Tag: car repairs

Blog Post

Replacing a Broken Spring

jeeperskeepersautocentre

Take a look at this broken spring we recently replaced for a customer.

Broken Spring with text.jpg

This spring was well and truly broken! You can see by the picture above that the broken bits are way off where they’re supposed to be!

IMG-20181016-WA0001
This is what the spring looked like when it came off the car.
Definitely broken!

The spring is the part of the suspension system of your car. There is a spring on each wheel which means that when you go over a bump in your car that the ride is smoother. If the spring breaks you’ll hear a rattling banging sound when you go over bumps and rough roads, plus the ride will feel much more uncomfortable.

Replacing a spring is a fairly time-consuming job and is different depending on the car and types suspension system. In this case, we first have to remove the wheel and then the shock absorber. Getting the shock absorber off involves decompressing the spring to remove the top baring. Once this is removed it’s onto the new spring.

IMG-20181016-WA0002
Here is the shiny new spring!

To put it back on you have to compress the new spring in order to fit the shock absorber back into it. Once the top baring has been refitted the whole thing can be put back onto the car.

At this time of year, it’s important to get this sort of thing fixed as soon as possible. Driving with a broken spring on snowy, icy or very wet roads can be dangerous as your braking efficiency can be reduced. That is the last thing you want on a slippery road.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you think that your spring might have broken!

 

 

Give us a call

 

Blog Post, Uncategorized

Wheel Arch Repair

jeeperskeepersautocentre

WheelArchREPAIR (1).png

Wheel arch repairs are one of our most frequent bodywork repairs. Last week, Joe did a nice repair on this wheel arch that needed some TLC. Here’s how he did it!

IMG-20180821-WA0000

The car arrived in the morning with this nasty damage along one of the wheel arches. Aside from the scratches in the paint there were dents along the damaged section meaning that we needed to do some filling and shape work before we started painting.

 

The first thing we do before we start any bodywork job is check the paint code. You’d be surprised just how many paint colours there are! To give you an idea, one of our old paint  books has 477 pages of paint codes, each page has around 100 code on it :-0… That’s a LOT! And there’s plenty more now. Each colour also has variants and tints depending on the model it is on.

We always make sure we match the paint code on the vehicle to ensure we have all the paints (tints, pearls, metallics) needed for the specific colour and variation for the car we are painting. That way, once the body work is done, we can mix the paint to an exact match for the car.

IMG-20180821-WA0003

 

Here’s a picture of the damaged section once it had the worst of the dent pushed out and had been sanded back. Whenever there is a dent in a panel (where possible) we push as much of the damage out as we can and sand any high points back with a heavy sand paper.

IMG-20180821-WA0006

Next job is shape. We use filler to fill in any gaps and once the filler has dried we sand it back to get the correct shape. On a wheel arch we have to be cautious to get the swage line, above the arch, correctly shaped otherwise the repair won’t blend in to the rest of the paint work!

It usually takes 2 or 3 times of filling and flatting to get the shape just right.IMG-20180821-WA0010

The next stage is primer and paint. We scratch back the area with tough sandpaper and add primer. The primer acts both as a final filler to give a smooth finish and as a base coat for the paint.

Once the primer is dry we add 2 or 3 coats of paint (with drying time in between).

After paint, we lacquer to protect the paint and give it a lovely shine! Here is the finished article!

If you need a paint repair doing, when not get in touch and we can give you a free, no obligation estimate.

Give us a call

Blog Post, Uncategorized

Let there be light! … and an extractor…

jeeperskeepersautocentre

PaintBayLightsPic.png

It has been super busy these last couple of months, which is amazing, but it has meant that the paint bay has taken a back seat.

But after a week beavering away we now have lights and an extractor! This means we can actually use the space for paintwork… because we can see!

Not only that but having an extractor working means painting is not only safer but a much cleaner job leading to better paintwork- happy all round.

There is still a way to go until it’s finished- boxing in all the cables and fixtures, sorting the ceiling, covering the entrance- but it’s well on it’s way!