If you drive around Dagenham, you will pick up a dent sooner or later. It is not bad luck, and it is not bad driving. It is just what happens when a lot of cars share tight streets, busy car parks and one very fast dual carriageway.
The good news is that most dents we see from RM8, RM9 and RM10 are small, quick to fix and cheaper than people expect. This guide explains where Dagenham drivers actually pick up damage, what happens when you get in touch, how long the work takes, and when it is worth claiming on your insurance instead of paying yourself.
Where Dagenham drivers pick up dents
Every area has its own pattern of damage. After years of working on cars from this part of East London, the same few causes come up again and again.
Retail park car parks
The car parks around Merrielands and the shops off the Heathway get very busy at weekends. Bays are narrow, boots are open, and people are carrying heavy bags. A trolley that rolls two metres into a rear door leaves a neat round dent, usually with the paint still perfectly fine underneath. This is the single most common job we see, and it is also the easiest to put right.
Terraced street parking
Large parts of Dagenham, especially around the Becontree estate, are rows of terraced houses with cars parked nose to tail along the kerb. When two cars are close together, one opened door meets the panel of the car beside it. These door dings tend to appear low on the front or rear door, often with a small crease running through them.
Narrow residential roads
Plenty of local roads have cars parked on both sides, which leaves one usable lane down the middle. Wing mirrors clip, wings get scuffed and rear quarter panels catch gate posts and kerbs while people are squeezing past or reversing into a space. Damage here is often a mix of a dent and a scratch on the same panel.
The A13 and stone chips
The A13 runs right along the edge of Dagenham, and it is a lorry route. At speed, loose stones and road debris get thrown up and hit the bonnet, the front bumper and the leading edge of the roof. On their own, these chips look tiny. Left alone through a wet winter, water gets into the bare metal and rust starts to spread out from the chip. That is when a small job turns into a bigger one.
What happens after you get in touch
There is no mystery to the process, and you are not committing to anything by asking.
- You call or message us. Phone 02087982590 or email info@infiniti-motorgroup.co.uk. A clear photo of the damage taken in daylight helps us give you a much better idea straight away.
- We give you a rough guide. From the photo, we can usually tell you whether it looks like a paintless job or one that will need paint, and give you a ballpark figure.
- You bring the car in. We check the dent properly in the workshop. We look at how deep it is, where it sits on the panel, whether we can reach behind it, and whether the paint has cracked or stretched.
- You get a firm quote. Free, in writing, before any work starts. If it is going through insurance, we handle the paperwork with your insurer for you.
- We book the work in. Small dents are often done while you wait or on the same day. Anything needing paint gets a booked slot, and a courtesy car if you need to stay on the road.
- You collect the car. We check the finish before it leaves, and the repair is covered by our warranty.
You can see full details of our dent removal service in Dagenham if you want to know more before ringing.
How far is the workshop from Dagenham?
Closer than most people think. Our bodyshop is at Unit 12, Barking Industrial Park, Alfred’s Way, Barking, IG11 0TJ. Alfred’s Way is part of the A13, so from most of Dagenham you are looking at roughly a ten to fifteen minute drive, depending on traffic and which end of town you start from.
That matters for two reasons. You are not losing half a day getting the car to us, and if you would rather not drive a damaged car at all, we are close enough to sort out collection. We cover the whole of this part of East London, and you can check the full list on our areas we cover page.
How long does a dent take to fix?
It depends almost entirely on one thing: does the paint need to be touched?
If the paint is unbroken and we can get behind the panel, we can use paintless dent removal. That means working the metal back into shape from behind with specialist tools. No filler, no spraying, no colour matching, and your car keeps its original factory paint. It is quicker, and it costs less.
If the paint has cracked, stretched or been scraped off, the panel has to be filled, primed, sprayed and blended into the surrounding paint. Paint needs time to cure properly, and that is what adds the days.
| Type of damage | Repair method | Typical time in the workshop |
|---|---|---|
| Trolley ding, paint intact | Paintless dent removal | 1 to 2 hours |
| Small door ding from the car next to you | Paintless dent removal | 2 to 4 hours |
| Medium dent with a light crease | Paintless dent removal | Around half a day |
| Dent with cracked or scraped paint | Fill, spray and blend | 1 to 2 days |
| Larger dent across a full panel | Full panel repair and paint | 2 to 3 days |
| Damage across several panels | Full bodywork repair | Up to a week |
These are guides, not promises. We give you an accurate timeframe once we have actually seen the car. If you want a fuller breakdown, we have written about how long dent removal in Barking takes in more detail.
Should you claim on your insurance, or just pay?
This is the question we get asked most, and the honest answer is that for small dents, claiming is often the worse deal.
Here is why. Say a trolley dent costs around £120 to put right with paintless dent removal. If your policy excess is £350, your insurer pays nothing at all, because the repair costs less than your excess. You still pay the full amount, and you have now told your insurer about damage for no benefit.
Even when the repair does cost more than your excess, making a claim usually resets your no claims discount. Several years of built up discount can be worth a lot more than the repair itself. MoneyHelper, the free money guidance service set up by the government, explains how no claims bonus protection works and when it is worth having if you want to read that side of it properly.
As a rough rule:
- Pay yourself when the damage is cosmetic, sits on one or two panels, and the quote is close to or below your excess. Most trolley dings, door dings and single scratches fall here.
- Consider claiming when the repair runs well past your excess, when several panels are damaged, or when there could be structural damage underneath.
- Definitely get in touch first if another driver hit you and it was not your fault. In a non-fault accident, you should not be losing your discount or paying an excess at all. Speak to us before you speak to your insurer, and we will deal with the claim on your behalf through our accident claim management service in Dagenham.
We are approved by all the major insurers, so going through a claim with us does not limit your choices.
Get everything done in one visit
Most cars that come in with a dent have picked up other bits of damage too. Rather than book three separate trips, it is worth having a proper look over the car before you bring it in. In the same visit, we can also take care of:
- Scratches and scuffs. Kerbed bumpers, keyed doors, light surface marks. Smart repair on a small scratch can take under half an hour. See our car scratch repair in Dagenham for what is involved.
- Stone chips from the A13. Touched in and sealed before water gets to the metal.
- Alloy wheel scuffs. Very common on narrow roads with high kerbs.
- Bumper repairs. Cracks, splits and dislodged bumpers from low-speed knocks.
- Paint correction and machine polishing. Brings tired paintwork back and hides very light marks.
Combining jobs saves you time and usually saves you money, because much of the cost of a paint job is in the preparation and set up rather than the panel itself.
The short version
Dents are normal in Dagenham. Retail park car parks, tight terraced streets and the A13 see to that. Most of them are small, most keep their paint intact, and most can be fixed in a few hours without spraying anything.
The main thing is not to leave it. A dent with cracked paint or a stone chip through to bare metal will let water in, and rust costs far more to put right than the original damage ever would.
If you have picked up a dent anywhere in RM8, RM9, RM10 or the surrounding area, send us a photo, and we will tell you honestly what it needs, what it will cost and whether it is worth claiming. Call 02087982590 or use our contact us page, and we will get straight back to you.