And it was my fault, so I can't even really be mad about it.

Our garage situation is a little tight, and I pulled in today, apparently a little close to this wood chipper thing we have. And I thought I'd just tapped it with my front bumper, but nooooo, the MINI is smaller than I realize and I actually put a 6-inch long gouge into the paint, down to the metal The paint literally ribboned right off, right under the passenger side mirror.

So I have an appointment tomorrow to get an estimate. I hope it's not too ugly

 

OH NO, Mel... sorry to hear that !

Must be a bad day, Bergey very nearly got whacked this morning by a teen driver who merged into my lane. It was within an inch or less, I'm sure of it.

Anyway... the damage sounds minimal and not the kind that Clara will have any long-term ill effects from. So don't get too worried about it (the word "too" is important as I know you feel really badly).

Probably less than your collision deductible, and not worth reporting a claim to your insurance company.

Again, sorry !!!!

 

I hope its less than the deductible. But either way, it'll get fixed. I feel really guilty whenever I look at it.

 

Wood chippers can do a whole lot worse than that!!!

 

Yeah, it could have been worse. I could have hit the tool chest, which is a lot more solid.

I will be rearranging some stuff in the garage tonight, however...

 

 

terribly sorry

 

Sorry to hear it. Knowing your affinity for the perfect appearance, it must haunt you. She'll be good as new in no time though.

 

dang, sorry

 

oh. that is worse than what happened to me two days ago. Paint and car is fine but I killed a konig rewind on a curb getting out of the way from some moron ****. be a lot less money and not nearly as heart breaking.

 

ML- oh no~!

Hope you get that fixed soon. Are you planning to repaint the whole door?

Is PW an easy color to match? If not, they may end up clearcoating your quarter and fender to "blend" which could be a good or bad thing depending on the shop you take it to.

 

We have an appointment at the "doctor" (hubby said "plastic surgeon") tomorrow morning. It is the same shop that the dealership uses so I am hoping they will be okay. I've never had an accident in California that actually required repair (just 2 totals - and no, neither was my fault), so I don't really have an experience to draw from to find a good shop. So I just called the dealership and asked who they take the really high end BMWs to

I looked at the gouge closer today...it appears to be dented beneath it down the length of the scratch...not a huge dent, and very shallow, but still. I don't know what they'll do but I'll know more in about 12 hours!

Tonight I parked so far to the OTHER side of the garage stall from the wood chipper that I could barely get my door open!

 

lucky is it PW.

makes me wish I had that colour as it was my other choice. You can easily respray PW and make it look new again.

I feel so bad for clara :( you do like her so.

Octanenguy told me once about how most suck at painting. I would PM him about things to ask/look for

 

Body repair technology is pretty incredible these days. A good paint man (or woman, although rare) can take a 15 year old car with faded paint, repair an area the size of a quarter or the size of a... well.... MINI .... and make it appear as if it had never been damaged. Custom mixing colors using computers, blending techniques... incredible.

Trust me, Mel... when the shop is done with this small boo-boo, it'll only be a memory.

The only damage that persists will be to your checkbook.

 

So sorry Mel...

Get Well Soon, Clara.

 

I feel your pain. Romi's bonnet got keyed last week and I am on my 17th shot of clear coat just trying to slowing fill in the gouges until I can bring myself to go to metal and repaint the whole bonnet.

 

Sorry to hear of your incident ML. Thanks for not posting pictures! I cringed at even the imagined scratch.
You can however show us pictures once it is fixed. In the meantime, rub it, give it a little kiss and put a Band-Aid on it (always worked for my kids).

 

Sorry to hear about your little incident. They will probably sand the area down to metal, seal it, then respray the whole panel--blending it out to the edges. I'm sure everything will be fine, and be thankful you don't have a metallic paint. At our shop a repair like this would probably be only a few hundred dollars. For example to respray an entire bumper on a Lexus would be less than $300. The side panel would be easier since it's mostly flat.

 

Unfortunately, the verdict is not so hot.

The gouge left a dent behind the scratch. I'm going to go wash Clara and try to get some decent photos to see what you guys think, but the estimate I got this morning *almost* made my jaw drop: $1100 and 4-5 days!

They will have to press the dent back out, grind down the paint around the area, and then respray the door, fender, and...whatever the part that's over the front tire is called (I would call it a fender but I know it's not).

I don't know, I'll take some pictures but maybe I'll be taking a trip down to see Richard! I felt pretty comfortable with this guy but I would feel even more so with Richard's shop.

Oy. Baby needs a bath and then I'll be back with some photos.

 

Okay here we go. I actually got pictures that show it more clearly than it looks to the naked eye:

At least she's still shiny!




Here you can see the dent:


The culprit:

 

Youch ! That is pretty nasty, Mel. Still, that estimate seems a little high to me. That looks more like a $500 job and one day. I'd shop around.

Sorry to see Clara's boo-boo is pretty signficant. But on the other hand, Clara is nice and shiny and you're having a good hair day.

 

I know, huh. And at least the pictures don't show the places I sweat through my shirt trying to do an uber-fast wash in the sun!

 

I agree that seems too high. Maybe it's priced for insurance to pay it out? We recently painted one of my customers cars--a metallic blue Lexus IS 300--the front end was just peppered with rock chips. So the bumper, the two front fenders, the hood, and one passenger rear door were all resprayed (sanded down to metal, filled, primered, sealed, then resprayed. The rear door had a dent in it--so that had to be repaired as well. After it was painted, I color sanded and polished it out, and of course they paid for me to polish out the entire car so total bill for all of that paint and work was $1400. The paint and color sanding was $1000. We've had the car for about a week--the customer is coming to pick it up today. They came a few days ago just after it was painted and I had color sanded it and they were super pleased with the quality--such that--they are bringing more cars for repainting, lol.

Oh the point of my long reply---$1100 should buy you a lot more. =)

 

PM incoming!

 

It sounds like they want to repaint the whole side of the vehicle. I would ask them how much for just the door. It seems like they might be going overboard especially when the scratch is limited to the door, not even the edge of it. I would not think that PW would take an entire side of the car to blend correctly.