Home/Dent & Scratch Repairs Malaga
Car park dings, trolley knocks, driveway scrapes and stone chips — the small damage that makes an otherwise tidy car look tired. Usually a quick, contained repair.
Minor damage is easy to put off, and for purely cosmetic marks that is a fair choice. But some of it is worth attending to sooner:
Purely cosmetic surface scuffs that have not broken through, on the other hand, we will tell you honestly if they can wait.
| Depth | How to tell | Repair |
|---|---|---|
| Clear coat only | Often disappears when wet; your fingernail does not catch | Can frequently be polished out |
| Into the colour coat | Still visible when wet; fingernail catches slightly | Prepare and refinish the area, blended into the panel |
| Through to primer | A different colour shows in the scratch — often grey or white | Prepare, prime and refinish |
| Through to bare metal | Bright metal, or early rust staining | Treat promptly — prepare, prime and refinish before corrosion sets in |
The wet test is a useful one at home: wet the scratch. If it vanishes while wet, it is shallow and there is a good chance of polishing it out. If it is still clearly visible, it has gone deeper than the clear coat and will need refinishing.
How a dent is repaired depends on whether the paint has survived it. A shallow dent with completely intact paint can sometimes be worked out from behind without refinishing at all. Once the paint is broken, or the metal is creased or stretched, it becomes a panel beating job followed by preparation and refinishing.
Location matters as much as size. A dent in the middle of a flat door skin is a far more straightforward proposition than the same dent on a body line, a panel edge, or a tight curve — those are where the shape has to be exactly right or the reflection gives it away.
Every job starts the same way: we look at the vehicle in person. Photos are useful for a rough idea over the phone, but panel damage hides things — a dent that looks superficial can have a cracked bracket or a distorted mounting point behind it, and a scuff can turn out to have gone through to bare metal.
On hidden damage: it is common, and any repairer who tells you a collision quote is guaranteed final before dismantling is guessing. We would rather explain that up front than have the conversation later.
Yes. Scratches are repaired locally — the affected area is prepared and refinished, with the paint blended into the surrounding panel. Only the panel involved is worked on, not the whole vehicle.
Wet it. If the scratch disappears while wet it is shallow and there is a good chance it can be polished out. If it stays clearly visible, or a different colour shows in the groove, it has gone past the clear coat and needs refinishing.
If the paint is broken — especially through to bare metal — yes, because that is where corrosion starts. If it is purely cosmetic with the paint intact, it is your call, and we will tell you honestly if it can wait.
Sometimes. A shallow dent with completely unbroken paint can be worked out from behind without refinishing. Once the paint is broken or the metal creased, the panel needs to be reshaped and the area refinished.
Yes. Isolated chips can be dealt with individually; where a bonnet or front bar has accumulated a lot of them, addressing the whole panel usually gives a better and longer-lasting result than many separate touch-ups.
Areas we service: Malaga · Beechboro · Ballajura · Morley · Bayswater · Midland · Perth and the wider Perth metropolitan area.
Bring the vehicle in or send us photos. You will get an itemised written quote after we have looked at the damage — and nothing gets done that you have not approved.
