Damage, dent and repair, to repaint the whole part or not?

[M3R8]

Hi,

I sort of asked this question in the general forum, but I figure this might be a more suitable place for it.

The damage is at the very edge of the part. I would very much prefer to get only that small area of the part repaired and repainted, rather than the whole part.

On that thread, harrison said it can be done satisfactorily, but only if the whole part is then resprayed with a clear coat.

If I *must* respray the whole part with clear coat, it's the same as redoing the paint as well, since I'm trying to avoid:

- Visible repaint job

- Different paint thickness on the part vs other parts

- New paint defects (dust, bad adhesion), I've never had a single car part repainted to
perfection and likely won't ever see that done at the authorized shops I end up using.

- Having to redo the vinyl wrap on the repainted part and the vinyl taking away parts of the new paint when removed in the distant future

See the attached images for the damaged part, and a close up of the damage.

Would appreciate any opinions before I go to the shop and tell them what to do. The shop naturally wants to redo the whole part.

Thanks

[AJR8]

Hi! I know that you explain in the other thread that you have never seen a good repaint job well done...but I would take the car to a GOOD body repairman! I fixed the same panel this summer...a boy with a bike hit the car while it was parked and it scrathed and bend the edge over the back wheel...I was affraid that the bodyshop coudn't remake that edge properly because of the body line...well they took the part out (the one in your first picture) and with care because is aluminium and is very hard to work with they fixed the bend, then they sprayed the part put it back on polished the whole car. I can garantee that you would never say that part have been repainted. I went to the official Porsche, Land Rover, Ferrari bodyshop so they know what they are doing.

Don't worry about a bad job, if want to you can ask what they will do and they SHOULD explain it to you over and aver again untill you agree...and they should garantee! Go to the Audi bodyshop and you won't go wrong IMHO.

[M3R8]

I'll save you some real horror stories, but I once had the front bumper on my M3 replaced and therefore repainted, at an "official" garage. It looked fine, until six months later a big piece of paint just peeled and broke off.

There was nobody to talk to and I was not able to explain to them it was from their crappy work as they insisted it was from a new "bump".

[thebishman]

Why bodyshops have to paint a much larger area than just the area of impact/defect, is that they have to blend the paint in to avoid any issues with a minute colour mis-match. The truth is that many times the paint mixed at the bodyshop may in fact not match precisely the paint applied during the manufacturing process. This is almost impossible to avoid when you think about the variables involved. To prevent mismatch, the new paint is blended over a large area so that any hint of colour mis-match is minimized/eliminated.
In your position, I would have the car painted at an Audi designated R8 repair shop, allowing them to perform their usual and customary repair. Then when you have the vinyl re-applied you should have very little chance of noticing the area repaired. Good luck.
Bish

[willyjp]

I've posted this several times in various threads about small body paint repairs, and unfortunately my reference source is a regional USA one, but I will repeat it because POSSIBLY someone near you does similar work. FWIW, no one has ever commented about me posting this experience on R8 talk, so it may be that this type of service is NOT widely available, but it is so good I am amazed if that is so. I have ABSOLUTELY no commercial connection to anyone who does this work, just several amazing results from it!

I first became aware of "micro scratch and dent" work when my '98 Audi A6 was "keyed" by some vandal, leaving it's beautiful multi-hued "Jaspis Green" metallic paint linearly scratched down to white primer over one rear fender and both doors!

I was sick about this, and more so when my body shop visits all turned up the recommendation to either "repaint half the car or the whole thing!!!"

Someone at my Audi dealer sort of "under the counter" advised me to try this fellow who THEY USED to fix minor and intermediate paint issues on dealership cars. I called him and he came and did the repair IN MY GARAGE in about 1/2 day with astonishing results. I swear that, up to 2 years later when I sold the car you COULD NOT SEE THE REPAIR in any light conditions.

The technique he used was to use small tools (Dremel or dental drill size) to grind and fair the repair and, using an airbrush to fill the paint defect with successive layers of paint, including clear coats on the top. Each layer was rubbed out with abrasives and the micro buffer. And he told me he used a paint matching technique that was proprietary with the company he had a franchise with.

The results of this were unbelievably good and he only charged me about $400 for the fender and both doors. If I recall, he priced linear scratches by the foot. He also fixed 2 parking lot "dings", one in another door and one in the trunk lid with equal results and charged me $75 for those two. (this was, however, about 10-12 years ago).

I was referred to this fellow by name and have used him several times since. His franchise grew into a good sized shop with a number of other technicians, but I have always asked for him and been rewarded with amazing results. But I can't believe there aren't a lot of other people out there who can do such work.

If you ask conventional bodyshops about "micro repair" work, most of them will bad mouth it or tell you "horror stories" about bad results, but I think a lot of that is just people protecting their tradition of "repainting the whole side of the car is the only way to go."

Anyway, it might be well worth it to look into the availability of this kind of repair in your local area. The "mother" franchising company that does this work in the Pacific NW of the US (WA, OR, N. Cal) is "Same Day", and this link below goes to their web site.
http://www.sameday-usa.com/

[M3R8]

Thanks Willy! Sameday don't seem to do business outside the US, but we do have a chain called Chipsaway operating here... I'm going to check this angle first thing tomorrow.