So, I just got finished giving my car it's first official bath on a beautiful afternoon in New Hampshire. After I washed my car, I decided I wanted to take a nap since I had a busy day running errands. I woke up and went outside to spray my tires since my car was now dried fully and found this!



My landlord came by to mow the lawn and must have kicked up a rock and pelted my door. It's dented and chipped, so now I have to get a quote to figure out how much it's gonna be to fix. Does MINI dealerships do body work or will I have to take this to a body shop to get repaired. I talked to my landlord and they're going to reimburse me for the repairs, but still. I haven't even made my first payment on it!

 

That's a real bummer and costly lesson for the landlord.....Wonder if they could perform a PDR then fill the chip with paint and polish it out ?

 

large dealerships may have an associated body shop - it is usually shared across all the makes the particular dealer sells. In other words there probably is not a "MINI specific" body shop. I would never assume that the dealer body shop is the best place for the repair. Quite the opposite is true in my experience; they tend to have the strongest desire to get 'em in and out FAST.

Ideally ask around to people who've had the need in your area and get a recommendation for a good one - it may be hidden away in a dark corner of town. Finding a good body shop is like finding a good dentist: it usually comes from the word of a friend. A good shop will be happy to show you examples of their work and see what they are currently working on. A good shop is a clean shop . . .

 

I was going to just bring it to MINI since I don't know any body shops in the area and don't want to throw a dart at the wall. I'll look around and see what I can find though. If anyone in the Northern MA/Southern NH area has a recommendation it would be greatly appreciated.

 

that's a better plan. Going to the dealer does not avoid the 'dart in the wall.' Most dealerships will simply farm out the work and then charge you for their time over what you'd pay had you gone to the same shop on your own.

You might find out locals LIKE the dealer's body shop ... it can happen. and then you really haven't lost anything.

 

It looks just like the dent on my door! I ordered touch up paint from MINI and filled it in. It worked, but you can still see it in the right light.

 

Ya. thats the problem. I could touch it up, but you'll still see the dent at almost any angle. Im taking it to a shop today that was recommended by a friend. We'll see what they say.

 

I just got an estimate on it. $600 they want. They'll have to pull the dent, prime and paint, including some of the rear quarter since the damage is under the door handle they'll need to blend it into the rear quarter. Still seems high to me?

 

Is it just me or does anyone else not see a dented car in the picture? lol.

 

It might just be you I think its hard to see because of the reflection, but if you see the reflection of the porch, just under that are two white dots. thats the dent.

 

And the stupidest poster in America award goes to.........Me.

I thought the camera was facing the porch, but then I saw the reflection of the camera man and the porch......Then I saw the dents.........Yeah. I'm going to shut up now.

 

it took me a few minutes to stop seeing the reflection as the primary image as well . .

 

I'd say that does seem a bit high but let's talk about it for a bit - as background I was an asstnt teacher for a Body and Paint class at a VoTec HS for a time and have poped a few dents and painted a few cars.

Your dent can be repaired many ways and some are going to be more expensive than others. The least expensive would be to fix the dent, then paint the minimum amount of area doing a blend into the smallest amount of the door. If there is a color match issue the probability of it showing is highest here. But this method will use the least amount of material and a pint of metalic color can cost over $100 all alone.

I prefer to always spray the entire panel in question. To me it takes less time than doing a blend but there is increased material cost, and prep time as now you must sand the entire panel. Your estimate goes beyond this as you've understood it - they will paint the entire door and blend the rear quarter. Time + materials go up.

Some repair shops may prefer to "reskin" the door. IMO overkill in this case but it means the door has no weakened repair area . . . you'll never see a sign of the repair as a ripple in the door. But reskinning takes time and the panel isn't free.

I'd find 3 prices. Heck, go to Macco and get a price . . .

Odds are your buddy pointed you to a shop that does high end work but there is a reason they survive even when charging the highest price in the area. It happens when their work is top notch. I know a shop that normally only works on exotics - Fer', Lambos, porsche ..... I had to really BEG them to work on my Audi and call in a favor from their accoutant. My insurance balked at the cost (eventually paid) but the repair was PERFECT.

A concern is also what your relationship is with your lanlord. He may be envisioning this repair costing $100 . . . had that happen once when the person who hit me REALLY wanted to pay cash expecting a couple of hundred bucks. Having a better idea of the cost I refused, involved insurance and they were not happy. Insurance eventually paid $2500.

btw - I had a ding smaller then that, which required no paint work, repaired by a PDR guy and that cost me nearly $200 . . .

 

Thanks for the info, Capt_bj. I, myself, was expecting it to only be a couple hundred dollars at the most.

I took it to another shop that comes highly recommended as well, and they quoted me the exact same price. They told me as an option they can do the paintless dent removal and use some touch up paint which would be less expensive. But Id rather get it done completely so that I wouldn't have to worry about it down the road.

I asked him about the color matching because of MINI unique colors (I envisioned some kind of off-color navy blue that wasn't even close ), and he told me they work on MINI's all the time and actually showed me 3 they had in the shop right now. So I felt a little better about it.

Going to show both estimates to my landlord tonight. Hopefully he doesn't flip his ... whatever. But it's a costly lesson on his behalf.

 

color matching is a non-issue. today the mixing machines are computer controlled and as soon as the factory releases the color to the other paint companies they computer match and send the formula out to the local paint shop's computer. In a worst case the paint shop can laser shoot your color just like they do at Home Depot for a color match. Checking SW's formula site I see Horizon Blue Metallic, code A93 has been a color since 2009 . . . they offer this paint in 3 different grades of base color (plus several one step versions for others who just like the color)

Issues CAN result from improperly mixed (shaken not stirred) paints esp' if we're talking metallics, and the wide range of paint quality out there; but a good shop ain't gonna make those mistakes. I always buy my bulk paints from Sherwin-Williams automotive but they have 3 grades of base color and the price difference for a metallic, in some colors, IS significant. Some pigments are more expensive that others. SW is not the only good paint, but it is what I like to work with. Go to a good shop and I'd not worry. And a good shop WILL work with you if you are not 100%