My poor old car wants to be pretty again.

January 30, 2009 10:39 AM

Is this a car body repair job for professionals, or does it seem like I could handle it myself?

My '99 Accord was hit while it was parked and I've been unable to track down the person who did it. And I also have no collision insurance on it since it's old. Before I even go through the hassle of bothering to take it in for an estimate, I'd love advice on how you would proceed if this were your car. Though it's 10 years old, it's otherwise in good condition and it's a car I plan to drive until it's dead, so I'd rather it not look ugly and rusty. I don't have tons I'm willing to spend on the repair, so if it's seems like it would be horribly expensive to make it look not as ugly, I'd like to figure out if I can at least seal it so it won't continue to rust.

Here are pictures of the damage:
First one
Second one
Third one
Fourth one

The door doesn't seem like it's a huge deal, except for the scraped paint on the edge. I'm most concerned about the wheel well.

I've searched old questions and Google, but I haven't found advice that makes sense (to me, at least) in my case.

Thank you!

posted by lbo to travel & transportation (10 comments total)

If it was my car...

I'd try to buff the majority of the scrape marks off. Take some pliers to the wheel well to reshape it so it is not too noticable, then sand it, apply some bondo putty to patch it up, then sand again and spray paint it. Mask off the door to prevent overspray. I'd follow that with a polish to protect it. Wouldn't look perfect, but wouldn't cost much at all, and wouldn't really be noticeable.

Getting body work done at a shop would be pretty expensive, I think.
posted by orme at 10:51 AM on January 30

A body shop would probably charge between $250 and $500 for this repair.

If I were you, I'd maybe try orme's suggestion of bending the fender back with pliers, then sand and spray it with a color-match Auto Zone rattle can. I'd skip the bondo and polish, though.
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! at 11:00 AM on January 30

I'm with M.C. Lo-Carb! on this, proper Bondo is an art. Just bend, sand and spray.
posted by Floydd at 11:05 AM on January 30

That wheel well bit (the body color part) is integral with the unibody...not something you could do yourself. The chrome on the door trim is easy to replace, and the door mostly looks just scuffed. You can take that out with some elbow grease.

(it's weird hearing a '99 called "old"...I've got a 98 truck, a 90 CRX, and a '70 impala.
posted by notsnot at 11:14 AM on January 30

(of course, I meant not do properly yourself - metal repair. Bondo, sure thing.)
posted by notsnot at 11:16 AM on January 30

Check to see if there's any paintless dent removal places nearby and let them have a look at it. They're often a fraction of the cost of body shops, but tend to work best with dents that can be popped back-out, but it may be worth a shot. If they can get it reasonably back in shape, repairing the rest yourself or by a regular body shop would be much easier. Failing that, I agree with orme, try to bend it back into shape as much as you can first before attempting any repair or getting a body shop estimate. You might need to remove some bits like the wheelwell if possible to get good access.

Another option would be to call some junkyards to see if you can source an undamaged quarter-panel. I imagine that being a common color, it shouldn't be too difficult, then just get a body shop to install it.
posted by hungrysquirrels at 11:17 AM on January 30

I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the amount of success you will have by simply buffing this out. The metal is bent, but really how important is that? I would recommend picking up some touch up paint to fill in the gouges so that they don't rust, but otherwise I wouldn't sand or bondo.

If it is still bothering you later, maybe try to find that piece in a junk yard or bondo it out.
posted by eleongonzales at 1:30 PM on January 30

If you can bend what you can back with some Vise-Grips, do that- then you can buff and paint it. If you really want you can Bondo over the dent, then carve it down to flush, sand, and paint.

And '99 is not old. I, for one, drive an '87 Volvo.
posted by dunkadunc at 1:38 PM on January 30

You probably really don't want to use pliers of any kind. They will inflict gouges into the metal, making everything worse. The pictures don't seem to want to load for me at the moment, but the best way to repair a dent is to use various forces to try to encourage the metal to go back the way it was. Things like putting a phone book on the high spot and whacking the phone book with your fist or a mallet/baseball bat.

See what the paintless repair people say as to what their success will be. Then see what a traditional body shop says. I don't think you'd find any value in doing both- whatever the paintless people can do, the body shop would do as a first step.

If there's already rust, you have to get down to bare metal, primer it with a primer meant for bare metal (etching, I think?) and then a couple more coats, then color, then clear coat.
posted by gjc at 5:23 PM on January 30

This is too deep for paintless dent removal -- doesn't matter anyway because the paint's cracking off and exposing bare metal. Also, a pliers isn't going to touch this kind of dent. $250 to $500? More like $2500 to $5000 to make it look like it did before. You're talking new door, and lots of custom work on the wheel well, and repainting the entire side. My car was $7000 for a similar repair, and it took a month to complete.

Your best idea is to forget about the dents, take to take it body shop and have the area stripped of paint, prepped, primed, and re-sprayed, blending into the existing paint in the surrounding area. This can be done without removing any parts from the car. It won't end up looking perfect, but it will look okay. More importantly, it will prevent rusting. It should only take them a day to do, and should only be around $300.

You may want to ask them if they could bondo the dent real quick before they paint it.
posted by luckypozzo at 7:43 AM on January 31