# Dent with cracked paint



## Craikeybaby (Sep 15, 2011)

My girlfriend managed to acquire a dent on the rear wheel arch of her Fiat 500, which has cracked the paint.

I assume that a normal dent specialist will only be able to pull out the dent, leaving a straight crack in the paint, would fixing the crack be easy? The limit of my paintwork repairs has been touching in stone chips.

Would a smart repairer be able to fix both the dent and the crack in the paint? If so any recommendation in the Rugby/Coventry area would be welcome. Or am I going to have to take it to a bodyshop?


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## moosh (May 8, 2011)

If i was you mate i would get a dent specialist to repair the dent and then touch in the crack yourself, you dont want to be painting whole panels for small marks really.
As for smart repairers they will likely do a blow in which will eventually return so i would miss that step out.

Firstly and most cost effective way would be dent specialist then touch it up yourself, you will be surprised how good it will look and with a polish it will almost disapear.

what colour is it??


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## Craikeybaby (Sep 15, 2011)

Thanks for the quick reply! It is solid white, the creamy colour that most 500s seem to be painted. I understand solid colours are meant to be easier to touch up.

Is there a technique to fill paint in cracks? I currently use a ****tail stick to gradually fill a stone chip, what would be the best way to go with a long thin crack?


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## corradophil (Oct 31, 2011)

I have a few cracks in the paint on my Golf bumper. There is no gap between the paint either side of the crack, so in order to repair as you would a scratch, I think you would at first need to create a 'valley' along the length of the scratch to give the paint somewhere to go...


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## squiggs (Oct 19, 2009)

moosh said:


> As for smart repairers they will likely do a blow in which will eventually return so i would miss that step out.


???????

I've been doing SMART for the retail (private) market for 5 years now and not once have I had a customer call me to say 'the damage has returned'.
I'm often asked to repair new damage on car years after I've previously repaired it and the original repair's still as good as the day I left it.
At least one national SMART repair franchise offers a life time guarantee for as long as you own the car and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't do that knowing that every repair done throughout their network would eventually deteriorate.

I'm not saying every SMART repair carried out by every SMART repairer will last forever, in the same way that nobody would say every bodyshop repair carried out by every bodyshop job will last forever - there will inevitably be the good and the bad in both.

In both disciplines (bodyshop or Smart) there are a range of products available, some products will perform and last better than others - and in both disciplines there will be some repairers that are simply better other repairers. These two things alone will have the biggest effect on the standard and longevity of a repair - whether it be a bodyshop or Smart repair.

IMHO as long as damage is suited to Smart repair techniques and the repair is carried out by a competent Smart repairer using quality materials there shouldn't be any reason why it would return.


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## moosh (May 8, 2011)

Craikeybaby said:


> Thanks for the quick reply! It is solid white, the creamy colour that most 500s seem to be painted. I understand solid colours are meant to be easier to touch up.
> 
> Is there a technique to fill paint in cracks? I currently use a ****tail stick to gradually fill a stone chip, what would be the best way to go with a long thin crack?


I would do just that mate or buy a very fine modelling paint brush, build it up in layers until it sits proud of the scratch, leave it a week and them with a little wet sand paper take the height down and polish it back up.

Compound by hand would do it in such a small area.

I pictured it to be white lol! Used to be a panel beater paint sprayer and served my time at fiat and toyota :thumb:


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## moosh (May 8, 2011)

squiggs said:


> ???????
> 
> I've been doing SMART for the retail (private) market for 5 years now and not once have I had a customer call me to say 'the damage has returned'.
> I'm often asked to repair new damage on car years after I've previously repaired it and the original repair's still as good as the day I left it.
> ...


I agree with you mate and please dont be offended by my comment and i think by your response you know what i ment, what i mean is i have seen a lot of blow ins return and colour variations from smart repairs and yeah same goes for bodyshops i guess.

What kind of paint do you guys use for say a base coat and clear?

Acrylic and polyurethane?


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## moosh (May 8, 2011)

corradophil said:


> I have a few cracks in the paint on my Golf bumper. There is no gap between the paint either side of the crack, so in order to repair as you would a scratch, I think you would at first need to create a 'valley' along the length of the scratch to give the paint somewhere to go...


if your has cracked on your bumper mate it sounds to me its had a very light bump and the paint has actually hairline cracked away from the plastic of the bumper as the bumper will have more flex than the paint, ive seen it a lot on golfs and paticularly the sister in laws golf R32 that she often reverses into bottle banks, fences, high kerbs and probably anything else in the way :lol:


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## Craikeybaby (Sep 15, 2011)

corradophil said:


> I have a few cracks in the paint on my Golf bumper. There is no gap between the paint either side of the crack, so in order to repair as you would a scratch, I think you would at first need to create a 'valley' along the length of the scratch to give the paint somewhere to go...


That was my fear, it's a bit unnerving making something worse to make it better...


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## Craikeybaby (Sep 15, 2011)

Would a SMART repairer remove the dent too, or will I need to see the dent man first anyway?

It sounds like this was much the same thing, she reversed into a column in an underground car park and the metal flexed more than the paint could cope with.


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## moosh (May 8, 2011)

Craikeybaby said:


> Would a SMART repairer remove the dent too, or will I need to see the dent man first anyway?
> 
> It sounds like this was much the same thing, she reversed into a column in an underground car park and the metal flexed more than the paint could cope with.


Does your bumper have a dent in it? Easiest way and best way is with a heat gun, heat the bumper up in and around the dent not going to close and slowly building up the heat until the plastic is fairly hot and push the dent out from behind using a kind of smearing motion (i was going to say stroking) using something like a rounded screw driver handle work the dent from the deepest part outwards. Once happy with where the dent is use a cold sponge on the back of the dent using force. What this does is cool the plastic and allows it to shrink back and hold its new postion much like it was prior to being stretched.

If that makes any sense?! I know how to do it but terrible at explaining the procedure


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## corradophil (Oct 31, 2011)

moosh said:


> if your has cracked on your bumper mate it sounds to me its had a very light bump and the paint has actually hairline cracked away from the plastic of the bumper as the bumper will have more flex than the paint, ive seen it a lot on golfs and paticularly the sister in laws golf R32 that she often reverses into bottle banks, fences, high kerbs and probably anything else in the way :lol:


Yep, the bumper flexed too far for the paint to cope with. Mine happened when a deer ran across the road in front of me, hit an oncoming car and bounced back into my path. The dear ended up behind the front bumper in front of the N/S front wheel, but of course the bumper flexed quite a bit.


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## moosh (May 8, 2011)

corradophil said:


> Yep, the bumper flexed too far for the paint to cope with. Mine happened when a deer ran across the road in front of me, hit an oncoming car and bounced back into my path. The dear ended up behind the front bumper in front of the N/S front wheel, but of course the bumper flexed quite a bit.


Ouch mate  were you all ok?

I remember fixing an A6 (the fancy one) that had hit a fox on the motorway at an off the record speed of 130 and what a mess it made, the onlything that stopped it damaging any further was the engine block. eeek there was nothing left of the fox when it came in.


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## squiggs (Oct 19, 2009)

moosh said:


> I agree with you mate and please dont be offended by my comment and i think by your response you know what i ment, what i mean is i have seen a lot of blow ins return and colour variations from smart repairs and yeah same goes for bodyshops i guess.
> 
> What kind of paint do you guys use for say a base coat and clear?
> 
> Acrylic and polyurethane?


No offence taken :thumb: - it's just that it can become a little tedious when someone that has had one bad experience of Smart then posts 'all Smart repairs are crap' - this obviously isn't the case here.

The only problem with smart v's detailing is that there is always a chance that the uninitiated will go at the repaired area hammer and tongs and burn through an edge. But I carry out some work for a pro-detailer every now and then and I leave him to 'do his thing' to my work with no problems.

It's amazing what you can get away with with a bit of dulux and some yacht varnish


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## Craikeybaby (Sep 15, 2011)

moosh said:


> Does your bumper have a dent in it? Easiest way and best way is with a heat gun, heat the bumper up in and around the dent not going to close and slowly building up the heat until the plastic is fairly hot and push the dent out from behind using a kind of smearing motion (i was going to say stroking) using something like a rounded screw driver handle work the dent from the deepest part outwards. Once happy with where the dent is use a cold sponge on the back of the dent using force. What this does is cool the plastic and allows it to shrink back and hold its new postion much like it was prior to being stretched.
> 
> If that makes any sense?! I know how to do it but terrible at explaining the procedure


That does seem to make sense, but I'll leave the dent repair bit to a professional. It's just in front of the rear wheel, so not too easy to get behind.


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## squiggs (Oct 19, 2009)

Craikeybaby said:


> That does seem to make sense, but I'll leave the dent repair bit to a professional. It's just in front of the rear wheel, so not too easy to get behind.


A dent man or a smart repairer could do it for you.

A word of warning on paint cracks on plastic. 
These can quite often be deeper than first thought. 
I've done repairs where I've sanded back the crack in the paint to then find it goes right through to the primer. So then you have to sand it out of the primer .... the thing is quite often the crack in the primer is so fine it's invisible, but then during the baking process the plastic expands and the fine crack that the repairer couldn't see can (very slightly) open up. 
Usually once cooled down it will close again but it can leave a defect in the finish which usually, but not always, can be flatted back and polished out.
A repair is ... just a repair ... so it's worth noting that no matter how skilled the repairer in a lot of cases if you look really closely and know what you're looking for you might find evidence.


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## Tol (Jul 16, 2006)

moosh said:


> What kind of paint do you guys use for say a base coat and clear?
> 
> Acrylic and polyurethane?


It varies. Some repairers (perhaps the majority) will be using exactly the same products as the local bodyshop (which has health and safety implications!). Others may have access to specialist products (but usually at a higher cost per litre).

Clearly, in keeping repairs small, colour match is more important than when a repairer can paint wide to blend in a poor match. Investment in a paint system with good colour support, (or being skilled at tinting your mix!) makes a lot of sense to a SMART repairer, regardless of the chemistry behind their paints.

As a rule of thumb though, SMART repairers in the UK will be using waterborne paints (latex or specialist resin based) and a 2k clearcoat - I would guess acrylic being the most popular - just like traditional bodyshops. All automotive coating products in the EU marketplace have to meet max VOC content rules, which means the old days of SMART repair being done with 1k clearcoat are long gone (thank goodness).

The assumption that there are clear distinctions between SMART and bodyshop is no longer correct. Bodyshops offer mobile/SMART/local/express repairs too - sometimes with the exact same materials. "SMART repair" businesses have premises and booths. The industry is a spectrum now, not one or the other. The real difference is perhaps about focus - who do they think of as their customer? A SMART repairer would answer: the car dealer, fleet manager or car owner. A Bodyshop would probably answer: the insurance company. But even those lines are getting blurry. Like many industries, it's getting tougher and attitudes are having to change for businesses to survive.


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## Craikeybaby (Sep 15, 2011)

It sounds like I'm best off trying to find someone local then, does anyone know someone good around Coventry, or is there a recommendations thread I've missed?


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## corradophil (Oct 31, 2011)

moosh said:


> Ouch mate  were you all ok?
> 
> I remember fixing an A6 (the fancy one) that had hit a fox on the motorway at an off the record speed of 130 and what a mess it made, the onlything that stopped it damaging any further was the engine block. eeek there was nothing left of the fox when it came in.


All unharmed except the Deer and my car. The Deer was dead, and my car suffered a bent track rod, destroyed wheel arch liner, damaged engine liners and light bumper damage. The damage an animal can do is quite suprising.


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## Tol (Jul 16, 2006)

Craikeybaby said:


> does anyone know someone good around Coventry?


I've not ever actually worked alongside them, but I've known Carrie and Simon for 8 years and can absolutely vouch for their professionalism, and the good reputation of their business.

Unit 14 Lifford Way
Binley Industrial Estate
Coventry
CV3 2RN

Tel. 024 7644 1221
Mob. 07968 273630

Full disclosure, my business is part of the same network as theirs, but there are no legal or financial links between the two.


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## Craikeybaby (Sep 15, 2011)

Tol said:


> I've not ever actually worked alongside them, but I've known Carrie and Simon for 8 years and can absolutely vouch for their professionalism, and the good reputation of their business.
> 
> Unit 14 Lifford Way
> Binley Industrial Estate
> ...


Well it is booked in with them next Wednesday, they think the dent man will be able to pull then dent then they will touch in the crank in the paint. Will update when it has been done.


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## Craikeybaby (Sep 15, 2011)

Well, their dent man couldn't get behind the panel to remove the dent, so it will have to be filled and painted, which isn't ideal. I'm thinking it will be best to go to a proper body shop for that amount of work.


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