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I've been gone from the forum for a couple of years. My 2002 SC 430 has been purring along with 93,400 miles in the Sacramento area. This week I got too close to the wooden cabinets when I pulled into the garage and messed up the front fender. The first shop I took it to gave me an OUTRAGEOUS estimate. I'm hoping I can tap the expertise in this forum so I'll have a better idea of what an appropriate price is when I go to the next couple of shops.
There's only a small area where the paint is scraped off, about an inch long and half and inch wide. The rest is white paint from the cabinet that can probably be buffed out. There's no dent. I think the inside fender liner is loose, though, and may have to be replaced. It may have been loose for some time. Tell me if you need a better photo. And thanks for any help you can give. I never wreck cars and have no idea how much it costs to fix them, but I know it doesn't cost $18,000.
First, you need to clean it off to see if the white is really the cabinet paint or the underline coat. If the white paint came off and no dent, you can remove the minor scratches with scratch remover paste or compound.
I had deeper scratches and successfully removed them using 400 and 800 grid sand paper and the paste. Take some time but it’s doable.
I've been gone from the forum for a couple of years. My 2002 SC 430 has been purring along with 93,400 miles in the Sacramento area. This week I got too close to the wooden cabinets when I pulled into the garage and messed up the front fender. The first shop I took it to gave me an OUTRAGEOUS estimate. I'm hoping I can tap the expertise in this forum so I'll have a better idea of what an appropriate price is when I go to the next couple of shops.
There's only a small area where the paint is scraped off, about an inch long and half and inch wide. The rest is white paint from the cabinet that can probably be buffed out. There's no dent. I think the inside fender liner is loose, though, and may have to be replaced. It may have been loose for some time. Tell me if you need a better photo. And thanks for any help you can give. I never wreck cars and have no idea how much it costs to fix them, but I know it doesn't cost $18,000.
I did the exact same thing about 2 years ago and it cost me $350.00. At 18K that person just doesn't want the job.
If it is $1800 that is a standard quote. They would color match your paint and repaint the fender and the bumper cover. If the inner fender liner is loose, it may mean your bumper cover tabs are broken and they need to replace the bumper cover.
BUT THE THING IS, if you take your car to a painter, they will want to paint your car.
IF YOU TAKE YOUR CAR TO A DETAILER, they will try to do it without new paint. <-- my first suggestion
I guess you could try an in between solution and go with a paintless dent repair person.
A co-worker removed donor paint from his car with WD40. Spray it on and rub the donor paint off with a microfiber cloth. (Something I'm going to have to do also since I just discovered some donor paint on my passenger side quarter panel. My car has had a rough week.) So you could remove the donor paint and reassess the damage from there. I wouldn't recommend doing the WD40 treatment in the sun and probably wouldn't recommend leaving it on your paint for very long either.
I used the WD40 and it took maybe 5 minutes, including cleanup afterwards. I believe that this happened at NTB when they were removing my engine undercover. (It was damaged on the highway a couple of days ago after running over a large piece of corrugated roofing metal. I hope to get a picture of the metal before someone hauls it off.) Obviously, this is the before. (It was worse than this angle shows. I only had a foot between the car and the garage wall.) This is the after picture. You can still see some damage, though the flash makes it look worse.
I probably don't want to do it on my own because I'm a not-too-DIY older lady, and I currently have a broken arm. I just tend to mess things like that up and have to find some man to fix it for me. So I'll find some man to fix it for me from the git-go, but at a reasonable price. :-)
Now if you want me to fix your computer, that's a different matter.
I did the exact same thing about 2 years ago and it cost me $350.00. At 18K that person just doesn't want the job.
Hi iolmaster,
It didn't occur to me the shop might not want the job. That's really weird since they are the one shop in town that specializes in exotic cars. It's why I took it there. And they repaired the front end in 2011 for $2000 and did a great job.
I used the WD40 and it took maybe 5 minutes, including cleanup afterwards. I believe that this happened at NTB when they were removing my engine undercover. (It was damaged on the highway a couple of days ago after running over a large piece of corrugated roofing metal. I hope to get a picture of the metal before someone hauls it off.)
Obviously, this is the before. (It was worse than this angle shows. I only had a foot between the car and the garage wall.)
This is the after picture. You can still see some damage, though the flash makes it look worse.
Harold57-I bet you were livid when you hit that corrugated roofing material. OUCH!
I was more concerned than mad at the time, as I didn't know the extent of the damage. My mind went straight to four flat tires, a hole in my oil pan and a damaged transmission and differential. So I was relieved when NTB said that only the engine undercover was damaged. However, it also looks like it damaged the attachment bar from the front bumper to the engine undercover. About 3 of the bars on the end were broken off, which means being able to replace the undercover without replacing the bumper also is questionable (so the cost just went up in a BIG way). So I was somewhat relieved but very bummed! Most likely, the undercover saved the rest of the components underneath the car.
OTOH, I would like to find out whose truck that came off of...
I was more concerned than mad at the time, as I didn't know the extent of the damage. My mind went straight to four flat tires, a hole in my oil pan and a damaged transmission and differential. So I was relieved when NTB said that only the engine undercover was damaged. However, it also looks like it damaged the attachment bar from the front bumper to the engine undercover. About 3 of the bars on the end were broken off, which means being able to replace the undercover without replacing the bumper also is questionable (so the cost just went up in a BIG way). So I was somewhat relieved but very bummed! Most likely, the undercover saved the rest of the components underneath the car.
OTOH, I would like to find out whose truck that came off of...
Polishing and some elbow grease really doesn’t make a huge difference. If that is mainly cabinet paint, I am confident it will come off with some compounds. Good luck!
07-28-20, 10:18 PM
Approximate cost of this repair?
