Stone Chip Repairs in Stockport

Because of the paint rather than the postcode. A solid white or a plain red can be blended tight to the repair. A silver, a metallic grey or a pearl white has aluminium or mica flake in it that has to lie the same way as the surrounding panel, or the repair reads as a patch under sunlight. That means spraying further out and flatting a wider blend edge.

Three stage pearls take longer still, since colour and pearl coats go on separately before the lacquer. None of this is difficult, but it is not a ten minute touch in either, and any quote that treats a pearl bonnet like a solid one is going to disappoint you. We price the colour as well as the damage when we look at the photos.

• Solid colours, tight blend, quickest to finish
• Metallics, wider blend so the flake lies right
• Pearls and three stage finishes, extra coats
• Faded panels matched to the car, not the code
• Previously resprayed panels matched by eye

A driveway, a garage or a quiet corner of a workplace car park, anywhere off the public road with room to open the van alongside the car. Most addresses in SK6, SK7 and SK8 have that without thinking about it. Nearer the town centre in SK1 to SK4, terraced streets and permit parking sometimes make a workplace visit the easier option.

Shelter helps more than space does. A carport or an open garage lets the technician work on days when an exposed driveway would not be viable, because lacquer needs dry air above freezing to cure. If neither is available and the forecast is poor, we move the date or bring the car into Radcliffe with free collection and delivery.

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

Stockport is fourteen miles and about thirty minutes from Radcliffe, and SK6 to SK8 are among the areas we visit most. The high number of metallic and pearl finishes there is what shapes how we quote chip work in the borough.

We work throughout Stockport and the SK1, SK2, SK3, SK4 postcode areas, typically 30 minutes from the body shop at Radcliffe, M26 4AD. That includes Stockport town centre, Cheadle, Bramhall and Hazel Grove.