Testimonials & Blogs

Should you have your car repaired outside?

Mobile car repairers have risen in popularity over the last few decades and have been a cheaper solution to getting smaller scrapes and dents repaired. They usually come under the banner of ‘SMART’ repairs and that acronym stands for Small to Medium Area Repair Technology.

This type of repair is fine for smaller repairs as it was originally intended, however a lot of repairers have taken to pushing the boundaries and doing much larger repairs such as multi panel and full side of cars etc. These types of repairs should be done under controlled conditions like we have at Phantom Car Body Repairs to ensure the integrity and durability of the repair.

It may seem strange to think of paint repairs as a science, however the ingredients used in the products undertake such repairs have been formulated to be applied in a certain way in certain conditions to allow for the most robust finish. Technical data sheets are provided for all these products that stipulate how they should be applied and all of them do not suggest their application in cold or damp temperatures. After all, your cars paintwork is subjected to a lot of different weather conditions and a substandard repair could be detrimental in the long run not to mention unsightly if applied incorrectly.

We’re not saying SMART repairs are bad, but they have their place and its important to think about the best solution to the damage you may have and in either colder months or where the weather is quite changeable. Where a larger job with panel damage is required, a fixed based workshop will be better in the long run and possibly even cheaper than van based operatives. Car bodywork repair is a skilled profession and choosing your repairer like any trade is important based on experience and reviews.

ADAS Systems: What are they and should I care?

ADAS stands for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems and most cars made after 2015 will usually have one of these systems on it and more recently the EU has mandated that all new cars have several of these systems as standard.
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Examples of ADAS systems:
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Front collision assist – usually through use of the radar in the bumper or image processing from the camera in your windscreen
Lane assist – will steer you back within the white lines or vibrate the steering wheel to let you know you are going wide. Indicating cancel’s it doing this.
Blind spot monitoring – One of the more useful systems in my opinion as it uses rear mounted radars to show a light in your wing mirror that something is outside your field of view
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There are many more, but these will be the main ones and the ones we consider most important as they are safety critical.
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Statistics show that these systems do reduce accidents however at times even if in my own personal experience they can also intervene when you don’t want them to and possibly increase the risk of an accident. We find ourselves at a point where they are advancing all the time and will get better whilst not being able to offer full autonomy or completely understand a road situation like a human can.
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Nevertheless they are here to stay and your vehicle does have to be repaired within manufacture methods to allow them to stay working correctly after a collision as they work on very small tolerances that even one degree of misalignment can cause the sensors to not pick up objects it should or not work at all. For example, if your car has a radar for emergency braking in the bumper and it's been hit or the repair requires the radar to come off with the panel, it will need a calibration to show that it’s working correctly. This particular type of sensor can look as far ahead as 250 meters and for every degree its out on the vehicle it will be 4 meters out at its maximum operating range.
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This has meant that insurance companies have stipulated that repairers such as ourselves and other that want to work competently on customers cars need to factor calibrations into repair work which leads to increase cost of the job and also the equipment to do them. We offer calibrations to local Bodyshop's as we invested in the equipment a few years ago.
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In summary, the added complexity to vehicles won't give any worry to anyone all the time they are working correctly but if they need to be considered as part of the repair and add to that cost, they are usually met with less positive attitude. We’ve replaced radars that have cost several thousand pounds plus the labour to install and code and this wasn’t even on a premium branded car. Things such as this have caused premiums to increase or repairs not to be done if opted to pay for privately. Our business standpoint is that we will not risk any customers safety by not doing them, so if the next Bodyshop doesn’t bother to consider ADAS in their repair methods, you should think wisely before getting them to do the job.