You know that Carfax commercial where they show someone pulling out of a garage and scraping the car on everything? Well, I experienced a variation of that!!! :af: :af: :af: :af: The other day I had to put my coupe in the street to make room for some repairmen who were going to be in and out of the garage all day. I had planned on putting the car back when I got home from work later that night. My Mom thought she would be "helpful" and put the car back for me. Now mind you, this is a single car garage with all sorts of stuff stored along one side. So she ended up scraping the passenger side along some shelves and various other obstructions!!!! ou: Now I have two scrapes/gouges in my passenger door and a NASTY scrape/gouge that runs from just above the fender skirt and all along the bottom of the rear quarter!!!! :ball: Needless to say, I am absolutely SICK about it!!!! My Mom feels terrible and offered to pay for the repairs, but I can't do anything about it now. I just put it in storage today-didn't wash it, didn't cover it-I can't even look at it!! I'll have to deal with it this spring. What a bummer-it happened 2 days before I stored it!!! I'm wondering how expensive it will be to fix-(no I haven't taken pictures of the damage.) Also, I want to make sure someone doesn't try to just even things out with bondo. I want these scrapes GONE!!!!!
Dude...I feel for you. That sucks. I know the sick feeling you probably have right now over it. Been there on more than a few occasions. Some other peoples fault, some (ok...most) from my own stupidity. But, whatever the damage, just remember it can be fixed quite easily by a competent bodyman. Look at the bright side, it will probably look better than it did. Dont sweat the small stuff. In the grand scheme of things, its not that bad. Go easy on mom. She was only trying to help.
I would strongly suggest you put at least some primer and paint over the bare metal. Don't let rust get started while it's in storage.
Fix it now At least take the car out and get an estimate or two. Otherwise you'll be haunted by dread over the whole long, nasty, cold winter. Even if you don't fix it now, it would be better to know what it will cost in the spring. I did this to my GS a couple of years ago. The crease affected the driver's door and the rear quarter up to the wheel well. It cost less than $300 for an A-1 repair by the same shop that painted it during my resto. Face it and buck up, man!
Investigate getting work done over winter. My experience is that every Spring, body shops are full of cars whose owners, flush w/tax return $, want cars done ASAP, for summer cruising. Winter work usually cheaper & tech's have more time to spend on perfecting the job.
Thanks for the suggestions. The damage didn't go down to the bare metal, so I don't have to deal with sealing it. I'm asking around to find decent places to consider. My concern is finding someone willing to do it right-pulling out the creases and reworking the metal-not just trying to fill in the damage. I know that things will probably have to be smoothed out some with body filler-but the less that has to be used the better.
