Panel Damage

[xcusememisswyn]

I was drivin along today and this guy pulled out and nailed the back right side of my car... Right behind the back wheel is a dent the size of a basketball... how am i supp to get this fixed b/c its a whole panel that goes from the back to the roof so its not that easy to replace... is it possible to pull it out... its a prtty big dent... is it even possible to replace that panel or part of it?

[SR20DETpower]

based soley on just the type of questions you are asking I would say goto a few different body shops and ask them.

[Pavlo]

You can pull it out and then do other stuff to get it perfect. In order to replace it you need to cut it out and replce it with the same, cut out piece that you can get from the junk yard or something. I would not recomend that you do it yourself, can mess up some things.
When pulling out in shops they weld a cable to the center of the dent (if it cannot be bent out from the other side) and then pull the cable, they have special equipment to do that, so if you want a job well done, don't do it yourself and rather take it to someone who know how to do it properly.

[Hit_N_Run-player]

you could go and hammer it out the best you could, then take a small hammer(the pick shaped hammer) and try to get it back to original shape the best you can. Then, bondo it and sand then do everything necesary to restore it back to original (dents, then hammer, then small hammer, bondo, sand, primer, paint)......this is alot of work though if you dont know what you are doing, please only attempt this if you are skilled at these things...

[xcusememisswyn]

yah im takin it to a shop i just wanted to see what kind of work it would be... more work=more money...


thanks

[Chuki_breath]

shoot its alot of work even if you do know what your doing, its just not as tedious. Well how deep of a dent is it? My neighbor backed out in her big ass truck and pretty much wasted the the quarter panel. I got estimates for up to 2000 dollars in repair. I gave her the cheapest estimate, she paid me cash!!! i fixed it myselft and made about 1500 dollars lol. THat was a great day.

[xcusememisswyn]

its like 4 or 5 inches deep... i wouldnt have a clue how to do it but i could find friends that would know what to do... shit if it costs 2000 and i did it myself that would pretty much pay for my whole car... im hopin its not that much b/c the guy mite not be able to handle that much money...

[sidewayzS13]

i say leave it alone it adds character

[KenOhki2112]

Why don't you take it to a quality body shop and have the person who hit you pay for it? You did get his insurance info right? Or is that not really what happened out there =)

Also is yours a hatchback or a coupe?
If it's a hatch here's what mine looked like:



After fix:



That took about $3600 and 3 weeks to fix (That also put on a new door skin which had been scraped up a little bit, and some blending.)

If you fix it your self you can probably make it a little better than it is now, but you'll never be satisfyed with the results.
Sure hope you have that guys insurance info =p

Any way sounds like your discribing similar damage to what I had, except on the other side of the car, post some pictures of the damage if you get the chance.

[xcusememisswyn]

yah it was a lot like that, my cars white tho so its a big black line throught it... its supposed to cost about 1200 says my first estimate... i didnt get the guys insurance, but my mom knows him so we got all his info and a signed statement sayin he will pay for it... he couldnt get a point on his liscense for it so he begged to not call the cops... called a lawyer instead... it does look like the one ^^Above^^ ill try to get some pictures of it if i can

[Chuki_breath]

ouch that door skin is what ate up your money. Yea mine was that dent x 6...

[KenOhki2112]

Actualy the door skin ended up not being too bad, $400 parts, $200 labor 200 refinish.

The quarter panel the actualy managed to repair, but it took them 18 hours at $80 /hour and another 300-400 to paint it. The rest of the bill went to other refinishing and blending, and of course the pin stripe that the place did a horrible job of putting on.

I'm not sure what state you're in, but you should be able to report the accident to his insurance company with out him getting a point on his record by saying it was in a parking lot or something.. Although if he says he'll fork out the 1200+ to fix it just go with that. It'll probably go up to $1500 easy, maybe more =\

[D-Bo]

that first pic made me want to puke

[Chuki_breath]

shit man, i hope you didnt have to pay 3600 out of your pocket cuz i would have to say you got JIPPED!!!! That quarter panel in real life prolly took no more 8 hours lol. If insurance adjuster wrote it, thats why they got so many hours. Damn dude. Shoot i would have fixed it for a thousand and removed both of those nasty body lines. How bad were the scratches on the doorskin?? I dont see why it would have needed a doorskin for some scratches.

[KenOhki2112]

The door skin, while visibly wasn't very bad, had a 2 foot long fold on it that would have taken too long to fix, since the parts were so cheap, they decided to go with that. In retrospect the should have replaced the quarter panel as well instead of repairing it. Turned out to be more pricy to fix it. It's kind of hard to see in the picture, but the quarter panel had several creases in it, right on top of each other, and several of them were more than 90 degrees, I've tried bending metal like this before, it's extreemely difficult to restore those with out ripping the metal.

And yeah, the other guy's insurance paid for it, well, it took me about 9 months before they would though.. They were pretty dead set on totaling out my car for a measley $1200. =)