Smart Repair Quality

[Jaguar99]

Hi all

I had a scratch on one of my door mirrors. Arranged for a local smart repair guy to come out and sort it

He painted it, good colour match and scratch gone

However, the finish on the painted mirror isn’t quite as good as the other mirror which still has the factory finish. It looks ok from a distance but if you look at your face in the reflection on the paintwork it’s blurry compared to the other mirror

When I pointed this out to him a couple of days later when I noticed he said no problem he would pop buy and re polish. He did this last week and it’s still the same. Except he has now also missed a bit when repolishing so there’s a funny “flat” bit

He says he will come out again and sort. My questions are whether the reflection in the smart repaired paintwork should be the same as the factory finish and also why he is struggling. Has he been unlucky or are mirrors hard to polish?

I don’t really want to have to go to a body shop to get this done if I don’t have to but if he can’t get it right this time I think I might have to

[Furbo]

Jaguar99 said:

Hi all

I had a scratch on one of my door mirrors. Arranged for a local smart repair guy to come out and sort it

He painted it, good colour match and scratch gone

However, the finish on the painted mirror isn t quite as good as the other mirror which still has the factory finish. It looks ok from a distance but if you look at your face in the reflection on the paintwork it s blurry compared to the other mirror

When I pointed this out to him a couple of days later when I noticed he said no problem he would pop buy and re polish. He did this last week and it s still the same. Except he has now also missed a bit when repolishing so there s a funny flat bit

He says he will come out again and sort. My questions are whether the reflection in the smart repaired paintwork should be the same as the factory finish and also why he is struggling. Has he been unlucky or are mirrors hard to polish?

I don t really want to have to go to a body shop to get this done if I don t have to but if he can t get it right this time I think I might have to

I've had a lot of smart repairs and the quality has varied from magical to passable. I generally take the view now that a good smart repair is one where someone who didn't know it was there would not see it. Not necessarily perfect.

[steveo3002]

the smart repair bit means -Small to Medium Accurate Repair Technique

they can be done with quality materials in a warm bdoyshop or the cheapest dregs by a cowboy in the street in the damp , id take a guess he used cheapo 1k clear that never has a depth of shine like the proper stuff

imo its often bare minimum quality suitable for sales cars , not sure id want my car painted in the street in a uk winter

anyway yeah youve got a cowboy ...honestly who cant paint a mirror to a good standard after 2x tries?

Edited by steveo3002 on Monday 16th February 07:50

[Jaguar99]

Yeah, seemed like a good idea at the time. I had two previous cars smart repaired in the past (again outside by a man in a van) and was very pleased with the results so didn’t hesitate this time

Unfortunately I don’t live where I did with the previous cars so getting the same guy back wasn’t an option. This guy came from recommendation and if you were less fussy then me you might not notice

I put feelers out to a local smart repairer that has a workshop and a body shop that is right on my doorstep to get it sorted properly

Just glad it was only the mirror casing and not an actual body panel!

[steveo3002]

yeah thats a god send its just a mirror