Bonnet Dent / Scratch

[irknight]

Hey Guys, New to the forum and new to the roc world.

Bought a second hand Scirocco last wednesday - Absoultely love it - Greatly Spec'd. vienna leather, winter pack, sun roof, sat nav, reverse parking sensors, ipod connection. 16 months old.

On Friday my wife thought she would do me a favour and wash the car while I was at work (Don't know why she would do it, I usually discourage her). Anyway, she had an incident with the hose and connection which has resulted in a dent and scratch on the bonnet. G.U.T.T.E.D.

I was wondering if anyone could over me advise, the way I see it, I have 3 Options :

1. Get the bonnet resprayed. Colour is Rising Blue. My father and law knows a garage that he has used in the past and rates highly. I am nervous about doing this though - I am scared it comes back the wrong shade, or with the dreaded orange peel effect.
2. Use ChipsAway to "patch" it up. Heard very mixed reviews. Most say that the bonnet should not be touched by ChipsAway.
3. Just leave it. The dent and scratch are quite small. Still there none the less, and I do notice it.

Anyway, look forward to the advice guys.

Cheers,

Ian

[wigit]

4. get a new wife

[irknight]

:-) I knew I missed something from the list!!

[RW1]

5.) Take it to a VW bodyshop and maintain the paint warranty (3 years from new).

C.

[trix]

ooh wigit, tut tut

Hi Irknight
how big is the scratch?? can you pop any pics up with a reference point for sizing? the touch up paint kit is less than a fiver if you trust yourself to do it (depending on where it is)

S

[maisbitt]

If the scratch only penetrates the clear lacquer and the dent isn't deep enough to have stretched the metal then i'd get one of the smart repairers like chips-away to do it - there's no shade variation on the clear lacquer.

I had a dent in the boot of my old Polo and got a smart repair done - it was immaculate from all angles and cost £40 (about 6 years ago - probably £55+ now).

If a patch of the bonnet needs painting and not just physically the scratch then you'll want the whole bonnet painting. Metallics and Pearlescents are notoriously difficult to colour match. The same Polo had a factory flaw, a small dent in a front wheel arch. The dealer missed it on the PDI, but I saw it the first time I washed the car. They resprayed a small patch and you couldn't see it on a bright day, but when it was overcast, you could see the patch. The VW bodyshop tried 3 times to put it right before painting the whole panel. Colebrook and Burgess were the dealers, renamed "Cock-up and Bodge-it" after a string of disasterous warranty repairs.

[irknight]

Hi Trix, the scratch itself is very small, its about 5mm to 10mm. what makes it bad is the dent ..... I'am at work just now and haven't got any pictures but I will post one tonight when I get home.

Hi RW1, thats a good point - I never thought about the warranty, although, i've never had to rely on a paint warranty and to be honest, i don't really trust my local vw dealer / workshop. Had some bad experiences with them in the past.

[quality reflects]

A good dent man should be able to get that out for you, the scratch should be repairable.

[irknight]

If the scratch only penetrates the clear lacquer and the dent isn't deep enough to have stretched the metal then i'd get one of the smart repairers like chips-away to do it - there's no shade variation on the clear lacquer.

Unfortunately, its beyond the lacquer and in to the top layer of the paint. The dent is hard to judge, it's to the left hand side of the VW badge, its a good chance that the metal is stretched as it's taken the mould of the end of the hose attachment.

I took it to a garage in Cambuslang/Glasgow on Saturday, he quoted me £200 and said he would only do the whole bonnet, no patch work - also said it would take 2 days. Funnily enough, he tried to talk me out of having it done because of the size of it, but i ALWAYS see it every time i look at it.

[irknight]

A good dent man should be able to get that out for you, the scratch should be repairable.

Do you know of any in Glasgow / Scotland ?

[maisbitt]

£200 for a whole bonnet respray seems a bargain - could be worth it if the bonnet was peppered with stone chips anyway.

[irknight]

£200 for a whole bonnet respray seems a bargain - could be worth it if the bonnet was peppered with stone chips anyway.

I'll keep that in mind - As i said the guy who quoted that comes recommended. May well go down that route - As I said before, there is something making me nervous about a full bonnet respray.

I was hoping my first post in these forums would have been which remap to go for, not, how do I fix a dent in my new scirocco

[stevieboy]

Just for the record and no help whatsoever, I'm with Wigit on that one

Back to the scratch, I used both Chips Away and a dent man when someone dented the front wing on my Audi a couple of days before I was due to change it.

A good dent man should be able to get the dent out, especially if its on a single skin section of the bonnet with little behind it. A 'smart' paint repair should be able to put the scratch right more easily then. I reckon £100 would be the maximum you'd pay out.

I was quite amazed at the dent guy who did mine. It was a b'stard of a dent and he fettled it for a good hour, but it was unnoticeable when he'd done. He's also done a few dings on the wifes Ibiza. Anyone in the South Staffs area with this kind of problem, I would be happy to pass on his number.

Difficult one though. Its usually the small dings that cause the big headaches!

[quality reflects]

A good dent man should be able to get that out for you, the scratch should be repairable.

Do you know of any in Glasgow / Scotland ?

Have a look on Detailing World, I am sure one of the pros up there will know of someone.

[irknight]

Thanks for all the advice guys - Think i am going to look at getting a smart repair, will post a message on Detailing World to try and find someone with a good rep.

Haven't posted any pics of the scratch yet - the car was under a couple of foot of snow when i left to get the train this morning.