Bumper Repairs Mobile across Manchester & the North West

Only the damaged area is refinished, rather than the whole bumper being taken off and resprayed. That method is called SMART repair, short for Small to Medium Area Repair Technology, and it is the reason a bumper job runs to hours instead of days and costs a fraction of a full panel respray.

The technician cleans and degreases the bumper first, then sands the scuff or scratch back until the edges of the damage are feathered into sound paint. Deeper gouges, cracks and dents are filled and reshaped so the profile of the bumper is correct again before any paint goes near it. Plastic flexes in a way steel does not, so the fillers and primers used on a bumper are different from those used on a wing or a door.

Primer goes on first, then a basecoat mixed to the paint code carried by your vehicle, then lacquer, with each coat cured before the next. The colour is blended out into the surrounding paint rather than stopped at a hard edge. That blend is what keeps a repair from showing as a patch when the car is stood in daylight.

Scuffs, scratches, chips, cracks, splits and dents in plastic bumpers are repairable in the large majority of cases, and the bumper normally stays on the car while the work is done. Some dents have not broken the paint at all, and where that is true the shape can be brought back without spraying anything.

There is a point where repairing stops making sense, and we will tell you when you have reached it. A bumper that has shattered on impact, torn away from its mountings, or distorted enough that the panel gaps against the wing and bonnet no longer line up is a replacement job. So is damage that has carried on through the bumper into the crash structure or a sensor behind it. In those cases a new bumper skin, painted to your colour code and fitted, is the honest answer.

• Kerb and bollard scuffs on bumper corners
• Car park scratches and trolley marks
• Cracks and splits in plastic bumpers
• Dents and pushed in sections
• Textured and unpainted plastic bumpers and trim
• Flaking or peeling lacquer on older bumpers

Yes. Most bumper repairs are carried out at your home or workplace, which is how the majority of our bumper work is done. The mobile unit carries the paint mixing system, spray equipment and curing lamps needed to finish the job on your driveway or in a car park, and the car is usable again the same day.

Some jobs belong at the body shop at Radcliffe. A full bumper refinish, damage that runs off the bumper and into the wing or bonnet, a bumper that has to come off to reach the edge tucked behind a panel, and anything needing plastic work over a large area are all better done indoors under controlled conditions. We will tell you which category your car falls into when we quote, not after we arrive.

Weather is the one thing that decides mobile work for us. Basecoat and lacquer will not cure properly in rain or in cold, damp conditions, so if the forecast is against us we would rather move the appointment than hand back a repair that lifts a few months later.

In nearly every case, yes. Replacing means buying a new bumper skin, spraying it to your colour code, fitting it and transferring across the grilles, sensors and brackets, and that adds up well beyond the cost of repairing the damage that is already there. A repair also avoids the wait for a part to arrive.

Repairing keeps the original bumper on the car, which matters more than people expect. Original panels sit better than pattern parts, the fit is right, and there is no gap or paint mismatch for a buyer or a lease inspector to pick up on later.

Where a bumper is beyond repair we will say so plainly and quote for replacement instead. We would rather lose the job than charge you for filling something that is going to move or crack again.