Smart repair and local spot painting

What is smart repair and local spot painting?

Smart repair (Small and Medium Area Repair Technique) is a method for repairing small paint damage without painting an entire panel. In practice we isolate the damaged area with masking, sand it clean, fill any underlying damage and build up paint and clear coat in a confined zone that is then polished out into the surrounding paint. The result is a repair that is almost impossible to spot from arm's length, at a price and time investment significantly lower than redoing the whole panel.

When is smart repair suitable?

The method works best on small, isolated damage: simple scratches and small dings on doors, bonnet spot work after stone chips, corner blemishes on bumpers, and minor scuffs on door mirrors. As a general rule smart repair is an excellent choice when the damage is smaller than around 10 cm in diameter and located in an area where we can polish the transition out evenly — typically away from corners, edges and large central panels. Insurance companies also prefer smart repair where possible, because it produces a good fix at lower cost.

Limitations — when smart repair won't work

There are situations where smart repair won't yield a good enough result, and we then recommend spot work on the full panel or a full repaint. Examples are damage on central, large surfaces (middle of bonnet, roof) where a polished-out transition will become visible under the right light, deeper damage that has gone all the way down to bare metal and requires larger filling, or pearlescent and specialty colours where we can't blend enough paint to avoid colour mismatch. We always assess damage honestly — if we feel smart repair won't hold up, we say so and propose an alternative.

The process — from arrival to finished

The process starts by cleaning the area with degreaser. Paint around the damage is then sanded back, any metal damage is filled with body filler, and the whole area is prepped with a base masking. We mask around the damage with paper and a smooth transition edge — this transition is the secret behind an invisible repair. Then base coat is sprayed in 2–3 light passes, followed by clear coat in 2 passes. After cure (typically 2–4 hours in the booth under heat), the masking is removed and the transition is polished until it blends into the existing paint.

Price and time estimate

Smart repair typically costs 1,500–5,000 NOK per damage depending on size, location and colour complexity. Time spent is often 4–8 effective hours, and you can in many cases collect the car the same day or the next. Compared with painting the whole panel — which easily costs 8,000–15,000 NOK per panel — the saving is significant. Multi-tone vehicles or pearlescent paint increase the price somewhat because of stricter colour matching and longer working time.

Book paintwork online or call us on 41 17 32 24.