OK, I'm after someone to repair some minor scratching around the driver's side door handle, where some fool child tried to screwdriver his way in. There's no denting, just a chip down to the metal where the handle surround meets the door, and some light scratching below that (bah, if only I had a digital camera).

 

Who's my best bet? I live in Nottingham, so I was going to try ZCentre, but someone mentioned elsewhere that they weren't impressed with the painting there (maybe that's just on kits, though, and they'd be fine for normal repairs). So there's JeffTT's Zedworld, I guess... or PPS - but what and where is PPS? (sorry, I've tried looking around, but the forum search won't work with less than 4 characters).

 

My paintwork's not in a great condition generally, so I don't need a super job doing, but on the other hand I don't want it to stick out horribly. Plus, what with the metal being exposed at the moment, I want to make sure it's corrosion-proof. My mate is offering to do it, but he's kind of a bodger, and he doesn't have alot of experience at spraying :/

 

Any suggestions or recommendations? Oh, the car is a '90 import in red. Basically, I guess I'm looking to find out the location details of PPS, and any feedback on the ZCentre bodyshop's competance :)

 

Thx ;)

Luke's guy would be expensive I would imagine.............would one of those companies that come out to you and specialize in stone chips not be your best bet??? I'm sure there was a post a short while back about it.

 

Vijay

OK... I was thinking about that originally, but I think some post came up here (or somewhere) that implied it might be too much for simple chip repair - the fact that it's down to the metal, and that the handle surround will have to be removed to get at it (I'm pretty sure it will), put me off.

 

Still, if others have positive experience of chip repair people dealing with stuff like this, maybe it's an option. I'll give it a day or so to see what response I get here (thanks for yours, by the way :)), then sort out some quotes. Only had one so far (from a non-specialist bodyshop, to give me a ballpark figure), and that was £140+materials (+VAT probably, although he didn't specify).

It only takes about 10 mins to take the inside door trim off and unscrew the handle. You could do this yourself before the chip guy arrived. A lot of them do dent repairs so if the metal is bent then they would be able to sort that too.

Well, there's no dents luckily :) It's that easy to get the door trim (and thus handle surround) off? I tried that on my last car (a Celica), and got nowhere... the trim was held on with those annoying split pin type things that you have to bend back, and it was never the same afterwards. On the other hand, on my old Polo you could screw & unscrew the trims all day long with no ill effects :) I assumed the Nissan would be more like the Celica (especially with all the electric window guffins to get in the way).

 

I'll check it tonight, then look into chip people to get a quote. Thanks for the advice. Anyone else got anything to say?

my friend in mansfield just up from nottingham does repair work, what colour is it, metallic or solid, i maybe able to get u a reasonable quote

It's solid red, and if you can sort something out I'd appreciate it ;)

I used Chips Away who were great and reasonably priced. they are on the web or you can get to them through the RAC web site.

Hmm, good plan, very good plan... I'll see what beermonster comes back with, but they look promising, and I could trust they'd do a decent job. Thanks :)

my mate said he could do it for 120 quid all in. his work is excellent too

Cool, thx. Had another recommendation for ChipsAway, so I'm going to get a quote from them & get back to you.

Jeez, I was going to get this sorted today, but my bike's playing up, & what with taking it to the shop, walking back to get the car, & having to work... grrr, have to hope I get time tomorrow :/