I bumped my car....some advice needed

[ticex]

Hi there,

Well, last night the inevitable happened and I scraped my car squeezing it into my underground parking in Brussels. I managed to catch the rear right wheel arch, rear edge of the back door and the rear of the plastic rubbing strip. Just to put me out of my misery does anyone have an approximate idea how much this is going to cost to fix?

Anyway, as I'm abroad I will need to use the car everyday so getting it fixed over here will be a bit of an inconvenience. I will be back in the UK within 2 weeks so was wondering if it will be ok to drive it with these bits of bare metal exposed and just have it fixed at home? The bit just behind the door has been ground down a fair bit and the wheel arch is crumpled a bit.

Here's a photo of the damage:

Thanks very much in advance for any advice!

Michael

 

[Myros]

whoops

Michael, get some clear (polyurethane) laquer from whatever passes for a Charlie Browns in Belgium, and give the "wound" a quick once over after youve wiped it clean of grit and dirt etc. That at least will slow down any rusting that might happen if you expose the bare metal to our current weather. As for what it'll cost, depends where you go and how bad it is really. Whoever fixes it up will be rubbing down the paint anyway, so your laquer wont foul anything up. Your missus's clear nail varnish will do as an absolute last resort. Good luck.

 

[grober]

Local small repair company

Might be cheaper to get it fixed in Belgium!! Not a big job to the pros. Maybe a Belgian equivalent of chips-away for example . They come to you rather than you going to them. Pop into your local MB dealer and ask who they use on their cars. Make sure they know what they are doing . Best to use Merc paint. It used to be Glasurit but uncertain now.

 

[ticex]

Hi there,

It could possibly be cheaper to have it fixed over here but the problem is I have to go back to Edinburgh this weekend now....typical of my work...last minute stuff. Anyway, luckily back in Edinburgh my brother runs a big garage and he has a chips-away type person working in house and he's all arranged to fix it on Monday. I'll let you know how much it cost just in case somebody else has a similar bump!

Thanks again.

 

[webby]

Hi Michael,

Welcome to the joys of undrground parking here in Brussels, for future reference there is an Auto 5 in Evere next to the Carrefour super market, I can't remember the name of the road but if you follow the signs from Place Meiser to the Airport you will see it.
They are not the best place in the world but you will be able to find paint, oil, wiper blades and such like there.

What Garage do you use to service your car in Brussels?

Have a good trip

Webby

 

[OlafMaxwell]

Its a two day repair job though. To do it in one day is to push it, you need two days to get the build up of layers right. I had some bodywork done on mine and instead of masking the plastic panels and rear light they actually removed them. The result was much better and is unnoticeable. You have to, repeat have to use Merc paint to get the colour match.

If you have a dedicated parking space wrap some old carpet around the offending concrete column...........