Advice on fender damage
 

I was in a rush and swiped a concrete piling in an underground garage in the city. :mad0259: The garage has concerete poles everywhere and it was not a pleasant experience. Worst feeling ever.

The dark image is taken the night it happened. Notice all the red streaks. This was the paint that came from the pole.

The second image shows after I tried to buff out the paint that was left on the clear coat. What is left is the streaks where it got down to the metal.

What you DON'T see are about 5-6 indentations/bumps that occurred as a result. Almost like someone hit my car with a small putter.
Edit: It also looks worse in person than the pics show.

Result: took to body shop, told me it will be 1,200-1,500 to repair. He said he would have to do that whole panel, up to the door and can't just repair it by like touching up the paint and taking out the dents.


My concerns: that is a lot of $$. Going to get another opinion. But I am worried that a) the paint won't look as good b) it might be noticeable that the whole panel has been taken off and reworked

I don't know what to do. It looks a lot better than it did the first night. I washed it and waxed it to try and fill in the scrapes. It did help a ton. But I feel my car is tainted now and extreme sadness now everytime I drive it, like I am walking around with a black eye.

Any helpful input is appreciated.

You can't remove that panel unless you're planning on taking that entire side of the car off. Literally the entire side.

Take it to another shop. IAG in MD has a great paint shop and they come highly recommended by a lot over at NASIOC. L&M is another shop in VA that does great work.

As far as the cost, what is your insurance deductible? Look into that as a route to take instead of paying out of pocket. But first take it to another shop.

I don't see any bumps, just a bunch of streaks.
If it's a daily driver, I would just touch up paint the streaks and not worry about it.
Nobody will be looking at that area closely to tell you it's not perfect.

Like my other 9 yr old black car with 138k+ miles. Wash it regularly and people still comment it looks almost new, even though I know all the battle scars it has if looked are closer. From normal distance, people don't see or care.
It's not a show car, I don't see any of the scars when sitting in the driver's seat and still puts a big grin on my face whenever I am driving it.

Now the tiny crack on my windshield right in my line of sight, that does bug the hell out of me most of the time, since "I" can see it while driving...:mad0260:

PDR should be able to make the panel smooth again, but painting it is a different issue. Personally, I think it'd be cheaper and easier to have the whole panel repainted unless you can find a detail shop that would be willing to touch it up right.

The dents' bumps are on the far right side of the well. Literally if you look athe scratches starting on the right, the bumps are right there. Hard to tell but there are several.

That is what he said, that it would be too difficult to do a touch up

fender flares?

Thanks for the suggestions. The guy did say that entire panel would have to come off basically which is all one piece. He would also have to take that small glass window pane off and paint all the way to the door.

True. I am looking into wide body kits. It is my DD but I want this thing sexy and perfect. I keep it garage kept and looks like you can't win!

time for Rocket Bunny!!!

hmm I don't know it kind of gives it that look that it ripped through the fabric of time and space and the paint just couldn't stay on the body because of the shear force of the cars awesome drifting power....

;)

vinyl wrap the whole carrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Just so I understand correctly. You were doing your best Ken Block Gymkhana imitation in an underground garage while filming your homemade version of F & F Tokyo Drift and a concrete post jumped out in front of you?

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUO-lPubXeI"]NEED FOR SPEED: KEN BLOCK'S GYMKHANA SIX -- ULTIMATE GYMKHANA GRID COURSE - YouTube[/ame]

I feel your pain but a good shop can make it unnoticeable but it's going to cost $1K+. Good Luck! Mine would have gone in the next day and I would have just payed for it to keep it off my Carfax. (+ my deductible is $1K)

Funny you say that I am considering plastidip. Although there are still the dents so it won't be 100%