After noticing a dent at the top of my passenger side door as a result of the break in, my insurance adjuster said he'd be glad to pay for the repair, I just have to send him the bill. The dent is small and is more of a wave, no paint is scratched, and seems to be a result of the thieves prying at the door/window. It's hardly if at all noticeable, but I am super **** about the car. The Dent Wizard said he couldn't do anything because the metal is rolled at the top of the door to give it rigidity. The only option would be a body shop sanding, filling, and painting. Do I want to do this? How hard is it to match CW paint. It needs to be perfect. Just looking for opinion, or experience from CW owners who have had body work done before. I'm gonna take a better look at the dent tomorrow, just got the car back today- man it felt great to drive it again. Thanks a lot, Ryan

 

Anyone?

 

Sanding and filling (they call it fiberglass filler but it is just glorified Bondo) is always bad news and it is to be avoided if at all possible. It invariably makes the area prone to rust and there will be waves in it no matter how good the shop is that does it. I'd leave it if the original paint is intact.

Mike D.

 

Yeah bondo sucks .I would've suggested the dent wizzard but if he cant help you then.I'd just use touch up paint from the dealer.

 

On second thought, I'd replace the whole door. Get the best body shop in the area and they'll be able to convince your insurance adjuster to replace the whole thing. Twice I got tiny dents in my car (one in the hood and the other in the front fender; luckily both are bolt on parts) and insurance wanted to fill them in, but my shop got them to replace the entire panels with new ones, thus leaving my car totally free of Bondo! I my body shop.

 

I highly doubt that they talked the insurance company into replacing all those parts. For one if the damage is very small the insurance company would repair before they replace and if you pushed them hard enough to replace the parts they would make you pay the difference between repair and replace. Lets face it the insurance companies aren't going to pay a whole lot extra just because you told them too.

I write estimates for a body shop and I'm telling you if I ever forced an insurance company to do something they refuse to do, I would be fired. Maybe the adjusters where you are from are pushovers, and if they are have them transfer to my area because it would be nice to deal with some spineless adjusters for a change.

 

My body shop told me that if they repaired the parts, they could never look perfect, and that is the argument they used with the insurance adjuster. They basically said I am really picky and that I would keep getting it redone until it was perfect, thus costing them more in the end that just replacing the parts in the first place. It was logical reasoning, not forcing the adjuster to do something he didn't want to do. I guess I got lucky because I didn't have to pay anything over the $100 comp deductible.

Mike D.

 

After looking at it today it seems really ridiculous to have it fixed. You can only see it if you squat on your knees, staring down the body line of the car. I'm just going to leave it. Thanks for your imput guys.