Estimate this repair?

Our deductable is $500Can, didn't think it would get anywhere near that, and it would be best to just deal with the body shop. This is a shop we've dealt with many times in the past, always done good work. Anyway, after getting the estimate, decided it was worth filing a claim.

Anyone care to estimate the estimate?

Bear in mind: Canadian dollars, and Canadian prices. Also, this is full repair, aiming to minimize any evidence of repair, any differences in paint appearance.




A close up:

 

Our fault. My wife was exiting a parallel park location. It was a narrow, busy street, she just mis-judged clearance. The other participant was a parked van. The couple of plumbers in it decided there was no damage to their vehicle. I'm guessing it was a heavy gauge bumper, older vehicle, and so on.

Anyway, your number is very close, slightly high: it came in at $1120, with $120 Harmonized Sales Tax (there's a referendum going on right now to drop-kick that).

The rear door is almost pristine, the paint skin is broken for maybe 1/2" at the very edge. But in the interest of "blending in" that goes out the window. What they're proposing:

1. Remove: rear door handle, rear bumper, tail light (assume that necessitates some interior panel removal). Partially remove lower rocker panel, just the back corner. Peel off (and supply/install new) the two plastic stone guard bits at the trailing edge of rear door.

2. Pull out and level the dimple. I was told they use little nails that are welded on the area: they use them to pull out the dimple, then the nails are snapped off. They don't actually drill through, just welded on the surface.

3. "Two-Stage Blend Refinish" the entire vicinity, up to seams at rear bumper and tail light. I gather they feather out the color coat, but clear coat all the way to, and around the corner at seams. That's why they remove so much hardware, to go around the corners, avoid terminating the clearcoat at the corner.

It's with some trepidation I hear about all this hardware removal: that's one thing that's been problematic in past. Anyway, staying upbeat: let the recoating begin

 

I keep thinking of the movie "The Great Escape". There's two escape methods used:

1. The main effort: labourious, insanely complex, with the aim to evacuate half the camp, LOL.

2. Steve McQueen's method: 2 man operation, tunneling along on the fly, pushing up breathing tubes, digging in front and filling in behind.

Don't know if method #2 is possible outside of Hollywood, but I just like the contrast, as an anology. It does seem a little much to be pulling the car half apart, and painting half the car, for a small dent.

I suspect going both routes, it would be very difficult to judge the difference. Anyway, just keep on going

 

Well, at least through this place, the cheaper route, which was to just adress the damage area, wouldn't blend in the adjacent door, nor involve any parts removal, still was neck-and-neck with the $500 deductable, just under $500, and with good-old-HST added. He did give me a verbal estimate on that, but cautioned there might be some noticeable contrast in color. It's in his best interest to promote the pricier route, by pricing the cheap repair right at the deductable, I guess.

The REAL cheap DIY route: go over the area with damp cloth. Then polishing compound on the scuffed areas, thoroughly clean paint chips with alchohol, then get them with the touch up pen (which goes on VERY seamless). Let cure a week, then polish thoroughly.

Then all you'd see is a slight disturbance in the force, I mean reflection, at certain angles, from the dimple.

I appreciate this could be the first of several, dings accumulate. do not know.

 

You can't push it out from behind: for about the first inch back from the edge, but there's a second layer from there on, and it flares out away from the outer plate. The shop intends to weld on little nails on the front, pull on them to pull out the dent, then knock them off, braking the weld. Then I guess a little filler and sanding.

 

Thanks for the input. I have the same concerns.

We've used this outfit before, and they seem to be quite cognisant of paint match. But no one's perfect. I guess it's impossible to be perfect, short of an entire repaint. And that's not perfect, LOL. D.O. for orange peel texture: pretty tricky to match. And the more stuff you pull off, the better the odds of something breaking, and so on.

OTOH, they've been in business a long time. I think every job requires an assesment, as to what's the optimum route, none perfect.

The big concern I'm getting from a lot of reponders is the magnitude of the repair, compared to the little local dent. I think at the least I'll voice my concern to them re this, weigh the pros-and-cons.

 

Just picked up the car, From Ultimate Collision in Coquitlam. Pretty much happy, looks good. Could be the clear coat is slightly ruddier, hard to tell. The metal flake texture, and orange peel, and color, look spot-on. Eric, the owner, pointed out one teardrop in the clearcoat, said to bring it in next week, when it's cured better, to level it. Anyway,

Here's a before pic:



And after:



I'm not sure exactly where they feathered out the color coat, I could ask. The clear coat theoretically goes past corners in all directions, like beyound the bumper and tail light seams, and so on.