ChrisB Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Here's my little story about a good result fixing a wing after a hit and run... Back in December last year, the wife and I went to a party on the south coast. It being a mucky weather time of year, Precious the Zed stayed at home - parked in her usual spot on hard standing away from the road... Imagine my surprise when, after probably the only night away from the house that year, we return to this Cryin' in the rain.. and.. Noooo.... the crease and the door shut would never straighten properly by panel beating. So the hunt for a new wing started. Our usual chaps were unfortunately out of stock - and local (150 mile radius) scrap dealer stuff at the time was like hens teeth (or iffy). There are plenty of pattern/patent non oem wings floating around, but they don't have the repeater light holes punched out (so image trying to get that done nicely) and also have a reputation for not fitting at all well. That left genuine OEM as the only solution. However, OEM is not cheap (>£300 unpainted), which for a hit-and-run repair, it seemed immoral to pay for that! So after a few months waiting, and a lot of checking the saved searches, i got lucky... eBay to the rescue - a genuine OEM for £50 cash which had been in a chap's garage. Nearly lost it in a bidding fight - but I killed that by putting in a silly final price, and fortunately the other guy bailed at £52. Just what I wanted! Tada! Now of course, painting.. Silver can be tricky to match. There are options here - cheapest is not always the best... quotes were £120 for a chap who just uses codes, £180 for a chap who uses codes, and blends by eye.. or £190 Taras' excellent service at RT-Performance, which involved a digital scanner at his trusted paint supplier. No brainer then: got her scanned in deepest Park Royal London (yay sat nav), they mixed the paint on the spot, then I dropped the wing and paint off to Taras for preparation and painting (holy crap the London traffic!) and then next day, return to have it fitted.. (bonus - I had previously expected to do that bit myself) Inside a wing ...and back to former beauty Very much better. I'd like to recommend RT-Performance for their quality and reasonably priced work. A lot of searching around, a fair bit of travelling around, and a good body shop to implement and you get a great result (total about £278 + nearly a tank of fuel). Absolutely no point going via insurance either - I'd have been ripped off for years to come that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zugara Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Great ending to a crap return home. Blend look fantastic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
witstu Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 Looks a superb job, just goes to show, do your homework dont rush in! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronzee Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 Being evening when it happened, guess chances are in that it was someone who was intoxicated, anyway, great to see she's pretty again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glrnet Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 +1 Great ending to a crap return home. Blend look fantastic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisB Posted March 31, 2012 Author Share Posted March 31, 2012 Cheers guys, Quite a save. A full 'normal' body shop approach would be to source and paint an entire side - north of £800. Even a 'blow over' of a second-hand wing would be over £300 after spending on finding a scrapped part (usually around £100 + any correction). So my approach was to get an accurate a match as possible from the start, hence spending slightly more on scanning. My car's colour code is KY0 G where as the paint that was supplied was marked as KY0 H, so colour shift from sunlight ageing had moved it a shade. The paint suppliers tolerance was anything under 3% difference (over 97%) from base stock is acceptable and enhanced by mixing. A direct paint code matcher would have missed that - and I'd have still ended up having to get second blending done that way. Apparently, Nissan paint is mysterious stuff too - hard to get right. Fortunately my paint appears to be uniformly shaded though - single panel painting would be a gamble if the paint at the door didn't match the paint on the bonnet, say, so then creativity would then be required. I am fairly lucky (well I say lucky - I hope it was only a scratch or chips) in that the bumper (which always fades more quickly on silvers) is pretty close due to a respray by the previous owner at some point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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