anyone used "Chips Away" ?

ShiWarrior

ShiWarrior

ShiWarrior

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I've some very minor damage/scuff on my rear bumper
Chips away in High Wycombe have quoted me £135inc VAT to repair and re-spray most of the bumper to blend it all in

does that sounds reasonable ? anyone used them before?
 
From what I've read, how good the repair looks depends massively on the skill level of the technician doing the work, i.e. whether they're an older veteran painter or a young'un fresh from the 2 week course he was put on when he got the job.

Personally I wouldn't want a respray on a large area such as 'most of the bumper' done outside of a controlled environment.
 
Pretty much that - it can vary massively depending on who did the work.

I used them to have some bumper damage fixed a while ago. No complaints here and the guy did an excellent job. I'd post pics but it's probably irrelevant.
 
ShiWarrior said:
I've some very minor damage/scuff on my rear bumper
Chips away in High Wycombe have quoted me £135inc VAT to repair and re-spray most of the bumper to blend it all in

does that sounds reasonable ? anyone used them before?
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It sounds reasonable, but having had a Bumper completely resprayed by a bodyshop before, the cost isn't hugely more £200-£250 and likely will be to a higher standard, so worth getting a quote before committing to a "smart-repair"
 
I bought my current car with a smart repair covering a third of the rear bumper. The difference in shine and colour where they blended in such a large paint repair made it just noticeable and it wasn't perfect around the inset parking sensors.

An Audi body shop quoted a full rear bumper respray at £200 and a full respray with bumper off and sensors removed at £300 and that's what I went with. Smart repairs are great for small areas and where they can blend with contours on the panel but l think larger areas are better done properly in a body shop with a full spray booth.
 
They just did my Jag on a few scratches on the bumper (Abingdon branch), they did a great job. Initially thought the paint was ever so slightly a lighter shade but I think it was in my head as everyone else thinks its perfect and I can no longer see a difference

They did my last XF too when someone reversed into my wheel arch and dented it quite badly, again, a great job and it looked as good as new.
 
Dr Who said:
https://www.facebook.com/RefurbdoctorLtd/?pnref=lhc

This guy is amazing, does really good work!
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Some look good, but fixing bigger dents and plastic rips with lots of filler and fibre glass isn't something I would want. The one on the 11th Dec 15 looks a real bodge - I would want that cut out. I wonder how some of those larger ones fair over time.

Maybe I am old school but if its more than a little filler, paint and clearcoat then sections should be separated so paint can go around the edges and metal/plastic damage gets replaced.
 
Simon42 said:
Some look good, but fixing bigger dents and plastic rips with lots of filler and fibre glass isn't something I would want. The one on the 11th Dec 15 looks a real bodge - I would want that cut out. I wonder how some of those larger ones fair over time.

Maybe I am old school but if its more than a little filler, paint and clearcoat then sections should be separated so paint can go around the edges and metal/plastic damage gets replaced.
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I haven't a clue in this sort of thing, but the end result on that one you mentioned looks finished ok or can you see something I cant?
 
Did a great job on my wife's juke but it was flat white.

Had some repairs on my s80 which had the world's most complicated paint and it looked awful. Wasn't chipsaway was an independent.

Depends on colour and expectations. At least with chipsaway if they make a hash of it you'll get some customer service if you're not happy.
 
Helios1234 said:
I had a scruff on the wheel arch of my MX-5. It wasn't small but they did a great job. I couldn't tell afterwards that work had been done on it.
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That was after he did two great jobs on mine a few years apart - rear bumper scuffs, key scratch on door panel, and other bits and pieces. He did a good job. I found the guy because my local toyota dealership used him to sort out cars they sold. I saw his van at the dealership and asked for his card. Thought that if he was good enough for the dealership, he could be trusted. He was also cheaper than permanent bodyshops I got quotes from. Turns out he also lives just a few hundred metres from our parents' home.

As people have said, Chips Away is a franchise, so it depends on each person.
 
I used them some years ago when some vandal decided to key my new car.
They did a brilliant job and two years later when I sold it there were no problems with the paintwork where it had been done.
 
I've had quotes ranging from £315 to £605 to repair some small scratches on my Leon, so I think I'll give Chips Away a go too. It's really not very much damage at all, I can't understand why it's so expensive. :(
 
I had Chips Away do a repair on an Audi TT I used to own and it was a very poor job, you could see where the car had been repaired from a distance and when I asked them to come and sort it out I was given the run around and never saw them again.

I would say that small stone chips are all that they can be trusted with as they did a decent job with one on the TT but it was the small dent where the car had been hit by another cars door that they made a mess of.
 
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