Stone Chip Repairs in Blackpool

Salt is the reason. A chip is an open door through the lacquer and basecoat, and the salt laden air along the Fylde coast keeps the exposed metal permanently damp and corroding. Inland the same chip stays a cosmetic mark for a long time. Within a mile or two of the Promenade it starts lifting the paint around it.

Wind driven sand adds to it, particularly on cars kept near the sea front at Bispham and Cleveleys. It scours the leading edge of the bonnet and the mirror caps in much the same way as motorway grit, just more constantly. The practical answer is to seal chips as they appear rather than letting a season's worth build up.

• Bonnet leading edge and the top of the front wings
• Mirror caps and A pillars, scoured by wind blown sand
• Front bumper and lower valance, closest to road spray
• Door edges and shuts picked up in Promenade car parks
• Sills and lower doors behind the front wheels

By day rather than by hour. An hour each way from Radcliffe means we group FY bookings together and give the route a full day, so each repair gets the time it actually needs instead of the technician watching the clock. Ring early in the week and we will tell you when the van is next scheduled for the coast.

The technician needs somewhere off the public road, which on the tighter terraced streets behind the Promenade sometimes means a workplace car park rather than home. Dry weather above freezing matters too, and the coast catches wind driven rain that never reaches Manchester, so a Blackpool date occasionally moves by a day.

Stone chips are caused by loose gravel, grit and road debris flicked up by the tyres of the vehicle in front of you. The faster the traffic, the harder the stone hits, which is why motorway and dual carriageway driving does far more damage than town miles.

Winter makes it worse. Gritters put down salt and sharp grit, and both get thrown around by every vehicle on the road. Water then works into the chip, freezes, expands and lifts the paint edges away from the metal. That is why a chip you noticed in October is often three times the size by March.

Certain parts of the car take nearly all of it, because they face forward and sit low.

• Leading edge of the bonnet and the top of the front wings
• Front bumper, grille surround and lower valance
• Wing mirror caps and A pillars
• Windscreen surround and the front edge of the roof
• Lower doors and sills, behind the front wheels
• Door edges and shuts, chipped in car parks rather than on the road

Blackpool is 44 miles from the Radcliffe body shop, around an hour, so the Fylde coast is covered on planned route days taking in the FY postcodes end to end. Salt air is the thing that shapes most of the work here.

We work throughout Blackpool and the FY1, FY2, FY3, FY4 postcode areas, typically 60 minutes from the body shop at Radcliffe, M26 4AD. That includes Blackpool Promenade, Bispham, Cleveleys and Lytham St Annes.