sclan

My mom and her 99 Civic DX ran into a deer two days ago and thankfully it was a minor accident for her(but not for the deer). The driver side fender was damaged and it takes lots of effort to open/close the door. The garage says it is going to cost $300 to replace the fender. My question is: Which method is cheaper and possibly take less time for the DIY repair? 1. replace the fender with the one I can find on ebay for about $60 and do it myself, or 2. remove the damaged fender and try to make it (how?) into the original un-dented shape. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Maybe I should try the junk yard too.

I have a couple of photos to show the damaged part:
http://www.ele.uri.edu/~sclan/pict0001.jpg
http://www.ele.uri.edu/~sclan/pict0006.jpg

roadsqueegy95

if its just one big dent id try and take it off and pop the dent out. and if that doesnt work id just pick one up from the junkyard and call it a day!

cheesecheda

It doesn't look that bad from the picture, but it depends on the body shop you go to

Transpoquick

IMO that fender is NG, to many wrinkles, like you said go to the junkyard and get a used one, install it yourself(its very easy), then go to the bodyshop and have them paint it.
I could get that fender in northern Illinois for around 40 dollars, but the JY by my house is cheap. You may pay up to 100$ for it.

jdmunlimited1

300 just for a fender, thats ridiculous just go on craigslist and youll find one for cheap.

Transpoquick

OP, is it 300.00 with paint?

Korean99EK

300? thats a lil high. check craigslist or junk yards for sure.

Pulling the dent out your self is kinda hard to say unless we had pics to see the damage from the deer

thumper64

Just find another fender and get it repainted. The time it will take to make that one straight isn't worth what you'd save.

sclan

I am the OP. First thanks for all the comments.

I did the work yesterday. None of the three junk yards in 20-mile radius had the usable fender for 6th civic. I guess I will just get one from ebay and replace/paint it myself. The ebay price is $55 for the new aftermarket fender and it comes primed. I found the spray paint supply is almost as much(basecoat and the clearcoat for NH-583m, $37+sh from paintscratch.com). So the total will probably add up to $100. Maybe I should go to autozone and see if they have the spray paint can that has the matching color code and see if it's cheaper there?

That was the first thing I tried. Too bad I live in RI and there are not many options around here. Nobody (understandably) seemed willing to ship a fender either.

Good question. I don't know. But it would make sense if the $300 includes the paint job(parts+labor+paint).

There are two photo links in my original post. It is minor but like the others suggested it's not worth the time to try to fix the dent.

It seems more clearly now that I know what to do. Thanks everyone!