Gf clipped pillar last night (with pics!) - any advice?

fullerand

Hi,

My girlfriend clipped the driveway pillar in her brand-new-to-her (i.e. 03) Almera last night. There's a scratch most of the way down the side of the passenger back door, which continues another two inches or so onto the wheel arch panel. She's so annoyed and I really feel her pain cos it's the newest/best-looking car either of us have ever owned!

I've attached some pics below. There's no dents, just a straight-line scratch. As you can see the car's silver so I was thinking that a home repair kit might do the job (i.e. I reckon we're likely to find a perfect colour match). I've checked prices on carcraft, and they'd do it for about e300, but she'd rather keep the price down.

Any advice on the home repair kits, or carcraft? Anyone know of a similar place out the Rathfarnham direction?

Ta

GrumPy

Why are these threads always "the gf/wife b0rked the car again"

It's never the men! (men are better drivers though)

€300 does seem a bit steep alright, Maybe Halfords might have a cheap home repair kit?

Creamy Goodness

Irish GrumPy wrote:

it's never the men! (men are better drivers though)

because men would never drive an almera

mike65

You would'nt mind croping these pic a little please? There are quite large.

Mike,

Kashkai

Irish GrumPy wrote:

Why are these threads always "the gf/wife b0rked the car again"

It's never the men! (men are better drivers though)

€300 does seem a bit steep alright, Maybe Halfords might have a cheap home repair kit?

It is always the women - my wife took my four week old car down the country a week ago to see her sisters and came back with a foglight and headlamp broken - glass smashed in in both cases - and she has no idea how it happened!!!!!!!

With regard to the OP, that scratch looks pretty nasty, if its down to the metal of the car, you might have problems with rust in the future. My mate tried to fix a similar scrath last year on his Mondeo and its now started to rust. A garage would charge you a small fortune to have it resprayed though. Its up to you, but I'd get it fixed properly as a botch job now will not only look bad but will lead to trouble down the line.

armchairninja

As said by Prosperous Dave, that looks like a pretty nasty scratch

problem is, if its all the way down to the metal, you mite have to sand back a bit of it and re-prime it and then try to blend the new paint into the existing.

Although a garage mite charge a little more, it may be worth it, then again if you know somebody who works in a body shop they mite do it as a nixer for maye €100, because for someone who knows what they are doing there is very little in it.
You could always try fix it your self with some wet/dry sandpaper and a touch up bottle from a motor factors, and if your not happy then you could send it into a garage or whatever to be redone!

JoeA3

No amount of DIY will get that looking right - in fact you'll probably make it worse. Touching it up with a brush and it will stand out a mile! Bite the bullet and get it fixed professionally. It will mean re-spraying a lot of that side of the car, so it blends properly.
Unfortunately it will cost €€€, I'd estimate 500-600 euro, maybe bit more...

overdriver

My ex came in with the side of the car wrecked after "hitting a dog".
It must've been a big blue dog, the same colour as the pillars of the gates to her work.

fullerand

mike65 wrote:

You would'nt mind croping these pic a little please?

Done, sorry

fullerand

Great, thanks for the replies guys.

I think we'll start off by calling carcraft and getting a quote from them, if only to get a ball park.

Unfortunately they're a bit out of the way so I might have to ring around a few places closer to home (Rathfarnham) ... so if anyone has any recommendations that'd be great.

By the way, for what it's worth re home jobs, I found another thread on boards that ended happily: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054963551&referrerid=59211

jesus_thats_gre

fullerand wrote:

Great, thanks for the replies guys.

I think we'll start off by calling carcraft and getting a quote from them, if only to get a ball park.

Unfortunately they're a bit out of the way so I might have to ring around a few places closer to home (Rathfarnham) ... so if anyone has any recommendations that'd be great.

By the way, for what it's worth re home jobs, I found another thread on boards that ended happily: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054963551&referrerid=59211

Rofl I just managed to reverse my work. Gotta get the pics up actually.

LostinBlanch

JoeA3 wrote:

No amount of DIY will get that looking right - in fact you'll probably make it worse. Touching it up with a brush and it will stand out a mile! Bite the bullet and get it fixed professionally.

Been there done that, will never do it again. Getting a professional to fix it is the only way.

As for what else to do . . . . . maybe not let the GF drive your car! :eek:

GrumPy

overdriver wrote:

My ex came in with the side of the car wrecked after "hitting a dog".
It must've been a big blue dog, the same colour as the pillars of the gates to her work.

I loled She is a damn good lier man, make sure you dont lose her!!

mikedragon32

Get it done professionally, OP. That's pretty bad damage and if Carcraft have quoted you €300, then get them to do it, it'd be worth every penny.

I reckon it could cost twice that realistically.

Using a DIY kit could end in it looking even worse!

smash

carcraft will sort that out.

fullerand

Thanks for the replies.

A mate put me onto Auto Restorers in Rathgar (closer to me than carcraft). Dropped the car into them this morning, they quoted me e250 to get both panels resprayed. Seemed like a good price so I went for it. I'll let you know how it ends up.

Zena

Can you let us know how it turn out - that seems like a great price!

I would have estimated e500 + to sort it out.