By animeation2002 at 2010-07-07

What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?

Barley 4 months old. I just had the windows tinted today. The shop entrance/exit had a massive blind spot. bam! Right into a brick column. Now the rear left bumper and side have a nice blue scratch from the column paint and brick.

I was thinking of wiping it down with gasoline for now to remove the blue paint.

 

try using a clay bar it might get some of it out. is that a bumper protector on your bumper?

 

yeah, it's a bumper protector.

I guess I should have bought a little extra material to cover those sides too.

 

That really sucks. Were you leaving? Too much tint, right. Couldn't see where you were going. I would go easy w/ gasoline - claybar or rubbing compound and go gently.

 

Damn... never thought id visiting an AutoZone this close into having the car. Well, this time I can’t go running to the dealer. :/ This one was clearly my idiocy.

I’m gonna go ahead and buy a micro fiber cloth and a clay bar for now. I suppose I should try the gasoline 1st.

 

What do you think the gasoline is going to do, unless you're thinking about lighting it???

 

I was thinking it would take off the excess blue paint without damaging the finish.

 

I'm not sure on that. I would stick to products designed to do the trick - claybar or rubbing compound and a gentile touch. If it were road tar maybe, but kerosene would be better there.

I'm sure others will chime in. Too hot in Brooklyn anyhow.

 

I'm so Pissed right now. I got a rubbing compound for a few bucks and a terry cloth. It got out the blue abrasion very good, but there was nothing I could do about the dent.

These guys at autozone haggled with me to do the job for $110. I told them forget it, its a 20 dollar job and eventually he agreed to 40 bucks.

The guy tells me later on that the job was much bigger. They found the wheel wall was dented in and had to be fixed. He kept pushing me to give him more. I stopped at $65. They took a crowbar and a mallet, smeared some turtle wax crap on the dent to "minimize" damaging the paint.

The end result is that there is less of a dent, i see the metal now, and im out 65 bucks... thats the end of my rant...

 

Well live with it while you visit bodyshops to get an idea of the cost of a proper repair. Sorry again to hear about your new Fit. I know how I'd feel if it was me, Sick. But I also know it can be fixxed to where the only person that would know that it was damaged is you.

 

Either leave it be, or get it fixed by reputable body shop. It's not gonna get better throwing 10-20 dollars at it at a time.

 

too late for that now. for now, the deeds been done. I placed a piece of tape over the exposed metal to minimize rusting. This will by me time until i figure out where to go from there.


I originally figured all that needed to be done was take a small dent puller and cleanly yank it out. These guys promised me the world and banged the hell out of it with a mallet and crow bar.

I should have stopped him when I saw that. I figured the dent puller is under 20 bucks and it takes a few seconds. Would have saved tons of cash doing it myself. The guy was very pushy, and i fell hook line and sinker...

Well, I'm definitely not doing that again.

 

damn dude you just got gyp'd hardcore. happened to a friend of mine a while ago. his car had a dent and some guys swore they could get it out for cheap. well they got it out but they left a fucking gigantic primer spot in the middle of the car that ended up being an even worse eyesore that was to begin with

 

Ok, here’s the update.

To prevent any rusting and to camo the exposed metal, I placed electric tape over the problem spots. (I know, I should have used some sort of rust protectant spray or something. Didn't think about that until much later)

When I found the time, I brought it into my dealers’ body shop. Big mistake. He charged me $800 not including tax. He says this will be for fixing the dent, applying a rust coat and repainting it. They told me it would be ready in 3 days.

Three days later I come to pick up my car. They have me inspect it. The car was sparkling clean on the plus side, but it was coated in what looked and smelled like lithium grease. The dent was non-existent, the car looked brand new. It looks to me like they simply replaced the panel.

I go to the front desk to pay and inform them I will be paying via check. They ask me whose name the check will be under. I inform them it’s a personal check. They act all surprised, I suppose they were expecting to overcharge an insurance company, not some poor schmo’s…

Anyways, I’m currently looking into getting myself a service contract of some sort to minimize this crap.

 

...So what was the mistake? They completed the work in the timeframe they said and the car now looks brand new?

 

The mistake was not trying my luck at another place. $800 is a bit much for that kind of work.

 

I know it's a little old now, but-

No, $800 is not too much for what sounds like a very good repair job on a rear 1/4 panel.

It's about appropriate.