Back fender repair question Options

[bcelica555]

Last night I backed into these wooden steps pretty bad and messed up my back fender




I was just wondering if the whole fender needs replaced since its seems to be connected to the roof. My cars getting alot of miles on it and im thinking about not getting it fixed and I'm just wondering my options for tring to make it look a little bit better. What all different ways would a garage try to fix it for me

[Spider77]

Im not a body shop guy, but the should be able to pull or smash it out. Im not to sure if they would have to replace the whole quarter panel though. Unless there is some underlying damage that you cant see...take it to some shops and get some quotes. Im not sure about PA but in CA they have some mobile body vans.

[RickJamesBish]

Holy ****, that's not minor either...hope you get it figured out. For that to be completely repaired is probably going to cost you an arm and a leg, since the whole quarter panel has to be resprayed which is basically half the car.

WOW.

[bmj67]

I would pull out the trunk panels and use a rubber mallet and smack the dents from the inside and try to pop them out a bit. What a lot of body shops do is use a stud gun to weld on studs and then they use a slide hammer to pull the panel into shape as best as they can and then use filler. but that involves actually getting a stud gun which can be costly a hammer is cheap

This post has been edited by bmj67: Nov 27, 2008 - 3:22 PM

[Badkarma]

if you were close by, I'd do it for you. I've got a stud gun, and body tools, but noplace to paint yet. (I've got to fix my quarter panel, but I want I do it when I have a place to paint right after.

Erich

[ZGear]

I had the same damage on the passenger side of my car and decided to let the pros do it instead of giving me more headaches and spending more money on something stupid I could have done. Our cars are unibody so it's not an easy fender swap. Cost me about $1000.

[richee3]

I just hit a deer a few months back and the rear quarter panel was completely screwed on my car. My dad is good friends with our body guy, and what he told us is insurance will figure it in as a whole quarter panel replacement, but he wasn't going to bother with that on an 11 year old car. So when the claims adjuster came to my house, sure enough he figured it in as a full quarter panel replacement. Our body guy did exactly what everyone else said where he just pulled it out with a stud gun and fulled the rest in. That left us with a bunch of money left over and we got the other side repaired where some douche backed into me and drove away

Anyway, your damage looks a lot worse than mine. The body shop may not want to just pull that out. The back of the fender above the tail light looks like a trickey place to fix. I'm sure a good body guy could do it though. Good luck with getting everything fixed.

[BURNSJ2]

our cars, being as old as they are, were built with a lot stronger steel then cars are now. the steel used today is almost paper thin, and with that damage it would be a replacement. but since the metal is a bit thicker, its actually easier to work with and get that out. if theres a good body guy in your town im sure he could do it. as long as the metals not torn or seperated anywhere you should be fine. the shop will probably try to tell you it needs replaced but tell them thats not what you want and you want the body guys opinion on it and see if he can repair it. repair will definately keep your costs down over a replacement.

[dgbldr]

The quarter panel damage is quite repairable and no stud gun is needed. A good sheetmetal technician can straighten it out. There is access from behind so it can be done with hammer and dolly.

HOWEVER, that area has compound curves so it's not a job for an amateur.

The bumper will also need repaired and a new end metal insert.

With paint and a new tail light and all, it's not going to be cheap.

[Fastbird]

Definitely repairable, but you're most likely looking at $1000-1300 in work there for a truly good job.

[NgoFcukinWay]

Definitely repairable, but you're most likely looking at $1000-1300 in work there for a truly good job.

That's what one quote I got for my car told me, but mine doesn't look as bad as yours.



Either way, good luck with it. I wish you the best to get it fixed for a fair price.

[richee3]

This was my car a few months ago. The damage was a dent in the front fender, damage to the door, all new mirror, the fender (obviously), getting a small dent in the other rear quarter panel repaired, and everything repainted. All said and done, $3250. I kinda just felt like shelling out a couple hundred of my own and having the guy repaint the bumpers and hood so I'd have literally all new paint. I've always wanted a silver Celi Lol. But seriously, I don't know how body shops around you are, but around me, they charge flat rates for quarter panel repairs, no matter how bad. The huge dent you see here was only $350, the same $350 it cost to fix the dent on the other rear quarter panel that was 2" tall and 4" long.
*** Those are out-of-pocket quotes. I'm sure since this deer damage was covered by insurance, the body guy jacked the prices up to get that $3250.
While I'm talking about that, anybody have any thoughts to contribute to that? Looking at what all I had to have repaired, does $3250 sound fair?



If you look in the background there, right in front of the cabinets, you'll see my ride while my car was in the shop. It was a rental

This post has been edited by richee3: Nov 30, 2008 - 12:32 PM

[dgbldr]

Richee, I can't say if it's a fair price without seeing the car and the estimate, but charging "flat rates" is definitely the sign of a hack.

Reputable body shops will give a breakdown of all the mechanical, sheetmetal and paint work hours and the hourly rates. Hourly rates are different for mechanical, sheetmetal and paint. And parts, of course. Most "standard" operations are covered in an estimating book or software they have, but not all. So if the book doesn't have the hours for "repair big dent in quarter panel" vs. "repair small dent in quarter panel" they should estimate it themselves and put down the hours.

My local body shop charges something around $50-60/hr for sheetmetal work, so $350 would be about right for the quarter panel you show. But not for a small dent. That includes about half hour of removing interior trim, but does not include the paint work, of course.

[richee3]

Yeah, both body shops around here are thieves, I'll give you that. One of them is REALLY bad about that. My dad is friends with the other guy so when I took the car to both body shops about the small dent in the other fender they both said $350. The second guy, my dad's friend, actually charged $380 but since I already had a quote for $350 and he knows me he said he'd come down. He does really good work, but he overcharges. He's a very egotistical man... He kept my car a week and a half to let the paint dry. His work is perfect as long as it's repair work. I probably wouldn't take my car to him and have him do something custom. Anyway, when I got the quote for the small dent, he said he would fix pretty much any rear quarter panel dent like that for the same price since he had to sand the whole thing down and repaint it anyway.

Anyway, that's off topic and I'm threadjacking. I just posted that picture as a comparison to bcelica555's damage so show that his is worse and support NgoFcukinWay's estimate of $1,000-1,300 since I had to have quite a bit more done.

This post has been edited by richee3: Nov 30, 2008 - 12:34 PM

[dlx742]

i had damage almost exactly like that from some lady hitting me with her mercedes. she decided to fore go insurance and pay $4200 out of pocket for toyota collision to repair the damage and paint the entire back half of the car.

[richee3]

i had damage almost exactly like that from some lady hitting me with her mercedes. she decided to fore go insurance and pay $4200 out of pocket for toyota collision to repair the damage and paint the entire back half of the car.

Ouch! At least you got around insurance and had her pay for it.