[CitizenKane]

Some of you may remember me posting a few months ago about the flying rock that took a chunk out of my bumper on the motorway (thread here: http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1350650).

Well after scrimping for a couple of months I finally got this fixed at the weekend. I was delighted with the result and my car was looking immaculate again.

One hour: the length of time I had my car home from the body shop before I got a knock on my door from my neighbour (who parks next to me in our underground car park), telling me that her daughter had put a dent in my car with her car door.

I wasn't even angry. My reaction was more like:



Here are some pics of the dent. I'm not sure how well you can make it out but these are the best pics I could get on my phone:










Anyway, at least she had the decency to tell me and offer to pay, even though I'm not going to get compensated for the day of annual leave I had to take today driving around looking for quotes... I've had three people look at it today:

My BMW main dealer quoted me €560 (c. £485). They said that paintless dent repair won't do the job because it's on the curved line rather than a flat panel.

I then had a separate PDR specialist to look at it and he told me much the same as the above - he said he could charge me c. €100 but he is not confident he could get it back to 100%, so he recommended a full fill and respray job.

I now have a third guy looking at it who will give me a quote for a full repair job (not PDR) later today.

The purpose of this thread is partly to vent, but also to get some views from the knowledgeable folk here as to what I should do...

Feeling very frustrated right now and part of me thinks life would be so much simpler if I went back to my 15 year old Mk4 GTi when things like this wouldn't bother me so much...

[wallsmk2]

There are pro and cons with both methods. PDR may get it 90% perfect but you don't have to paint. Filling may get the physical appearance perfect but then you have to paint and blend.

If it was my money, then I would ask the PDR guy to do the best he can and see if you notice it/can live with it. As it's not your money, I'd get it painted. The downside is that it's a lot of money for a ding and they may not be as forthcoming the next time they do it.

[mrbubba]

I feel your pain. I used to have lovely immaculate cars, my neighbour would always compliment me on how nice they always looked.
Since owning my E90, I've kind of given up on the detailing, as the car is a work horse, kids in and out, scratches and marks appearing all over. As soon as i would​ wash it, the heavens would open, or is find another stone chip.
I now just drive it, send it through a car wash and then maybe polish it, twice a year.

It is filthy at the moment, lacquer coming off the bonnet from the motorway stone chips. When I'm finished doing stupid motorway miles, I'll either get it sorted, or replace with a fast estate and begin the process of caring again.

[CitizenKane]

Originally Posted by wallsmk2

There are pro and cons with both methods. PDR may get it 90% perfect but you don't have to paint. Filling may get the physical appearance perfect but then you have to paint and blend.

If it was my money, then I would ask the PDR guy to do the best he can and see if you notice it/can live with it. As it's not your money, I'd get it painted. The downside is that it's a lot of money for a ding and they may not be as forthcoming the next time they do it.

Cheers. Yeah my concern is that if I go to my neighbour with a big quote like this then it is just going to cause an argument, and no doubt she/her husband will say they can get someone to do it for less, which would probably be PDR and then you're into a discussion with them about the appropriateness of PDR vs. full respray, etc. But the car was immaculate before this fucking idiot did this to it so why should I be out of pocket for getting it to be immaculate again? I couldn't give a shit about my neighbours but I'm just thinking pragmatically.

[SC04OCT]

Tell me about it. Sometimes I feel like the enjoyment of the car is sucked out by the little things that happen to it and I always kind of "miss" having a beat up Corsa that I didn't care about.

Every time I spot something new about my car, whether it be a scratch, pitting on the new windscreen, tiny dents/ripples on the roof, etc, my heart sinks and I almost don't want to drive it as it feels "ruined" lol.

[CitizenKane]

Originally Posted by mrbubba

I feel your pain. I used to have lovely immaculate cars, my neighbour would always compliment me on how nice they always looked.
Since owning my E90, I've kind of given up on the detailing, as the car is a work horse, kids in and out, scratches and marks appearing all over. As soon as i would​ wash it, the heavens would open, or is find another stone chip.
I now just drive it, send it through a car wash and then maybe polish it, twice a year.

It is filthy at the moment, lacquer coming off the bonnet from the motorway stone chips. When I'm finished doing stupid motorway miles, I'll either get it sorted, or replace with a fast estate and begin the process of caring again.

I hear that, although I don't have kids so I don't even have that reason! Dirt and swirls aren't the end of the world to me, all I ask is for people not to put big fucking dents into it...

[SC04OCT]

I even bought a brand new interior dash trim from here the other week and it already has a nice big visable scratch on it, on the passenger side and I have no idea how it got there.

[AWSAWS]

Hard to tell. Is the paint marked?

Any chance of something like the dry ice technique getting it out? I've seen people use cans of compressed air for cleaning keyboards etc as well. Turn it up side down and lots of super cold liquid comes out. Might be worth a shot.

[CitizenKane]

No it doesn't seem like any paint was taken off, which is surprising given the force that must've been used to make the dent. The advice I'm getting is that because of the location of the dent, the only way to get it back to 100% is fill and respray the panel. Having said that I've never heard of this dry ice technique.

[Raahil]

Had a similar type of dent on my front wing (on the corner part) and had a few other dings. When getting a quote the chap quoted me £90 for the one on the wing and also said there is no guarantee it will come out completely due to the position.

With the dent i had it wasnt worth it and i replaced the entire wing.

My brother however had a similar dent on his door in similar kind of position (not a bmw was an alfa) and he managed to get the dent out 100% with pdr.

So i guess it comes down to the expertise of the repairer

[wallsmk2]

you'd be surprised at the dents a good PDR guy/girl can get out. This is the guy I've used in the past: https://www.facebook.com/Dentcure-184996051686654/ You can see that some quite sharp dents on creases can be removed. But it really depends on the practitioner.

[CitizenKane]

Hmm, maybe so. But the fact that the PDR guy I was speaking to told me himself he could probably only get it 90-95% perfect didn't fill me with confidence!

Thanks for the recommendation but I'm in Ireland unfortunately!

[CitizenKane]

So I got a third quote of €400 to do a full respray job and my neighbour is, to her credit, being incredibly nice about it and has agreed to pay this without objecting to or arguing over the figure at all. Faith in humanity restored somewhat.

[Raahil]

Originally Posted by CitizenKane

So I got a third quote of €400 to do a full respray job and my neighbor is, to her credit, being incredibly nice about it and has agreed to pay this without objecting to or arguing over the figure at all. Faith in humanity restored somewhat.

Atleast you have decent neighbours!!

My neighbour went into the back of my in front of my family members. When i approached him he refused he done the damage

Luckily a guy a few doors away from me had CCTV installed outside his house and was recorded on there.
Used that against him and got him to pay for my damage!!