Ballpark cost of fixing damage

That looks a nasty enough gash. You won't get that fixed for 2k. Not a hope. At least not fixed properly anyway. You actually torn apart some of the panel seams/welds and that complicates things.

Are you insured separately on your own car? Does your own car insurance cover you do drive other vehicles? If so, you might be able to put it through your own insurance.

What age is the van? Unless it is pretty new, you could be looking at it being a complete write off insurance wise.

It kinda depends where you go, and how by the book they’re gonna repair it. as it’s a van it’s kind of a given that they get damaged like that. Anywhere from €2500 to €7000 is my own guess.

You could get out with e2,500-3,000 with cash n hand

That's an insurance job.

Van owner claims on own insurance & then you offer to offset the difference in his future insurance until it's normalised or no claims restored.

But it's not your van and it's not the ops van. The owner deserves it back in the same condition as it was before, it looks pretty fresh so value would still be high on it.

The best fix here is not to remove or replace all the panels. The front panel can be repaired and two smaller sections on panel 2 and 3, can be cut and new sections put in. The fact that damage is all at or below trim piece is an advantage. I really doubt if worth changing the complete panels. In fact it will do more harm than good. If done properly will look fine and yes not as good as original but it won’t be noticeable . In 2 or 3years time it will be like every other white van with battered panels and both front doors knackered from getting caught in the wind.

I would have thought that the damaged piece could just be cut out and a new metal panel welded in, and replace the plastic trim?

This is reminding me of when somebody crashed into my car, I was getting ‘by the book’ quotes for like €2.5k and €3k for a minor scratch. Ended up getting a great job done for €500. I assume the same applies here.

Ya but it's a van at the end of the day not a car. If it was my van I wouldn't care as long as it looked the part.

As I said it's up to the owner what he wants done.

At least he may have learned the lesson not to let mates drive his van. The only way that'll get 'done right' is if he goes through his insurance. Does he trust his mate to caught up for additional premium

You aren’t using a good body shop then. The front panel will mostly come back into shape, if done properly will only need the lightest of fill. Cut in two pieces for the rest . We aren’t throwing on filler with a shovel.

No issue with light skim of filler but the people suggesting it's thrown back together means there will be more filler than there's should be and it will be a complete botch.

Most repairs, good and bad can be seen. The good ones won't be spotted by the average punter. A van panel filled and painted up as cheap as possible will be visible to all bar the clueless type who can't tell a clean car from a rough one.