ddcha

haha. obviously a joke. found this on the car as I was leaving for work this morning. looks like some idiot backed into my rear left door and didn't bother to leave me a note. I have some paintless dent guys taking a look but somehow I doubt that will be an option for me because of the bent edge along the bottom of the door. but who knows. keeping my fingers crossed. Any advice welcome. thx. I'm in Bergen County, NJ.

dynomite05

OUCH! That blows! Where are your paintless dent guys located?

ddcha

I'm trying to get a hold of Marcus at Garden State PDR
Depending on his recommendation/quote I may stop by DentWizard in Leonia - I heard that Bruno is the best repairman there

dynomite05

Check out Bergen Imports in Cliffside. They do all my work, their paintless dent removal is top notch.

ddcha

Will do. thanks for your recommendation. is there a particular guy there that you use?

dynomite05

Talk to Harry.

alx

the crease is what will be the problem.

if dingmaster doesnt work you are looking at $1000-1500 job to get it right.

ddcha

yes, that much I figured. Some guys are very good at getting the creases out. The most talented guys that are willing to take on my project may charge $300-400, which is still better than $1000+ at a traditional body shop

ddcha

Paintless dent repair guys say they can't do this one. They say to go to body shop. Body shop says I need a brand new door! WTH? So I need to buy a brand new door? That's $1500 for just the PART. Anyone have any better advice here please?

alx

as i thought. creases are the nemesis of ding masters...

if they cannot access the sheetmetal from inside to bang out- you will need a new door. that is correct. however, sometimes even if you can access it from inside an extensive door bracing makes the job very hard... i am suspicious that this is the case.

talk to few other shops. doors are nasty to repair. most shops would like to replace such items.

dynomite05

It might not be much help but parts.com has the parts a lot cheaper than the dealer.

ddcha

Thanks guys. parts.com definitely has it a lot cheaper. I may go with them. I spoke to the body shop and they said that they don't recommend bondo on doors because eventually they will wear. They say it's not worth the labor, so they replace the entire door.

Josey92

Sorry about the damage. If you have to go to a bodyshop, and you feel like going to Jersey City, see Pete at Sernio's on Communipaw Ave. I live in Brooklyn and have always gone there for work because they are excellent at what they do and they're all a pleasure to deal with. Good luck with the repair/replace.

ddcha

Thanks Josey. I have one more PDR guy coming by today to see if he wants to take a stab at it. If he can get 80% of it out for a few hundred $, I'd be happy with the result instead of shelling out ~$2000 for this cosmetic repair.

43221B

Just an fyi on the paintless dent repair, some of the honest guys will punt on doing the repair because they know that there will be micro cracks (that are hard to see without magnification) in the paint if the sheet metal is bent beyond a certain point. Eventually you'll start to see rust. This may not be an issue if you don't plan to keep it very long.

ddcha

yikes. I got a formal quote from a reputable body shop near me. $3000 ($2000 parts and $1000 labor). I'm definitely going through insurance. I spoke to the repair shop and asked if I could buy the parts myself, which would save me $800 on parts (by ordering on parts.com), but he says he doesn't do that. He says he charges full list price and makes some margin on it. Is this normal???

dynomite05

At a reputable shop it shouldn't matter if you get the parts yourself.

pateljb

Had the exact same thing happen to my wife's GL550, took it to the dealer shop and got it taken care of $1400 but they didn't have to replace the door. I guess they were able to bang it out from the inside.

ddcha

what the? I will try another shop. thanks for the headsup.