[messis]

Hi guys,

Unfortunately I have put a little bit of damage on my pride and joy BMW, basically a scratch on the driver door and the door handle as seen in the pics.
Highly zoomed in! Scratch length is about 3 CM:




Now To get it fixed... I have been offered a SMART repair for free as part of my cosmetic insurance (separate to the car insurance so can claim without any worries). However, this is done by a mobile Smart repair company and not BMW approved bodyshop. I wonder whether I can trust this kind of company to fix it?

On the other hand, I have been quoted by a BMW bodyshop £715 to repair it to as new condition. This would have to come out of my pocket, or go through my main car insurance which would make me pay at least £400 excess anyway and lose 7yrs no claims, so....

My question to those of you with more experience in this kind of damage and repair (I have zero).

1) Can a mobile smart repair fix this Perfectly? (they claim they can...), this would be the best option money-wise but I am not sure if it is actually possible to repair this to completely invisible?
2) Is BMW bodyshop price normal or ridiculous? The quote specifically says "repair" and not "respray", ~£340 labour + ~£250 paint materials

thanks for your advice!

[R3dliner]

you can do this yourself as well. I'm sure the mobile guy will do the same.
Buy a paint pen with a clear coat.
You can wetsand after you applied the clear coat and buff. It will come out decent if you want to opt out of respraying the entire surface.

[WingZeroX5]

This is just paint damage, no body panels are actually bent out of shape like from a collision. I can just see them scuff it up and re-blend the paint to match the panels. Using BMW for anything will be expensive, as you can see, the labor costs the most.

FYI, no matter how you look at it, it won't be "perfect" anymore. A car re-sprayed and blended to match is only there to trick the eye. If you really look closely, the paint won't match like fresh from the factory for a variety of reasons.

[messis]

Originally Posted by R3dliner

you can do this yourself as well.

Unfortunately zero experience and I'm not going to make experiments that could make things worse, I'm upset enough I caused this in the first place

Originally Posted by WingZeroX5

FYI, no matter how you look at it, it won't be "perfect" anymore. A car re-sprayed and blended to match is only there to trick the eye. If you really look closely, the paint won't match like fresh from the factory for a variety of reasons.

This worries me, both the Smart repair people and the BMW bodyshop have promised me an invisible result even at close range, I'd love to understand what "won't match factory" really means... Would a non-expert eye be able to tell the difference? Let's say I retake the pictures above after the repair, how visible would it be in your opinion?

Do you think I should even consider the bodyshop option or will the result be identical to the Mobile Smart repair?

[Peter_R]

I would go for the smart repair first and see how happy you are with it. I had one done last year by Oxford BMW and you cannot see where it was done.

If you are unhappy then decide whether you want to pay for a full repair.

[DanG]

I had a rear panel fixed by a non BMW approved shop almost two years ago. No one can tell that the repair was done without a paint thickness gage. It can definitely be fixed with invisible results to the naked eye.

[ChuckAWDM2]

My vote is for the smart repair. Use the chunk of change savings for mods and a nice dinner and still have some cash left and wont know the difference. I have a mobile guy from when I used to work at a dealership. If they're good. Will be a perfect match. Dealerships use those guys to touch up cars on the lot.

[Peter_R]

messis

There are several mobile smart repair specialists in the Oxford area who have contracts with franchised car and van dealerships to do smart repairs on second hand cars. They would not get the contract if their work was not up to standard.

[WingZeroX5]

Originally Posted by messis

Unfortunately zero experience and I'm not going to make experiments that could make things worse, I'm upset enough I caused this in the first place



This worries me, both the Smart repair people and the BMW bodyshop have promised me an invisible result even at close range, I'd love to understand what "won't match factory" really means... Would a non-expert eye be able to tell the difference? Let's say I retake the pictures above after the repair, how visible would it be in your opinion?

Do you think I should even consider the bodyshop option or will the result be identical to the Mobile Smart repair?

If you retook the picture and compare it side by side, I'm willing to bet that you cannot tell the difference. However, if you took a picture or look at it from different angles in the sun, those panels *MAY* look different because BOTH shops blend the paint so that it's an optical illusion to us. Say for example a car got hit on the door and the door gets repaired. A competent body shop that knows what they're doing and proper practice will buff up the front fender and rear quarter (or door if sedan) and blend the paint. If they just painted the door, then it will definitely look obvious.

When I say it won't match factory, I mean with the age, wear and tear, and different coats of paint applied, it will never be like the day it rolled out of the factory with that fresh coat of paint applied all at once.