My niece is lucky she's so damn cute otherwise I probably would have gone to jail for murder last night.

I pull in to my mother in laws "driveway of death" last night, which is one of those driveways that have a steep slant downwards to a garage underneath the house thus having concrete walls on either side. My niece opens the passenger door and CRACK....the door slipped away from her and swung with full force (with added momentum due to the steep angle the car was parked) into the concrete wall.

After I picked myself up off the ground after having what felt like a heart attack, i took a look at the damage. It's not horrible, but the bottom corner of the door bent inwards and the paint got chipped down to the bare metal.

Car is less than three months old. I didn't even get around to doing one mod!!!

So now i'm working out details to get it fixed...which leads me to a side question, does anyone know if matching mellow yellow is difficult? im not sure how much they will need to paint after they straighten out the bent corner....

...and in case you wondering, my niece gave me the puppy dog eyes with a mumbled "im sorry "... kinda hard to kill a kid when they do that. All i could do was make the fake smile while biting my tongue going..."its ok kid, it was an accident."

EDIT:
After I posted this, I actually found a picture of my car in almost the exact spot it happened, should help you visualize it better...

 

ouch, sorry to hear. Could have been worse though, right?

They will have to repaint the entire door for a proper job.

 

really? ugh....the paint is otherwise PERFECT (obviously, its brand new).

 

Yeah, I had some hail dents on the roof and boot that they had to repaint, and they repainted the entire panels. I have astro black paint, and I figured that would be really hard to match, but I honestly haven't seen a difference from the factory paint.

 

Beat the child. Nah just kidding that sucks man. hopefully it wont cost a fortune to fix it

 

Sorry about your ding...max kudos to you for maintaining your cool. Your niece probably felt really bad about it too, and it was obviously an accident. A lesser person would have lost their composure and made everything worse.

It's amazing how wide those doors can swing and how much mo' they can acquire. I understand that the width of the coupe from door-edge to door-edge with the doors fully open is actually greater than its length! I suspect the analogous width-length measurements for the Clubman must be pretty close to each other.

If they spot touch-up with the paint and it doesn't turn out perfect, there's always the option of side stripes.

 

oh no! since it's so new i'd definitely get a pro fix job done... maybe the dealer would be best? they should be able to match the paint well i'd think. good luck!

 

Kids do the darnedest things, don't they? Glad you didn't snap. Seriously. Just consider it one of your MINI's first stories to tell.

 

Hey man, I live on LI too and I have a body guy that will match it perfect. His work is a amazing, but he is a tad expensive. He is in Huntington on West Hills Road, just north of 25/Jericho. Give him a call, names Frank at 631 351 5300. My name's Bryan, let him know I sent you and he might give you a bit off.

 

Thanks man, luckily I have a family friend who owns a body shop so thats my first stop. If he feels he can't match it for any reason i'll look up your boy.

BTW, I just took a look at your ride.... nice rims & stripes
I have yet to see anyone on LI with the black web spokes...(are they a pita to clean or what??)

 

And as for everyones comments on the kid...i knew freaking out wouldnt have accomplished anything, shes only 11 and I could tell immediately she felt horrible about it. Besides, as much as i LOVE this car, its still in the end... just a car. Alas, a major bummer.

 

I was thinking the same thing...and holy **** yea they are. I wash my car once a week/week and a half, but like every 3-4 days im out there with a sponge to clean the wheels.

 

Yup same here. I love cleaning the car because its so small and easy to clean, then i get to the wheels and it takes me the same damn amount of time to clean them as it does the whole car. At the very least i try to hit up the silver portion of the wheel so then it at least looks clean and the black just comes off looking like a matte finish lol.

 

Yea, sometimes I just throw some water on the sponge and do them real fast, they look nice wet :P
If you're ever gonna want a hand with your mods when you start let me know, I'd be happy to give you a hand.

 

Had a new rear bumper on the wifes cooper at 3 months old dealer did a great job matching the mellow yellow

 

Sorry for your problem

let's bring some truth to a few points either made or implied here

(I was an assistant instructor of auto-body repair and painting for a short time .... and sprayed a couple a dozen over the last few years)

- most dealers don't have body shops. they are going to sub-contract your repair to a local body shop...forget 'dealer knows best'

- MINI does not make paint, nor get special paint. The dealer can't even sell you bulk paint so far as I know....I never tried to get any thru a dealer. In a year's run of cars the formula for a color can change - usually meaning the supplier changed. I've gone to get paint for a car where the year's color had 5 formulas for one supplier.

- this means a computer controlled color mixer is fed with your formula code and mixes the paint. If the mixer is fed the right materials, and given the correct formula the color match is SPOT ON. BUT remember what I said about sometimes the formula changing in a model year. In those cases the "professional auto paint suppliers" I use say 'bring the car in so we can lay color chip books against the car."

- while not a factor in this example one needs to consider sun fade of auto paint vs the original color code.

- a quality auto paint supplier can take a hand held gun to the vehicle and "shoot the paint" and get a matching formula.....just as Lowes, Home Despots or others can do when you bring in a sample. I did this on my 79 Mini and got a perfect match (which is also Chevy Hugger Orange!)

- once you have a color code there are several qualities of paint and different systems altho when we talk MINI all will be a "base / clear" system (vs any one step product)

- In the case of this small area of damage one can try to make a small spot repair and blend the paint - and clear - into the surround area. Concerns here are the quality of match and the fact that blended clear has a history of lifting .... I've airbrushed small area repairs of single stage paint but tend to go full panel on a base/clear panel.

- On the flip side the 'cleaner' repair is to spray an entire panel (in this case the door). Properly repainting the entire door has no mid-panel clear seams to lift nor mid-panel color issues. It also means more material used ($) and probably more prep ($) to remove or mask additional trim.

I'm no expert but I've sprayed a few