Discovered this morning that some b*****d has keyed the side of the my 11-month-old storm blue Octavia, leaving two long scratches across both doors where the paint is down to the white basecoat.

Can anyone recommend any paint repair franchises from personal experience. I am in Bristol and would welcome any ideas.

Eleanor

I think Chips Away are franchised so quality can vary from branch to branch.

I was able to ask about my local one in the Detailingworld.co.uk forums. It might be worth asking those guys.

Hi whippetlady,

If you dont mind driving over to Weston, there's a very good body shop there called "Motor Bodies". (01934 420420) I've had 2 vandalism repairs done there in the last 2 years and both times they've been good as new and MUCH cheaper than their competitors.

You could try calling first but (quite reasonably) they will probably insist on seeing the damage first-hand before committing to a price. Don't forget to haggle as well!

To give you some idea of cost, I had the whole front bumper dropped off and resprayed metallic for just over £200 (although I dont think I could ever achieve this price again!). Then a year later, I had two doors resprayed, with the rubbing strips replaced for about £280. In both cases, I had had quotes from nearby body shops for at least 30% more

This was actually on my previous car (a mondeo) - I think they do a lot of work for Ford as they're almost next door to the dealership, but there's no reason why they shouldn't be just as good with another make.

EDIT: This is assuming you actually want a full-area repair. I don't know how much the likes of ChipsAway cost and what the quality of the result will be. I would imagine it'll never be as good as having a proper respray of the panels.

I'm also looking for a recommendation for the Leicester Area as I ran over a road sign that had partly blown into the road leaving my nearside door with a couple of scratches that I might not be able to polish out.

Think I'm going to assess the damage on mine in daylight tomorrow and may give the scratch master kit at paints4u a go http://www.paints4u.com/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=6912 Has anyone tried it?

The colour code for my Race blue Octy vRS mk II is 9463 (if this helps anyone else)