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Originally Posted by devilwearsprada I found an amazing paint shop in the crowded areas of Gurgaon. Name : Heera Motors Location : Opposite Hanuman Mandir, Sukhrali, Gurgaon: |
First of all, Thanks to Devilwearsprada for putting this post.
I had recently gone to Heera. The door of of Honda Civic was banged by a TATA Ace truck and the dent was looking bad.
I first went to Bright Motors in Okhla, which was recommended in another post of Team-Bhp.
He gave me an estimate of 11000 and asked for a time of 4 days for repairs, including door, running board and some dry denting
I was not convinced and walked away.
Went to Heera. Liked his attitude. Asked for 4000 for door repair and running board repair which was damaged, and dry denting of a fender.
Time : 1 day for repair and painting, would need to come back the next day for rubbing, polishing etc.
The guys at his shop were quite knowledgeable in denting and they deftly opened the door panels, removed the window glass, beading etc.
Heera did the denting himself. As one of the dents was very severe, he had to do some spot welding
Came back in the evening, picked up my car It was painted. Went again next day for finishing.
After the wet sanding, rubbing, polishing etc, i could see that there was a paint mismatch. The shade was lighter, the depth was not there and the pearl metallic finish was not satisfactory.
Heera was not there, asked me to come next morning to show him.
Next morning, he took a glance at the paint and said it is not satisfactory and that he will do it again and again till he himself is satisfied.
The Culprit : His boys had taken the car for paint matching at RAJA PAINTS in Gurgaon, which is the biggest dealer for paints (Du Pont). The mixing guy there was very busy so they went to another dealer, who did a lousy paint matching job. Heera scolded his guys for going to another paint dealer. He says RAJA is the best.
This time i went along with Heera to Raja paints.
The guy there took 1 hour to mix and match the paint correctly, spraying each time with the paint and the clear coat on a piece of metal and matching it with the car.
Once it was done, a guy there spray painted the panel (More about the process later)
Next day, got it wet sanded and finished.
This time, the paint was a perfect match (as close as humanly possible), great depth, gloss and metallic pearl. OEM quality.
Some key points noted during the whole painting episode
- Heera is a great guy. He himself made sure that the paint match was almost perfect.
- We used all Du-Pont paints and products
- Heera uses the right techniques when painting. I had read a lot about the painting process on the internet, and some things that he did as per the book were
- Multiple coats of primer, with adequate time for drying
- Minimum 3 coats of base paint, followed by minimum 3 coats of clear coat.
- He looked at the paint from all angles during the spray process to make sure it was even
- Using of TACK cloth between the coats of base paint. Used a special TACK cloth to remove dust and particles
- Usage of the right grade of sandpaper, starting from coarse (1000), moving up to 1500.
- Continuous watering of sandpaper during the wet sanding. This is important
- Usage of only 3M finishing products, including the sandpaper
- Rotary polisher to bring out final gloss
- Used the correct Wool Pad on the polisher (as recommended on internet)
A lot of hard work went into denting, painting and polishing, but it was worth it.
He touched up all other small scratches and blemishes.
I would definitely recommend him. Just make sure he supervises the whole process.
Rgds