Most of us like to keep our cars looking nice and well maintained. We’ll wash them and take them in for routine service, have other minor issues attended to even when not “mission critical”, and generally bask in their reflected glory.
However, life’s little mishaps sometimes spoil the story. Someone opens a door onto your pride and joy, the inevitable stone chip appears, the reverse parking goes a little awry and, thanks to the fabulous low profile tyres, rim contact kerb, or, worse still, the clearance you thought you had getting out of a tight spot turns out to not be there. Or even more annoying, someone else has that experience against your car and drives off.
None of these blemishes are particular hard, or that expensive, to fix but who do you get to fix them properly? And can you be bothered to make a separate trip to wherever to get them fixed?
Both these issues have been addressed in a blindingly obvious, but by no means simple, solution.
How good would it be if you could take your car in for a routine service, leave it there a bit longer and have the minor paint or wheel damage fixed at the same time? Even better, the paint work will be done in a proper dust free clean room with first class environmental controls.
Well, you can at Waverley BMW who showed us the only Pod paint repair system installed at a dealership at our August members meeting.
Installed in conjunction with the iQBody group, the iQPod is a fully self contained clean room with re-usable activated charcoal filters for maximum environmental protection and no need for external flues or pipework. The Pod is used for all the painting and other dust and environmental sensitive work. All the preparation work is done outside the Pod.
Dents which have not broken the paint, such as many small hail dents, can be repaired without needing the Pod, but larger dents or scratches or bumper scuffs can be fixed and then over-painted in the Pod with full clear coat and colour matching.
They also have an iQurb wheel refurbishment system which scans the wheel and then programs a diamond cut CNC (Computer Numeric Control) machining head to smooth out the damage. This means that the precise amount of material removed is known and is minimised, leaving undamaged areas unaffected. Importantly it enables the technician to ensure that the safe maximum amount of material removal is not exceeded.
Once rectified the wheel is re-painted and/or clear coated (as applicable) in the Pod.
There are quite a number of BMW wheel finishes which most wheel repair facilities can not handle, but the iQurb system can be used on all BMW wheels although, as with any wheel repair, if the damage is too severe no one can safely fix it.
The utmost care and attention is applied in each case, and yet repairs can usually be completed in under 3 hours.
For those of us who attended the meeting, we not only received an explanation of the iQ services and the opportunity to mingle with other members whilst drinking in the excellence of a number of carefully chosen M-cars, but we will get 15% of any iQPod repairs up to 31 December 2019.
Many thanks to Waverley BMW and iQBody group for a very informative evening with fabulous refreshments and a nicely personalised brochure.
Meeting date: 06 August 2019
Lawrence Glynn | Member #3
BMW Drivers Club Melbourne
