LiQiCE

Dohhh, was driving in to work today and I ended up scraping up my car really good. Didnt hit any other cars or anything bad like that, but the car took a real real bad scraping. Anyone know of any good body shops in the area? I'm assuming that the dealer wouldn't take care of this, they would probably only be able to send it off to someone else ...

Here's links to some pics that I took of the car ... The scratches on the door don't look too horrible, probably can get them with a little bit of touch up paint, but by the wheel looks awful, all of the paint is scraped off and there's a bit of a dent now because the passenger side door isn't flush anymore in 1 spot.

1.jpg <-- Alot of the mess there is actually water from the snow today.
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3.jpg <-- Same with this picture
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Someone please tell me this won't cost over $500 to fix *crosses fingers* ... Thanks for any help anyone can provide!!!

Amoeba

What the hell did you do?!?!?!?!? Those scrapes on the car remind me of the old drivers down here.

LiQiCE

Talked to the dealer today (who actually remembered who I was and what car I bought ... not bad), and he said there's two guys in the garage that do body shop work and will do it for a pretty decent price. Probably going to stop in tomorrow to get an estimate. Hopefully that will all work out... Would still like recommendations on body shops in the area and if anyone knows about this kindof thing, estimates would be nice (incase the dealer tries to give me some sortof outrageous price).

As for what I did ... Its pretty stupid on my part. I was pulling into a space at work and on my left side there was a cement pillar, on the right side was a car... So I pulled into the space closer to the cement pillar to avoid hitting the car (its a tight turn because the pillar is basically at the end of the space) ... As I'm pulling in, I made sure that my side view mirror cleared assuming that I would have enough clearance for the rest of the car ... Which was not the right assumption. I was only idling at the time, riding the brake, but it was good enough to do the damage you see there. My reaction time was pretty horrid considering how tired I was (and seeing as how I did it in the first place, you can assume I wasn't all there) ... In any case, I feel dumb enough for doing it ... Was kicking myself all day at work. The damage is almost all paint damage though so I'm hoping a body shop can clean it up good enough that it looks new. The paint itself hasn't had much time to fade (car is only about 4 months old, 6 months if you count from the build date) so I'm hoping a new coat of paint will make it look decent.

Anyways again, thanks to anyone who can provide any help.
(BTW- If you could be so kind as to keep the flames to a minimum, I feel dumb enough as it is!!!)

Fabvsix

I'm no expert, but it sure looks like more than $500.00 damage. Your damage is in an pricey area......keep us posted !

LiQiCE

Well, I'm not really sure how much painting costs, but if they're just re-painting a small area of the car how much would that cost? I don't think it would be a huge amount. The majority of the damage is paint damage not actual body damage (which I would think would result in the largest sum of money) ... Hopefully I'll be able to get an estimate tomorrow, so we'll see!

twhitted

if you take it somewhere that does a good job (not Miracle or Maaco), I'd guess you're looking at somewhere between $1000 and $1500. I had a very similar fix done on the same part of the wheel well but no door damage and it came to $750.

good luck.

LiQiCE

Thanks for all the help. I'm going to bring it in on Friday and have them give me an estimate. If its really expensive then maybe I'll claim my comprehensive insurance coverage. ($250 deductable). If anyone else has any recommendations on where to bring it (in N.Virginia) or can give me a rough estimate I'd appreciate it!!!

NOVAwhiteTypeS

for now i would get some meguiers scratch-X

ruvz

Its not the price of the paint.. it is the sanding and prep of the entire area they charge you for... They will have to repaint the enture rear door and the rear quarter panel.. there's no touching up scratches or body damage...
I say you're looking at 1000-2500 in repairs.. if professionally done

Bluto

I would not trust a few guys at a dealer who are not pro bodyshop people to do the work.

Ask JZ, Zamora's on Gude drive in Rockville. He also has NBP.

http://www.acura-cl.com/forums/showt...threadid=72890

LiQiCE

Yeah I know what you mean. Over on ATL.com I got a reference to a pro body shop in Chantilly, VA and I'm going to get an estimate tomorrow. Hopefully everything will work out... they supposedly do great work, and I dont know if I really want to drive to Rockville to have the work done. Thanks for the tip though and if I end up needing a second or third opinion I'll definitely have to check out what place JZ used.

CT3.2

i have the same kid of scrap it goes form the back panel to the side door. The best price i was able to get was 700. I ended up going trew a friend and got it to 550. I am thinking for you 500 would be the max

LiQiCE

You're the first one to give me any kindof good news. If you're right and it is only around $500-700 then I feel much better. With some people thinking it would be around $1500 I was ready to go out and buy a bunch of Ramen Noodles to eat for the next 3 months

ruvz

hmmm... Fixing a TL would probably cost more at the door section..don't forget that the CL has no doors in the back and it is easier to hammer out any damage.

LiQiCE

There's no dents though, all the damage is paint damage. The only kind of denting that happened is in the wheel well piece which is easily hammered out from inside the wheel well.

So I would think it wouldn't be much different from a CL in that case?

LiQiCE

Well, I got a quote from D&V Autobody for $870 ... The guys at D&V were very honest though and came across as doing really great work. They said they do mostly autobody repair but they also paint spoilers/bodykits so they match your car's color ... They told me the car would look 100% perfect, as good as it was the day I bought it ... if not better when they got it back to me. I would really like to go with them, but I have to talk to the insurance first...

The quote from the guys the dealer's work with was only $235 but they said that it wouldn't look stock, it would only be maybe 99% (which meant the dent would stay and they would only paint over the scratches) ...

I have a call in to my insurance company to see how much they would raise my premium for making a claim ... Since the claim is only $370 (after my $500 deductible) I would think the insurance wouldn't go up too much ... But we'll see I guess.

jimcol711

isnt there some rule that insurance companies cant jack up your rates if you file a claim under comprehensive coverage (i.e. not an accident, such as car is stolen, car is hit in parking lot, car is damaged by hail, etc) why dont you just file it under comprehensive??

LiQiCE

Thats probably true for comprehensive.

I'm not sure how to get it fall under the comprehensive insurance. If I could do that, my deductible is only $250 ... I doubt that "bad weather" can be used to apply comprehensive damage. I don't want to outright LIE to the insurance company and tell them something happened that really didn't ... The damage is obviously a scrape that happened from side to side... It didn't involve anyone else though, so perhaps it could fall under comprehensive because of that.

Anyone have any advice on that? (I dont think making up a big fat lie is a good idea, but wording things/filing it in such a way to make it fall under the appropriate insurance claim is what I'm more looking for).

jimcol711

dude, just tell them you found the car like that in a parking lot, it was a hit&run....

LiQiCE

jimcol711,

As much as I dislike insurance companies, I really don't want to defraud them, much less get caught defrauding them. I'm not an expert in car collisions, but if there was a way for them to tell that I hit concrete instead of another car, I'm sure they would call me on it. I appreciate the help, but I'd rather not risk it.

Anyways, I called up D&V Autobody again and asked them if they could work with me on the price at all and they were able to get it down to $755 without (according to them) effecting the quality of the job at all.

So I'll be dropping it off with them when I'm scheduled. Will suck to not have a car for 4 days, but luckily my roomate has graciously offered to drop me off at work everyday. Now I just have to find someone to drive me home from work ... Considering I only live 2 miles away from work I don't think it will be a huge deal.

minla007

I am a recent victim of a hit/run myself...insurance says hit/run is considered collision since there was impact from another vehicle...this is the definition from Mercury insurance...correct me if i am wrong

I wanted to file it as comprehensive, since my comp deductible is only 250 and my collision is 500, but they said no.

LiQiCE

Well, I got my car back from D&V Autobody and I must say, when they said perfect they were right!!! It really does look PERFECT.

Will post some pics of the work next week ... (Right now the door molding is backordered from Acura and should be coming in on Monday) ...

Only thing I noticed is that all my quarters, dimes, and nickels in my coin holder were gone except for 1 each so it doesn't look like there were any missing (this isn't the red velvet coin holder, I'm talking about one that I use to organize my change). Not a big deal, and I probably should have been smart enough to put that kindof thing away but still sortof seems crappy.

Just glad to have my car looking good again (minus the missing molding)