leeherman

It had to happen eventually, and the Body Side Moldings couldn't save me!

I was supposed to take my '69 Dodge Dart to the All-Chrysler Nationals in Carlisle, PA this past weekend, but decided to take the Acura due to the weather forecasts for last Thursday and Friday.

The car spent most of its time at the hotel as I rode to the show with friends on Friday and Saturday. I never noticed any damage as late as Saturday night. Sunday morning I found a nice ding (actually two) high on the left rear quarter panel. I was parked on the last spot at the left side of the hotel parking lot, so someone must have been loading their car in the "illegal spot" next to me and slammed a truck door into my quarter...



Needless to say, I'm pretty pi$$ed, and the car is going into my friend's shop on Wednesday to have the damage fixed. The repair will cost around $400.

I might not have bothered fixing the ding if it occured low enough where it wouldn't be obvious, but the location of the damage is VERY obvious and would annoy me every time I saw it, so it's getting fixed.

On the bright side, the car performed flawlessly, getting 28MPG at around 70MPH. The sound system and navigation made the 500 mile round trip a pleasure. I even passed the 5,000 mile mark after one year of ownership. The car is as much a pleasure to drive now as it was when it left the dealership a year ago.

Regards,

erok72

OUCH, dude...
Sorry to hear that your baby was hurt!!
She'll be good as new soon enough!

crazymjb

You would think people would have the decensy to leave their info, in a way that would piss me off even more than the damage. How is it going to be fixed, bondo or banged out from the inside. Luckily one of my favorite teachers is a certified mechanic and auto body specialist, so hopefully if something like that ever happens I can get it fixed for free or dirt cheap. I can say right now their is no way in hell my parents would dish out more than 150 for a ding like that.

leeherman

Believe it or not, I would have been even more upset if it was my Dart that was damaged.

I asked about how the damage would be fixed. It's a rather awkward spot to tap out from behind, but the shop will attempt to do that first. If they can't tap out the damage from behind, they'll weld a small tab on the ding from the front and pull it out.

BTW, the owner of the shop (my friend's brother-in-law) told me that it's a good thing the car doesn't have three stage paint (ours is base coat/clear coat). With three-stage paint it's impossible to fix small areas without painting whole sides because it's impossible to match one small area. BC/CC paint can be matched so only the affected area can be painted.

The example of three stage paint the shop owner gave me was a Maxima he had to repair. He had to repaint most of the car to match the damaged area.

Regards,

JetJock

AWWW.....I'm so sorry to see that dent in your new car. I know the feeling well. I had a new Audi several years ago, and I actually saw a little kit throwing rocks and hit my car by mistake. His mother was standing right next to him and never said anything. I walked up to the mother and said...."hey...you're little boy hit my car with a rock".....she said she was sorry but never offered to pay for the damage. I called her husband at work and told him I saw his son throw a rock that hit my car. He agreed to pay for the damage until he got the estimate. Then the battle began.....he said the cost ($450) was way too much and told me to contact his insurance company. I did...and they paid...but they would have never offered to pay had I not witnessed the kid hitting my car with the rock. Some people just don't think their kids are responsible for damage, or they thought the "ding" was no big deal...mabe not to them...but it was for me since it was my first dent in a new car so I can appreciate how you feel. It sucks....but trust me....with time...and the repair...you'll soon forget the whole matter after the car gets a little older. It's just that "first" dent that hurts the most.

leeherman

Yes, the ding was an unpleasant thing to find, and it's maddening to me that the perpetrator couldn't take responsibility. However, I realize that it's a relatively minor annoyance in the grand scheme of things. I might have simply touched up the paint chips if the damage was in a less obvious spot, but I don't think I could stand to keep looking at that quarter panel damage for the next ten to fifteen years!

The car went into the shop today, and I expect to have it back on Friday. At least I was able to do some wiring and install some new lighting in the garage since it was vacant!

Regards,

tfe691

Fucking ingnorate people like that piss me off to hell man. You can never have anything nice. My wifes MDX had one probally 3-4 inches long from some asshole in a work van just slammed his door into. Lucky we follwed him after he took off got his license plate number and called the cops. They gave me his insurance info. The local dent guy wanted $350 for it.

Oh don't get dent wizzard or anyone like that all you see from and angle is ripples form where they pushed/fixed they dent. There are soem guys who can do this with extremely good quality and looks.

PPLAPW

Same thing happen to me, except I put it there myself. It happened as I was getting into my Armada, the door sliped out of my hand and right on the rear door of the passengers side. But I found a guy to fix it, he charged me $45, he fixed it and you can't even tell its there..........

leeherman

I assume in your case there was no paint damage. I know that paintless ding removal is not very expensive, and the results can be very good. However, in my case there were two dings with paint damage, so the dings had to be removed and paint had to be blended. The grand total was $350.

I just picked up the car, and the results are perfect.



The same repair shop did the work on my '93 Camry when it was rear-ended, and that work was excellent too. The shop is Rudy's Auto Body in Deer Park, NY for anyone looking for a good body shop on Long Island.

Regards,