So I just got home from work and my roomate takes me into the garage to show me the small dent he just put in the bonnet a few inches above the plastic wheel arch. Apparently he was loading something into his car and a power adapter fell off of it and hit my MINI chipping the paint. However, that's not all, it also created a small dent about the size of a nickle. The paint chip is about 1/8 inch in diameter. I'm hoping there is some way to either fix it myself or get it done cheaply.

It's not hugely noticeable but it is right there on the front of my car and I'll see it every time I get in. Any suggestions on how to fix it?

 

I think you about to get "shocked" at what it will cost to repair Correctly = that being the key word... a small dent "may" be pulled out - maybe - the chip and the damage to the bonnet - paint and replaced - All depends on you - do you eat it - does the room mate step up and repair it - can they afford it ?? will it damage the friendship?? all good questions... If I were to do that - Its my fault - I pay - cost of life - if it were my car and it was my wife - well, thats another story - if I can not live with it - get it fixed - it was an accident - **** happens...

cost for the bonnet is cheap - about a $100 but the labor to install will get ya.... touch up really does not work - the area will have to be painted... Wife had a small chip in here Toyota - she wanted it fixed and fixed right - $250 later it was done and that was about 8 years ago....

Its only money..

PS - room mate gets credit for stepping up and telling you - my old roommate would just keep quiet and Deny everthing

 

i would definitely not "pull" the dent out with the glue pullers as the paint
could tear off even more.

consult your local PDR tech and just touchup the 1/8 chip yourself.

 

PDR is not usually an option when the paint is damaged.

If you think you can repair the damaged area after the dent is pushed out via PDR, then consider it.

Dropping something on your car is considered a Comp Loss. So if your deductible is less than the cost of the repair, file the claim. Get your estimate(s) and go from there.

And I'm sure you won't be paying for the damage so hope your roommate has a few bucks saved up.

 

so you're going to offer filling/painting the fender just for a 1/8" chip? what
kind of insurance agent are you??!! this is how my premium
goes up, by agents offering nonsense to other folks!


i would not risk paint matching just for a 1/8" chip. you can get a
chip that size any day anyway. PDR + touchup would be the way i
would go... (and in my case, i would fix it myself).

 

Give a call to your local Dent Wizard. Let him take care of that part. He may be able to file a claim with your insurance for you, but I'm not sure how that works in your area and with your insurance. Second, he'll surely know a very good paint repair person that he can recommend you to.

 

1. I'm not an agent. I'm a claim adjuster, claim rep, claim handler... whichever name you want to use. Just don't call me an agent.

2. When I was in Property Damage School... the first then we learned about PDR is that it's not applicable when there is damage to the paint. Now... you might be able to pop the dent out using PDR, but you're still left with an imperfect area that is going to require all the steps necessary for conventional body work.

So... you want to try to pop it out and use touch up paint to fix that damage ? Good luck. I will guarantee you that a body shop using traditional body repair will have it looking better.

 

1. don't argue with me. you are an agent. hehehe. oops.

2. risking paint match for a 1/8th chip is non-sense, well, atleast to me.
after that dent is pushed out and chip filled with proper touchup, you will
loose track of where the damage was. maybe im just good at
repairing?

 

Well, Ken, I've never seen ANYone that can touch up an area and make it disappear completely, even to the naked eye.

But if clarkdr81 has that spot repaired professionally, you could look at it under a magnifying glass and you would be unable to detect where the damage was.

Now... if he is okay with a less-than-perfect job, then sure, go at it with PDR and touch up only.

I think a lot of it has to do with the overall condition of his MINI, how OCD he is about his car, and his Comp deductible (if it's 100, that's a no-brainer).

 

yah, well instead of taking a mag glass to look at that one little spot, take
a look at the entire car to see if the panel matches the rest of the car.
if it does, great. often times, i can tell the seam.

plus, you get chips, minor damage on your car anyway.. if you drive it.
a 1/8th" touchup is not going to make a whole lot of difference when you
consider the tiny chips and imperfections you have on the front end,
side skirts, and light but visible minor swirls on the boot.

ps: my comp is zero. for that kind of minor damage i would not
take it in. ofcourse, i could take it into an adjuster and get my
check, but not worth my time. my agent even recommended
that i have an adjuster look at the dent i had on my bonnet from a
berry so that i can get a check for PDR. i just fixed that myself.
not worth my time.

 

Anybody that has body work done and you can see the seam where the painter stopped the blending, then you had a very poor painter. You should demand they fix it or pay you to take it another shop that has a painter that knows what he's doing. Really.

I've seen good painters work and believe me, when they were done, I couldn't find any shading differences even though I knew where they stopped.

I think most people who have 0 Comp Ded. would opt to have it fixed professionally. Your time is just more valuable than most people's.

 

yah, well ive experienced too many times that this happened so im
not about to risk on a 1/8th chip. even if they color match it, the
texture of the clear is different from the other panels and i can
still tell the difference. especially on lighter metallic colors it is hard
to match because the metalic particles do not sit in the seamless
angle with the other panels.

im too OCD to the point i would let some small things go while not
risking a bigger problem.

so for you, you're not at my OCD level yet.

 

also, you're a stinker type. just back off a little and
go Hydro your car.

www.detailersparadise.com

 

NOBODY is more OCD than me.

For instance, I took the cover off Dr Evil Saturday morning. Even though he was washed just before the cover going on last Sunday, I hydro'd him again, to make sure he had that bright luster.

Three hours later, we went out for some motoring and dinner. But... OMG... he had a few flakes of dust on him. Out came the Cali Duster. And while I was it it, another going over with the Monster Fluffy just to make sure the duster didn't mess with his shine.

Yeah, I'm a sick man. Sicker even than you. And that I can be confident of after learning you'd be fine with using touch up paint on a dent-and-chip.

 

i am sorry you are blinded by your own handicap.

perhap wat you need to learn is how to use a touchup paint.

 

Wait a minute! I thought guys who drove MINIs didn't have to compensate! Am I hearing testosterone rearing it's ugly head, so to speak???

 

Sure sound like it, Scoopie! Dueling OCDers...pass the popcorn!

 

no, he is out of gas huffn' and puffn' gasping for air.

 

I had a very similar chip / dent. I also one day had some hail damage and had a PDR guy take out all the dents and even the chipped dent up front on the curve of teh hood. The dent is completely gone and I will be taking touch up paint and very carefully adding paint with a tooth pick. I then will take some scratch X and wrap a fine cloth around a pop sickle stick and rub away only touching the touched up part. Hopefully that will work.

 

khd- sounds like a good plan. a sound one too.

 

Thanks for your responses everyone. I have been busy this week so I haven't even been able to look into anything yet. I just did some research on PDR and I'll give a few places around here a call and get some estimates. Does anybody know if insurance companies ever waive the deductible and cover small dent repairs? If not, I'll just send the bill to my roomie, but if I can save him a few bucks I will. Accidents happen and he did come out and tell me right away so I'm not going to go too hard on him.

It may not be worth spending too much to repair the damage as it is not very noticeable, but it is to me and its going to drive me crazy everytime I see it. I can probably live with the paint chip as it is very small but the dent is what I really want to take care of because it is right in the curve of the bonnet.

 

Never heard of any insurance company waiving deductibles for a dent repair, large or tiny. Not sure what the reasoning would be behind such a business decision.

You might be confusing this with the practice of waiving deductibles for winshield chip repair. This makes sense to the insurance company because it saves them from complete windshield replacement should that chip grow into a crack.

But I doubt your dent will grow. Roomie... here comes the bill.