Dents N All : Renault Clio

[PaulVW]

This was our first dent repair job which had a bit of a detailing flavour, so I thought I will do a write up about it. This little Clio was involved in a bumper bashing or 3, was broken into and suffered from some seriously faded headlights. So it was up to us to make it look as good as new again, while trying to do a "cheap as possible" repair as the owner is one of my friends and I tried to save him some money...

I will let the pics do the talking:
Some befores:

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Work in progress:

[PaulVW]

Final Afters:

[kripstoe]

I'll be sending this link to someone I know with a Renault needing some attention.

[Carn]

Nice save Paul. Interested to hear how you go about matching the paint when doing repairs of this nature. I have seen more than a few vehicles where the colours don't match so it would appear that a fair amount of skill is required in order to get the colours right!

[Woodie]

Lovely stuff Paul. More often than not I find these kind of makeovers on neglected run of the mill cars more interesting that a detail on a supercar or top of the range luxury car.

As a matter of interest - what is your process with the resprayed bits and detailing? I have read a number of threads discussing the outgassing of resprayed areas and not waxing/sealing these bits for anything from 30 to 90 days. What is your advice?

[katotter]

Holy crap Paul, thats a great outcome , the Clio looks like new again. You said you tried to save your bud some moola, what does a restore like this go for? I had some work done on my previous ride, a 2006 VW polo hatch, it was metallic blue. The rear bumber was shot and needed some pvc welding and spraying, the repair was done beautifully but the paint color did not match and the clear coat looked like orange peel. So as far as I know is that this type of restore aint easy. Well done

[Rayner]

I didn't get the last few pics :-(... .but the bits I saw where great.... I bet the owner was happy with the results

[Wayno]

WOW, real quality work!!!!

[PaulVW]

I'll be sending this link to someone I know with a Renault needing some attention.

Thanks kripstoe!

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Nice save Paul. Interested to hear how you go about matching the paint when doing repairs of this nature. I have seen more than a few vehicles where the colours don't match so it would appear that a fair amount of skill is required in order to get the colours right!

Thanks Dave!
Getting the colours to match on a old car like this is always a challenge.
The paint system that we use (Duxone for Du Pont) has a huge database and gives a good start. There are a also a few standard blending tricks which makes the new matched colour look more obvious but we prefer to test paint (sample colour cards) a few times before moving the car to the booth. At this stage we still have time for this and it seems to really work well for us.

[PaulVW]

Lovely stuff Paul. More often than not I find these kind of makeovers on neglected run of the mill cars more interesting that a detail on a supercar or top of the range luxury car.

As a matter of interest - what is your process with the resprayed bits and detailing? I have read a number of threads discussing the outgassing of resprayed areas and not waxing/sealing these bits for anything from 30 to 90 days. What is your advice?

Thanks Woodie :thumb:
Based on advice from the paint supplier, I only "detail"
the previously painted panels - not the newly painted ones.

I follow my standard practice (clay & 3 steps of Menz) on the older panels - topped with a good sealant. On the newly painted panels we do a wet flat, followed by a waterbased cutting compound, polish and then a glaze. We are currently testing the waterbased products from Farecla and they seem to do the trick in the pint shop :thumb:

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Holy crap Paul, thats a great outcome :thumb:, the Clio looks like new again. You said you tried to save your bud some moola, what does a restore like this go for? I had some work done on my previous ride, a 2006 VW polo hatch, it was metallic blue. The rear bumber was shot and needed some pvc welding and spraying, the repair was done beautifully but the paint color did not match and the clear coat looked like orange peel:bawling:. So as far as I know is that this type of restore aint easy. Well done :thumb:

Thanks katotter :thumb:
The price normally depends on the extent of the damage and the time (labour) that we have to spend on it. However, R10k can get you well away with a good restore and respray on about 50% of the car. :thumb:

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I didn't get the last few pics :-(... .but the bits I saw where great.... I bet the owner was happy with the results

Thanks Rayner :thumb:

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WOW, real quality work!!!! :clap::clap::clap:

Thanks Wayno!

[Edlover]

Cool stuff. My bro knocked my clio in front, it only damaged the number plate and left a kink in the bonnet exactly like yours!

What was the process on the headlights?

[Torres1]

AMAZING!!