Country roads and motorway miles take their toll on the front of a car. Loose grit flicks up, and before long the bonnet, bumper and wing mirrors are dotted with little nicks in the paint. On their own they look harmless, but each one is a gap where moisture can get in. Bring the car to our Fairford workshop, or send a few photos, and we will tell you what it needs and what it will cost.
What a chip actually does
A stone chip is more than a cosmetic blemish. When grit knocks a flake of paint off, it leaves the primer or bare metal open to the weather. From there it can go one of two ways: the edges of the chip start to lift and spread, or water sits in the gap and rust begins to bloom underneath. Catch it early and it is a small fix. Leave it a winter or two and you may be looking at a respray of the whole panel.
How we put chips right
The approach depends on what we find:
- Clean and assess. We clean the area, check how deep each chip goes and whether any have started to rust.
- Prep. Any flaking edges are feathered back and rust is treated so the repair has something solid to sit on.
- Colour match. We match to your paint code and mix the colour by eye against the panel to get it spot on.
- Touch in and blend. The paint is built up, levelled and blended so the repair sits flush with the original finish.
For a panel that has taken a real battering, a light respray or refinish of the affected area often looks better than dozens of individual touch ins. If a chip has been left long enough to dent or pit the metal, we may bring our dent and scratch repair work into it too. Front bumpers in particular cop a lot, so bumper repairs sometimes go hand in hand with the chip work.
Honest advice, no upsell
Not every chip is worth chasing. If a few are purely cosmetic and nowhere near rusting, we will say so rather than talk you into work you do not need. Where chips have broken through to metal, that is when it pays to act, and we will be straight with you about which is which.
If the repair is going through insurance after a knock, remember the choice of body shop is yours. There is more on choosing your own repairer if that is useful.
Drivers we look after
We tidy up chipped paintwork for people right across the area, from Fairford and Cirencester through to Witney and Swindon. Pop in whenever suits, or get a free quote first and book a day that works for you.