.
Wings are often scuffed just as much as bumpers, especially with small driveways. SMART repairs are designed to work within the affected area keeping it as local as possible, this way the new paint can be blended for a perfect match with no need to spray the whole wing.
