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Anyone have any experience with paintless dent removal on their W222?
Well, that didn't take long. I've owned my 2015 S550 less than a month & have less than 1,000 miles on it.
While driving a local highway on my way into work yesterday, a semi truck travelling in front of me blew it's driver side front tire & the tread delaminated in it's entirety from the flapping casing. Traffic was too heavy & I couldn't swerve away from it. The wildly flapping tread hit the passenger side of my front bumper, dented my fender a bit, and smeared rubber across the passenger side doors. I was beside myself with frustration & anger, but very happy that it didn't come through my windshield & injure me.
See below. The rubber smears cleaned off pretty easily - I had two good coats of P21S Concours Carnauba on the car & I'd like to think that helped. The front bumper cover is ok.
I have a small dent on the passenger side front fender, behind the wheel opening, right where it meets the rocker panel. The paint is not fractured. Has anyone had any experience with paintless dent removal in this area?
Well, that didn't take long. I've owned my 2015 S550 less than a month & have less than 1,000 miles on it.
While driving a local highway on my way into work yesterday, a semi truck travelling in front of me blew it's driver side front tire & the tread delaminated in it's entirety from the flapping casing. Traffic was too heavy & I couldn't swerve away from it. The wildly flapping tread hit the passenger side of my front bumper, dented my fender a bit, and smeared rubber across the passenger side doors. I was beside myself with frustration & anger, but very happy that it didn't come through my windshield & injure me.
See below. The rubber smears cleaned off pretty easily - I had two good coats of P21S Concours Carnauba on the car & I'd like to think that helped. The front bumper cover is ok.
I have a small dent on the passenger side front fender, behind the wheel opening, right where it meets the rocker panel. The paint is not fractured. Has anyone had any experience with paintless dent removal in this area?
John
Same exact thing happened to me in 2006 on my '06 S Class when I had 2500 miles on it just outside of Chicago on a business trip.
I had rubber on the whole side of the car from front to back with dents in both passenger doors. I took it to "Dent Wizard" and they did a great job. However, based on where my dent was in the front door, they busted the window. They did replace the window. After taking all the rubber off the car and the dent fix there was no sign of the rubber or dents. I would recommend the paint less dent removal before the body shop alternative.
Same exact thing happened to me in 2006 on my '06 S Class when I had 2500 miles on it just outside of Chicago on a business trip.
I had rubber on the whole side of the car from front to back with dents in both passenger doors. I took it to "Dent Wizard" and they did a great job. However, based on where my dent was in the front door, they busted the window. They did replace the window. After taking all the rubber off the car and the dent fix there was no sign of the rubber or dents. I would recommend the paint less dent removal before the body shop alternative.
Sounds encouraging. This morning I spoke with the paintless dent removal guy that the dealership uses. He said it shouldn't be a problem...
I am sorry for this happened to you . It should not be a big deal for a body shop to recover the damage .
Happy driving and looking forward to seeing good news
I visited 4 paintless dent removal (PDR) guys who's reputations have been built on being able to straighten aluminum panels. To a man, all stated that the damage is too close to the bottom edge of the fender & that it is unrepairable using PDR methods.
I visited a body shop recommended by my dealer for a quote on doing a traditional repair. Theirs was a remarkably similar response to the PDR guys - any repair to a aluminum panel will likely be less than perfect - noticeable.
The body shop recommends replacing the fender. While I'm not opposed to doing so, they believe it's necessary to blend the newly painted fender color down the passenger side of the car, re-spray the hood to match, and blend paint about halfway down the drivers side front fender. This part has me nervous.
While I want my S550 to be perfect, I'm apprehensive about losing the factory finish on the front of the car.
Looking for opinions, I guess. Has anybody else gone through this with their 2014 or 2015 S Class ?
I visited 4 paintless dent removal (PDR) guys who's reputations have been built on being able to straighten aluminum panels. To a man, all stated that the damage is too close to the bottom edge of the fender & that it is unrepairable using PDR methods.
I visited a body shop recommended by my dealer for a quote on doing a traditional repair. Theirs was a remarkably similar response to the PDR guys - any repair to a aluminum panel will likely be less than perfect - noticeable.
The body shop recommends replacing the fender. While I'm not opposed to doing so, they believe it's necessary to blend the newly painted fender color down the passenger side of the car, re-spray the hood to match, and blend paint about halfway down the drivers side front fender. This part has me nervous.
While I want my S550 to be perfect, I'm apprehensive about losing the factory finish on the front of the car.
Looking for opinions, I guess. Has anybody else gone through this with their 2014 or 2015 S Class ?
They are taking the easy way out. A superior paint facility should have a good chance at matching close enough so that you can't see the color difference without all this blending.
I understand most would want to blend but I would sure try to find a shop that thinks they can match without all this blending.
Painting the hood would be an absolute no for me under any circumstance. I've been down this road in the same areas and while it took two tries, they got it.
My experience was on a Diamond Silver SL many years ago.
I visited 4 paintless dent removal (PDR) guys who's reputations have been built on being able to straighten aluminum panels. To a man, all stated that the damage is too close to the bottom edge of the fender & that it is unrepairable using PDR methods.
I visited a body shop recommended by my dealer for a quote on doing a traditional repair. Theirs was a remarkably similar response to the PDR guys - any repair to a aluminum panel will likely be less than perfect - noticeable.
The body shop recommends replacing the fender. While I'm not opposed to doing so, they believe it's necessary to blend the newly painted fender color down the passenger side of the car, re-spray the hood to match, and blend paint about halfway down the drivers side front fender. This part has me nervous.
While I want my S550 to be perfect, I'm apprehensive about losing the factory finish on the front of the car.
Looking for opinions, I guess. Has anybody else gone through this with their 2014 or 2015 S Class ?
Seems like a lot of blending going on to me. It is typical on traditional repairs to do some blending but it seems to me they might as well paint the whole car based on the amount of blending.
On a previous S Class I had been rear ended and they replaced the trunk and the entire bumper. They blended both sides of the car into the rear quarter panel but not into the rear doors. They did a great job. It was a black car.
If I were you I would get a second opinion just to make sure that all the blending is really needed.
What am I missing here? Wouldn't you also want to call your insurance company and see what its adjuster says?
Hey Tom - I have a claim established and an adjuster from my insurance company has looked at the car and reviewed the estimates I've gathered. The insurance adjuster doesn't want to authorize replacing the damaged fender before the body shop of my choice attempts to repair it.
The adjuster was fine with the blending written up in the body shop estimate. My car is iridium silver. The adjuster stated that - in his experience - it's a difficult color to match.
08-28-2014, 08:39 AM
