Timeless

So, in short some idiot dinged my drivers' side door with his and left a nice half moon indent along with two paint spots (I was parked ALONE and this person backed up next to my car ).

Anyways, got his insurance card and info and took the car to the body shop the dealer uses (owned by the same owner) as I figured they would know MB cars.

My car is a 2005 in pewter and the guy says to do it correctly would mean blending it in along the whole side of the car....roughly $700.00.

Now, since Nationwide is paying, I have a few questions about doing it right.

1 - Bodyshop foreman tells me they use PPG paint and tells me there is no true MB paint...that MB uses different manufacturers and PPG paint is one of them here in the US?

2 - What else should I be thinking of from you guys that have experienced this?

I am just glad I was around to see it happen...usually not so lucky.

Thanks.

amdeutsch

Make sure they use the correct clearcoat. PPG makes different ones. The ceramiclear (sp?) is a harder clearcoat similar to the one used by MB from the factory.

HTH

jpohl402

He is correct.
I am almost positive that Mercedes does in fact use PPG paint.

pearlpower

PPG is very good paint. Also, depending on where it is, rear door and front fender would most likely need to be blended. Some kid backed into my E and put a little dent offset left center on my drivers. his insurance coughed up $1600 and I sprayed it for $200 (my time is $$$) . As I had a small ding on the rear passenger I just blended past this as well.
Paintless dent repair tried to fix it to no avail.

leojang

PPG is great paint. That's what I use on all my project cars. You should be good with good painter.

Timeless

He did not seem to think they used ceramiclear...urethane clear was what he thought....I asked to to make sure on that as I thought it was the ceramic clear also.

Anyone confirm this on a 2005?

Busta Riles

Let's see a pic...

Most door dings can be removed with paintless dent repair & some polish.

Timeless

Keep in mind that I am not paying for this...so any reason not to let them make it look like new?

pearlpower

A good paintless dent person can tell you within seconds if they can fix it to 100%. If so, collect from insurance, pay up the $75 or so, and then buy a mod with the difference.

Timeless

Anyone able to confirm the ceramiclear or urethane clear coating my year car?

O-55

PPG approved refinishing products as of 04-2009

Roupin

My local MB bodyshop produced paperwork showing the original MB paint is made by Glasurit. They sprayed my bumper and the color, finish and sheen is perfect. Most shops don't like the brand though and it's harder to apply (I had a complete car sprayed with the same brand of paint a few years ago).

Timeless

Figured I'd update this for anyone that cares.

I decided to take it to a different shop since the original one did not feel comfortable spraying the ceramiclear coat.

The new shop (John Harris, which is seen as the best around here) said they had no problems doing it and thought it would only need to be done in the door...not spread across 3 panels. They agreed to do the door that got hit and the passenger side door which had a thin scratch from some other moron for the original estimate from the previous body shop for a single door fix. Works good for me and gets two doors fixed and pristine.

The job that was supposed to take a maximum of four days (rental car voucher was four days) took seven business days. Apparently they figured out that it needed to be blended across three panels to look correct.

So, they ate the extra rental days, the extra time, and had to replace both V8 Kompressor badges also due to this. They did it for the original quote also which I appreciated.

My only complaint is that the new areas with the new clearcoat show the metallic pewter paint SO much nicer when compared to the original older clearcoat that you can see work has been done. I never thought it would be that different, but I guess there is no helping it. Maybe after it finishes curing (30 days according to shop) it will blend in better. It is only noticeable in direct sunlight...but it sure does sparkle.

Will give it a nice sealant after 30 days and see how it looks then.

pearlpower

Don't expect it to look any different in 30 days. How it looks now is how it will look in 30 days. Any decent shop should have quoted up front on the blend into the other panels. Basic body shop 101. You can try and buff out the adjacent panels, perhaps that will help. Sometimes it does.

Sunir

MB uses Glasurit paint which is apparently the highest quality. I don't know if body shops use it but in Europe it's a top brand. Also a dent can be repaired using metal finish so that no body filler is used, here's where the quality of the shop comes into play...if a dent cannot be restored to 100% by PDR (which they can tell in a minute if they can achieve perfect results) I'd go for metal finish work with tap hammer/dolley to shrink or stretch the metal depending on the damage, it's time consuming and old school but it's the right way to fix a non PDR dent IMO....a few shops will do it, most will not and will resort to welded stud pulls only to get shape and use filler to smooth the surfance and prep for paint.

K-A

Yikes, that sucks about the mismatching. Is your cars paint relatively faded/sun faded? I had my door repainted when I bought my car due to a scratch on it (they offered for free), I dunno what kind of paint the Body-Shop used (it was an M-B Body Shop), but it came out PERFECT, it looks completely OEM under every light, picture, angle, etc. etc. I was very happy to say the least, because initially I was worried.

I dunno for sure, but from what I understand, a GOOD Body Shop can blend and match anything short of damaged/very faded paint, at least from what I've been told.

Timeless

The paint does not mis-match...the sparkle is just more apparent in the new clearcoat when in the sunlight.