Front bumper damage - joining the club

[Subie]

I'm joining the group of people whose BRZs have been affected by the curse that seems to be going around. I was minding my own business driving down the highway when the idiot in the neighboring lane decided it was better to drive over a piece of wood in the road than to drive around it, even though he had more than enough room to do so. The wood then flew up in the air and hit my bumper. The bumper is now scratched and creased and I'm going through the motions of trying to have my insurance company handle it. I got the guy's plate but I doubt there's much that can be done about it.

[whitefrs]

with the plate you can do a lot.

hit n run is a misdemeanor

[xjohnx]

same thing happened to me last week, except with a stray traffic cone. (+2 seconds!)

[Subie]

Originally Posted by whitefrs

with the plate you can do a lot.

hit n run is a misdemeanor

I just called the state highway patrol and gave them a description of the other vehicle including the plate. Hopefully something comes of this.

Originally Posted by xjohnx

same thing happened to me last week, except with a stray traffic cone. (+2 seconds!)

My damage isn't nearly as bad as yours, but the bumper is still creased. My detailer, @michakaveli, pointed that out to me. I was originally hoping it would simply buff out.

[Giccin]

MURDER HIM.

Wow!

I hate it when cars randomly drop shit from their car. About a year ago this truck's undercarriage decided to fly straight into my windshield. Had a final destination moment. -_-

[ToxicSneakers]

You might try moderate heat gun, cool, repeat - works often enough - not high heat!

[xjohnx]

Originally Posted by Subie

I just called the state highway patrol and gave them a description of the other vehicle including the plate. Hopefully something comes of this.



My damage isn't nearly as bad as yours, but the bumper is still creased. My detailer, @michakaveli, pointed that out to me. I was originally hoping it would simply buff out.

yeah, i was hoping this would be a good opportunity to swap the bumper skin out for something else, but nothing really catches my eye so far.

[Subie]

Originally Posted by ToxicSneakers

You might try moderate heat gun, cool, repeat - works often enough - not high heat!

I want to see what the body shops come back with. I'm not willing to experiment on my own, but it's possible that the body shop may be able to get the crease out instead of replacing the bumper. Luckily this is a comprehensive claim since the piece of wood was in motion when it hit the car; there was literally no time for me to react at all since the closing speed was probably well over 100 MPH. I should only be out the $250 deductible at most, plus the cost of having Opti-Guard reapplied to the front bumper.

[Subie]

So I went to pick up my car this morning from the body shop and saw that the job they did was even worse than this one. Not only did the masking look terrible, but there was an area on the bumper that had received too much metallic flake and thus looked darker than the rest, an area near the edge of the bumper where the paint had collected and thus was higher than the surrounding paint, and another area where it looked like the base-coat wasn't properly mixed when applied, and thus looked similar to how an ice cube looks since it had then been clear-coated over. There was also overspray on the "mustache" part of the bumper.

I told them I wasn't paying for it and the shop owner offered to paint it again, agreeing that the work was not their best. He offered to buy a new bumper if he had to so we'll see what happens. I'm just glad I went through my insurance company so the shop has two people to answer to.

[ichitaka05]

Originally Posted by Subie

So I went to pick up my car this morning from the body shop and saw that the job they did was even worse than this one. Not only did the masking look terrible, but there was an area on the bumper that had received too much metallic flake and thus looked darker than the rest, an area near the edge of the bumper where the paint had collected and thus was higher than the surrounding paint, and another area where it looked like the base-coat wasn't properly mixed when applied, and thus looked similar to how an ice cube looks since it had then been clear-coated over. There was also overspray on the "mustache" part of the bumper.

I told them I wasn't paying for it and the shop owner offered to paint it again, agreeing that the work was not their best. He offered to buy a new bumper if he had to so we'll see what happens. I'm just glad I went through my insurance company so the shop has two people to answer to.

Damn! When it rains, it pours huh? Hope everything gets all work out

[SubieNate]

Originally Posted by whitefrs

with the plate you can do a lot.

hit n run is a misdemeanor

I doubt you could hold another driver liable for road debris that did not originate from his/her vehicle. It's likely they didn't even know what happened.

When I had AAA they covered me getting hit by a retread from a semi being kicked up by another car into me under "falling object insurance" under my comprehensive or something like that and I don't even think I had to pay the deductible. (I took the check and ran but I think it was for the total amount of the repair, it's been a couple years though.)

Nathan

[Subie]

Originally Posted by ichitaka05

Damn! When it rains, it pours huh? Hope everything gets all work out

I just don't understand how any shop, let alone an authorized repair provider as listed by my insurance company, could do such shoddy work. Even a less-discerning customer would not be pleased with the way the car looked, but when a 2013-MY car comes in with < 4000 miles on it, the repair better damn well be perfect. I wish I'd taken pictures to show you guys just how bad it really looked.

Originally Posted by SubieNate

I doubt you could hold another driver liable for road debris that did not originate from his/her vehicle. It's likely they didn't even know what happened.

When I had AAA they covered me getting hit by a retread from a semi being kicked up by another car into me under "falling object insurance" under my comprehensive or something like that and I don't even think I had to pay the deductible. (I took the check and ran but I think it was for the total amount of the repair, it's been a couple years though.)

Nathan

I can say with a high probability the driver of the other car knew he had caused some kind of damage. You can't hit a piece of debris like that and not notice it, and if my hypothesis is correct about him looking in his rear-view mirror instead of in front of him, he would have seen the wood go flying, either when it flew into my car, or when it hit the bumper and flew off towards the left. I absolutely hold him personally responsible for the damage he caused, even if the state disagrees. It's carelessness that causes this sort of mishap in the first place; the debris was stationary before he hit it, and he could have and should have avoided it since it was only occupying a small portion of his lane, and the shoulder offered plenty of room for him to drive around it.

[denkigrve]

Originally Posted by Subie

I just don't understand how any shop, let alone an authorized repair provider as listed by my insurance company, could do such shoddy work. Even a less-discerning customer would not be pleased with the way the car looked, but when a 2013-MY car comes in with < 4000 miles on it, the repair better damn well be perfect. I wish I'd taken pictures to show you guys just how bad it really looked.


I can say with a high probability the driver of the other car knew he had caused some kind of damage. You can't hit a piece of debris like that and not notice it, and if my hypothesis is correct about him looking in his rear-view mirror instead of in front of him, he would have seen the wood go flying, either when it flew into my car, or when it hit the bumper and flew off towards the left. I absolutely hold him personally responsible for the damage he caused, even if the state disagrees. It's carelessness that causes this sort of mishap in the first place; the debris was stationary before he hit it, and he could have and should have avoided it since it was only occupying a small portion of his lane, and the shoulder offered plenty of room for him to drive around it.

This is why I went to my body shop and got the insurance to just cut me a check. My body guy cuts me breaks so I got three times the level of work I would have gotten from their shop for the same price. He even touched up some other areas I didn't even notice had issues until he pointed them out. PLUS he offered to fix the horrible job FiveAxis did on their spoiler matching. (There are smudges and just plain sloppy areas on the spoiler on top of it not being perfectly matched)

I wish you were in Norcal. I'd send you his way. He'd take good care of your baby.

[Subie]

Originally Posted by denkigrve

This is why I went to my body shop and got the insurance to just cut me a check. My body guy cuts me breaks so I got three times the level of work I would have gotten from their shop for the same price. He even touched up some other areas I didn't even notice had issues until he pointed them out. PLUS he offered to fix the horrible job FiveAxis did on their spoiler matching. (There are smudges and just plain sloppy areas on the spoiler on top of it not being perfectly matched)

My insurance company cut me a check for the repair cost less the deductible, but I can't say I would have gone anywhere else for the repair. Outwardly these guys looked good; they have several good user reviews, they're I-CAR certified, have a nice, modern facility, and as I stated, they're an authorized repair provider. I won't say anything else about them to protect their identity while they work to resolve this situation, but as I said, all indications were that they would be one of the better shops in my area. Worst-case scenario I may have to drive to Charlotte to go to one of the higher-end body shops, but I really hope it doesn't come to that.