ChipsAway repair on bumper

[Anonymous]

I've just spent a nightmare 5 hours with a ChipsAway operator.

Three weeks ago someone/something left me with 3 scrapes on the bumper right hand corner and wheel arch. My 2000 MkIII is Astral Black.

Although small scrapes, Cambridge Toyota quoted £300 to respray the whole rear bumper, which seemed a lot. Having heard lots of positive things about ChipsAway's smart repair, and as I was quoted just £85 I decided to give it a go. Should take no more than 2 hours he said.

Unfortunately he was at it for almost five hours, and he just could not get the lacquer to match. Basically he had to reapply and repolish it three times, and it still does not look right. This chap has been doing this for 18 months, and works almost full time for a Merc dealer, and he claimed this was one of the worst problem cases he has ever had. Something about the paint and the lacquer being the thinnest he had ever worked with, including on other Toyotas.

I don't know how much of that was true but my conclusion is ChipsAway and Black MR2s don't go well together. Be warned.

I'm going to see how it cures and then decide whether to go ahead with the respray  s:-( :-( s:-(

I should add that he felt bad enough about it that he did not want payment.

Mark

[Slacey]

To be honest, I've not heard good things about ChipsAway. I was going to get my ding repaired by DentWizard (who were highly recommended), but I still haven't got round to it!   s:roll: :roll: s:roll:

[dancarbon]

it's good that the guy didn't take any money from you, but a shame he couldn't sort your problem.

The black paint Toyota uses is apauling, we've had to have the bonnet and bmper fully resprayed just due to stonechips and marks! It is starting to go down the same path again though, even some of the bug splats look like they have marked the paint   s:( s:(   and I have inherited some rear corner bumper scratches too   s:( s:(   Why can't people park properly   s:?: :?: s:?:  

I would suggest getting a price for repainting the bumper from somewhere other than Toyota, by recommendation if you can. It shouldn't cost as much. We were lucky that a cousin has a dent repair business so he sorted us out cheaply.

Hope you get sorted soon.

[Comer]

Mark how did your paint job work out in the end?  This evening I've just shelled out £150 for 2 small digs on the rear bumper and one minor scratch on the front bumper of my 2002 car.  They have filled the scrapes perfectly to a real smooth finish.

But my car is also black and to be honest at this moment my reflection is nowhere near as clear as it is on the original paintwork.  I'm scared stiff to see whether it will stay like that and I'm feeling pretty gutted now.

There were 2 chaps and they have advised me not to wash it for 48 hours if possible and definitely not polish it for 2 weeks while the lacquer cuts in  s:? :? s:?  

Can anyone speak from experience as to whether these repair jobs look better after a wash and /or polish.

[Anonymous]

Late reply ... been away.

Well, the bloke said to polish it after five days. So I did, with Meguire Scratch X. A few very scary moments when the polish refused to come off and the whole area went completely grey and dull. I then discovered that the best way to take Scratch X off is with more of itself, but removing immediately instead of letting it dry.

Getting that right took a long time, but it did improve the shine. I then used Meguire Crystal Polish and Meguire Gold Class wax. End result, could not tell the difference between repaired area and normal paintwork from most angles, although the reflection off it is not as crystal clear as off normal paintwork.

So it did improve, so much so that I'm going to skip the respray ... plus I'm not convinced they would be able to get it mirror clear as it was before anyway.

Next time silver.

Mark