[Thad E Ginathom]

It's been going down hill ever since some horrible children decided to add fine-line designs to the paintwork, and, I'm embarrassed to say, mostly through my own carelessness.

Anyway... the body just in front of one rear wheel (covered in some plastic stuff) is dented where I turned too sharply around a median.

The front left wheel arch is dented and badly scratched on account of a bus coming into my lane whether I was going to give way or not.

Those kids seem to have put at least one line into just about every panel except the roof and the bonnet, and the bonnet seems to have acquired scratches some other way. There's a few more bumps and scrapes I've contributed along the way too.

The last straw was a damned tricycle trying to pass on the left as I was trying to avoid an oncoming vehicle. Both left doors are badly scratched now. (Perversely, while silly things can make my temper rise on the road, when this happened I just thought --- how much money is a guy delivering water going to have, even if I could speak his language?)

The car is less than 18 months old, and it is time to put some cash into making it look smart and shiny again.

Where to go?

MSS have been servicing it. The Maruti option makes me think that they will at least use the right paints --- although there's no guarantee they'll use the paints right!

So... MSS?

Or anyone know a really good body/paint shop in Chennai (preferably South)? And one who will realise that if this foreigner was rich, he might have been driving a more expensive car...

Recommendations?

[theMAG]

Put it through an alternate professional paint shop - something like Sai Colorium in Bangalore. Or at worst, visit the service setup-only MASS centers.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Sounds like the sort of thing I am looking for.

Just need one in Chennai!

[HappyWheels]

Am not sure if MASS might be the the one to go for if you are looking at quality of finish. Have got two paint jobs from them so far (from a MASS here at Bangalore) and both were not as expected!

Not sure how your experience might be with the people at Chennai. But would suggest you go to some expert instead of the service center.

[Shashank.A]

is it the famous Brit from Chennai cheers:

If its you, then your car seemed to be in pretty good shape couple of months back, of did I miss something ?

btw, have tried getting a quote from M.A.S.S ? A decent paint job outside mass will cost you around Rs.15-20 k. There are some local paint shops as well, for your 2 box car, it would be Rs.5 to 7k, but you can imagine the quality of the same.

[Eddy]

Whatever you do, wherever you go; please don't go here

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modifi...-escalate.html

[GTO]

Can't say how bad the dent is since you haven't uploaded any pictures, but get only that section repaired. For the scratches, put her through a deep rubbing compound job.....will make a hugely positive difference (atleast 50 - 75%). No point painting an 18 month old car to get rid of the scratches. This is India, they will find their way back!

[Thad E Ginathom]

Pics! That would be a good idea. GTO, it's true they'll be back, and I expect I'll put a few there myself

Shashank... I have had the skirmishes with the bus and the water man since you saw my car. It is not looking so good now, I'm afraid!



Eddy, one place noted not to go; thanks!

Thanks HappyWheels. Looks like mixed feelings about MASS, then.

[Shashank.A]

pics would be a good idea. Let these guys know how good that camera of yours is . But overall I will go with the sentiment of GTO.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Here's some of the worst. Quickly done, and quickly cropped etc., so no showing off the camera or the photography.

There was one that came out as a lousy pic of a scratch but a nice pic of a reflection of houses and trees --- but that wold be offtopic

Getting too intimate with a bus:



And with a tricycle:



Again, the tricycle:



And hey, don't turn the steering wheel until the car is past the median (driving lessons for idiots)!:

[neel12345]

My god ! Get the 1st and the 4rth areas in the pictures re-painted. And as GTO said, ask them for treatment of the other areas with strong rubbing compound. That should cover 70% of it. Then apply some wax pol to make it shine.

[snaronikar]

Your first photo has the same damages as my car. Courtesy a TNRTC bus. As far as servicing of MASS is concerned (Sagar Motors), they did a pretty decent job on my WagonR last year. The tinkering and painting done was a decent. The colour more or less matched with the original colour. I would still prefer to go along with MASS and ask them to match the existing colour of the car. Who knows, they may be able to achieve the same.

[nitrous]

You live on the ECR.
so, the nearest ,decent place I can suggest is Electra automotive. There's this guy called Lokesh in the body shop there. Speak to him. He'll help you out and you won't be milked.

[theMAG]

Originally Posted by GTO

No point painting an 18 month old car to get rid of the scratches.

Shiver me timbers if Rudra hears that !

[Thad E Ginathom]

Neel, it would be nice to have the dents knocked out. What worries me with Maruti is that they will push to replace body parts rather than fix.

snaronikar: fairly typical result of being cut up by our wonderful bus drivers, I guess. May even have caught the wing with the back of the bus after actually steering away from me, I don't know if he did or not. These things happen very quickly.

nitrous: thanks for that tip. A quick search finds other satisfied customers here. Electra must be very close to me, but I've never spotted it. Landmarks? Which side of the road?