Hit and run
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Discussion

RBV8

Original Poster:

422 posts

261 months

Tuesday 20th January 2009
quotequote all
Sunday morning wandered over to the Tiv to take a nice morning spin out to lunch with the wife only to find that someone had clobbered my driver side front wing / wheel arch leaving a mass of white paint and scratches down to the bare GRP.

No note, nothing!

The excess will be at least £300 and then god knows what this will do to my premium if I claim.

Has anyone ever used Chips Away on a TVR? My Dad used them on his Shoguns bumpers and they did a good job but not sure about letting them loose on my car.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Off to weep some more....


Zippee

14,128 posts

264 months

Tuesday 20th January 2009
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Really sorry to hear that. Theres too many scum out there!
TBH chips away are really good for just that - chips. Remember that with GRP it's what you can't see that often causes the problems. the fibreglass crazes under the paint so unless fully stripped back and repaired a gloss over will only be temporary.
It may be worth a call to a couple of TVR aware bodyshops to get their opinion and some quotes.
Out of interest do you have protected NCB? I had a fault claim in 07 but due to losing no NCB my renewal was barely more than I'd paid prior to the accident and even now I pay less on my T350 than I did when I had my Chim.

RBV8

Original Poster:

422 posts

261 months

Tuesday 20th January 2009
quotequote all
Hmmm good point will call around and get a few opinions. Will get a quote from Chips too.

Will check the NCB side of things, need to root out the docs...filing not my strong point wink

Cheers

Rich

Dave_M

5,486 posts

254 months

Tuesday 20th January 2009
quotequote all
Sorry to hear that, it's really annoying.

About 18 months back, I saw a woman hit a parked car and try and drive off. I made sure she couldn't get by my car and told her I was reporting her if she didn't stop (the owner was a local shop keeper). She had no choice to stop, just as well as it was clear she liked the sherry too much.

I got abused by local yobs who said she hadn't done anything (damage to both cars was clear. I'm not imtimidated by things like that, it just annoys me as other people are left to pay the bill. Also, it could have been a child, cyclist or whatever she hit.

Anyhow, if you have it on a classic policy NCB doesn't count but I think they may load subsequent policies abit (although mine wasn't after my 1st cerb burnt out).

Good luck.

Dave

shake n bake

2,221 posts

237 months

Tuesday 20th January 2009
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personally i'd get it professionally repaired, some chips away guys are very good, others are not! i saw a guy clober a new alfa in tesco's carpark once, unfortunately for him he was in a van with his name painted down the side! i waited for the owner and told him. there are too many dishonest people out there.......

amazon

3,704 posts

241 months

Tuesday 20th January 2009
quotequote all
Sorry to hear about your car frown.

I have not used Chips Away, but a friend in the Cambridge area has and was very pleased with the result.

However, as someone else said, by the sounds of the damage, I would be more inclined to get it done at a bodyshop - just because it's quite a large area.... (or maybe I'm just being daft of course! tongue out ).

Taraka30

225 posts

238 months

Tuesday 20th January 2009
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I'm not sure that companies such as Chips Away will touch GRP cars - could be wrong but thought I'd heard that so worth calling ahead to avoid disappointment if you have a way to go.

James

V8 GRF

7,299 posts

240 months

Wednesday 21st January 2009
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Sorry to be doom and gloom but if there is a lot of scraping and paint removal the damage is probably worse than you'd think as fibreglass deflects when hit and then returns to it's former shape, unlike metal. I had my rear wing caught by a Volvo when parked and although superficial to look at it, it resulted in a £700 job, including a scuffed alloy.

I doubt that a superficial paint repair like chips would last or be sufficient.

Personally I wouln't have a Chips repair anywhere near my TVR as the paint is OK for a year or two (speaking from experience here)and then you can see the reapair. So OK for your Eurobox rep mobile but not your P&J.

so called

9,160 posts

239 months

Wednesday 21st January 2009
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My Tuscan had had a knock on the rear off side wing before I bought her. Looked fine then but now there are a lot of fine crack lines showing through.
Mine needs doing properly and at least a rear quarter respray.
I scratched my Chimaera wing against a wall while in Germany and that cost €900.

Anatol

1,392 posts

264 months

Wednesday 21st January 2009
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V8 GRF said:
Personally I wouln't have a Chips repair anywhere near my TVR as the paint is OK for a year or two (speaking from experience here)
Worth being aware that ChipsAway introduced an entirely new paint system in 2008, to take advantage of the latest technology and to be fully compliant with the newer VOC regs. This is a 2-pack product (unlike the original solvent-borne 1k lacquer) and has similar durability when fully cured to factory finishes or traditional bodyshop refinish materials now.

The 1k stuff was not very durable, by its very nature. If your experience was of that system, the new stuff is a completely different kettle of fish smile

Anatol (ChipsAway Cambridge)

Edited by Anatol on Wednesday 21st January 14:46

V8 GRF

7,299 posts

240 months

Wednesday 21st January 2009
quotequote all
Anatol said:
The 1k stuff was not very durable, by its very nature. If your experience was of that system, the new stuff is a completely different kettle of fish smile

Anatol (ChipsAway Cambridge)
Yes my experience was of the older stuff so my comments and knowledge are restricted to that.

In context though I still feel that the damage unless very superficial is beyond a Chipsaway type of repair, as I'm sure you'll agree.

Chris71

21,549 posts

272 months

Wednesday 21st January 2009
quotequote all
Sorry to hear that. frown

Somebody took the whole mirror assembly off my Quantum when it was parked on the street - wrenched the mounting plate clean off too. I suspect it was drunken chavs rather than an oncoming car though. bds whoever it was.

Anatol

1,392 posts

264 months

Wednesday 21st January 2009
quotequote all
V8 GRF said:
In context though I still feel that the damage unless very superficial is beyond a Chipsaway type of repair, as I'm sure you'll agree.
I was more commenting on your experience of the paint system than the OP's particular situation. But certainly, if there's any damage to the composite substrate, it should go to a GRP specialist, and is really out of the arena of SMART repair, or most non-specialist bodyshops.

If the GRP is exposed but undamaged, then a skilled SMART repairer, with any branding, should be able to manage filling the scratches and refinishing the arch and wing, even on a marque with typically large blend zones such as a TVR.

A caveat; there are a lot of SMART repairers out there that I would consider 'unskilled' for the purposes of the paragraph above wink

Anatol

Mustang Baz

1,653 posts

264 months

Thursday 22nd January 2009
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Rich - has happened twice to me now in London (SW) and I have found BeeGee Coachcraft in New Malden to be excellent, well priced and very experienced in TVR's. Give Gary a call and he should be able to assist you. Lots of folk on here have also used him.

DonnyMac

3,634 posts

233 months

Thursday 22nd January 2009
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ChipsAway do not have the skill set necessary to do the job.
I had a small sctrach/hole and the insurers refused for anyone to touch it but ChipsAway "who work on these sort of cars all the time..."

Yeah right.

ChipsAway guy came round, said it was beyond the scope of their system and then sent me a "to whom it may concern" letter to send to the insurance company so I could get a proper firm to do the job.
ChipsAway, no idea of the quality of their work - but top chaps!

Anatol

1,392 posts

264 months

Thursday 22nd January 2009
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DonnyMac said:
ChipsAway do not have the skill set necessary to do the job.
The ChipsAway skillset varies totally depending on the operator.

Alan Murphy from ChipsAway Manchester ran a traditional bodyshop for over 20 years before joining ChipsAway, as an example.

Generalisation about capability and experience is therefore pretty meaningless smile

Your local operator clearly doesn't have the repair skills necessary, but it sounds like he's offered a very professional service nonetheless thumbup

Tol

V8 GRF

7,299 posts

240 months

Thursday 22nd January 2009
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Anatol, you're cherry picking comments from quite well balanced posts that make it look as though posters are criticising Chipsaway without qualifying the remarks. Chipsaway, as the name implies, is as I perceive it for repairing light cosmetic damage and I would have no problem in using it on a metal bodied production car if the new process is as good as you say.

That said the painting and repair of fibreglass is indeed a specilaist area and I wouldn't dream of having chipsaway repair the paint on my TVR, that's my choice and I wouldn't recommend anything other than an experienced paintshop to anyone where the fibreglass was visible or where an impact is likely to have caused stress damage.

Anatol

1,392 posts

264 months

Thursday 22nd January 2009
quotequote all
V8 GRF said:
Anatol, you're cherry picking comments from quite well balanced posts...
Sorry, not my intention to misrepresent the posts. If I'm commenting on just a bit of a post but agree with the rest I tend to quote just the bit I'm commenting on.

Apologies if this came across as confrontational. I absolutely respect the rights of owners to choose whatever method to repair their P&J. I draw a lot of work from PH'ers though, so I try to redress the balance a little if I see comments in a post that suggest that our network is a homogenous one when it comes to facilities and capability.

The last thing I'm looking to do is rub PH'ers up the wrong way - they're cherished customers (and potential customers!). I can bang the drum a little loudly after a touch too much coffee, however wink

Tol