Stone Chip Repairs in Liverpool

Anywhere inside the L postcodes we quote on regularly, which runs from L1, L2 and L3 in the centre out through L8, L15 and L17 to L18 and L25 in the south of the city. L4 to the north is on the list too. At 50 minutes each way, Liverpool visits are usually slotted into a Merseyside run rather than treated as an isolated call out.

In practice that means booking a couple of days ahead gets you a better slot than ringing on the morning. It also means it is worth having every chipped panel quoted at once. The technician is already set up with the colour mixed, so adding a wing or a mirror cap to a bonnet repair costs far less than a second visit later.

• L1 to L3, the city centre and the Albert Dock
• L8 and the Georgian quarter
• L17 Aigburth and L18 Allerton
• L25 Woolton and the southern suburbs
• L4 and L15 on request
• Workplace visits anywhere in the L postcodes

Because of what sits in the air. Liverpool is a river city with the estuary on its doorstep, and salt laden air behaves much like road salt once a stone has taken the paint down to bare steel. Water finds the hole, the edges of the chip lift, and the bright metal underneath starts to bloom rust within weeks rather than months.

Add winter gritting on the M62 and the difference between a chip caught in October and the same chip left until spring is stark. One is a fill, a blend and a polish. The other means cutting the corrosion out, treating the metal and rebuilding the area from primer up, which is a body shop job rather than a driveway one.

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

Liverpool is 34 miles from the Radcliffe body shop, roughly 50 minutes along the M62, so Merseyside work is usually planned a few days ahead. Estuary air makes chips that reach bare metal corrode faster here than inland.

We work throughout Liverpool and the L1, L2, L3, L4 postcode areas, typically 50 minutes from the body shop at Radcliffe, M26 4AD. That includes Liverpool city centre, the Albert Dock, Woolton and Aigburth.