How do you decide what type of company to use to carry out repairs on one of your most prized possessions and probably most expensive.
There are a lot of S.M.A.R.T repair companies out there, these are companies that can carry our minor paint repairs to your car at your home or work place, then there are mobile car body repair companies.
Mobile car body repair companies are generally a little bit more expensive than SMART repair companies and this is due to the experience and type of products used.
S.M.A.R.T repair companies may be operated by a single person who has decided on a change of career and wants to set up his own business. There are companies that offer 1 week training courses in how to prepare and paint a bumper or panel on a car. Now I wish painting a car could be taught in a week, realistically this isn’t the case. It takes a couple of years at college and then a few more working in a body shop.
Paints and chemicals can be quite volatile so you need the experience to be able to fix a problem when it goes wrong and believe me things do go wrong. I wish we lived in a perfect world!
Lets look at the products, S.M.A.R.T repairers generally use a single pack lacquer. This type of lacquer can be just poured straight out of a tin into your spray gun and applied to the vehicle. It looks okay for a few months but then generally they start to dull. The lacquer can dry very quickly which is why it is used in a mobile environment. Now a mobile car body repairer will use a two pack lacquer this lacquer requires a hardener to be mixed with the lacquer and takes longer to dry. This is what is used on your car by the original car manufacturer. It will not lose its shine but it costs more than a single pack lacquer.
The repairs
A mobile car body repairer will be able to repair dented panels as well as replace them for you, a S.M.A.R.T repairer will only be able to touch in small areas of paint damage and more often then not recommend a body shop repair for the larger areas of damage.
