fcarpio

Hello everyone. I am coming back after a while with a few questions. Over time I have done a few things to my car but the last one takes the cake and I need to fix it. Quick background: A while back I bought a house and I was not used to the distances in my garage, so one day I closed the garage door with my car not all the way in and it caught the rear bumper. Nasty scratch there, but I could live with it until I got around to fixing it. The last couple of weeks have been particularly bad for my G. About two weeks ago I discovered a nasty scratch on the side of my front bumper, but it was only a scratch. Last week I was driving on I95 during rain and a pickup truck in front of me runs over a rear floor mat (small squared ones that fit in the rear sit of most sedans) and it lifts it off the ground and off course it lands on my hood spikes down. So I have the spike marks about a foot and a half wide that go from the front to the back of my hood and a little on the roof. But it gets better, yesterday my garage wall got in the way and I hit it with my front bumper (same place as the scratch). Now my car needs help.

Before I start taking time off to get quotes I wanted to get and idea of how much would it be to fix the front and rear bumpers plus repainting the hood. Or maybe it would be best to fix the car and repaint it completely. Would a color change make the job much more expensive? I have a blue slate and even though it is a pretty color it is also kind of boring. I live in South Florida and I have no idea how much is this going to cost me. Any ideas for cost will be greatly appreciated and if you know about a good body shop in my area (Broward or North Palm Beach) I would like to know about them

Thanks.

fcarpio

Oh, one more thing. I rather not go through my insurance as I don't want my awesome insurance rates to go up due to a claim.

blnewt

iTrader: (13)

If it's black you might try a vinyl wrap. I think that's the only color that will match though.

OB G

iTrader: (11)

lol are you blaming your garage wall for you driving into it?

In any event, you're probably looking at >$1000 to repaint everything. I just had to get my front bumper painted on a different car and it was ~$500. I'm going to assume the rear is similar in pricing. And if you add the price of the hood, you're looking at well over $1000 probably.

maxfinity

Dont feel bad buddy, Night Ryder(My G) has gone through hell as well during his first year. Within 3mths of ownership I was rear-ended by this chick with a suspended license and no insurance while going through a sunpass. luckily it was just a tap that only caused a few minor scratches. A good wax and its hardly noticeable now. Then I came out of Walmart to find my front bumper scratched up on the passenger side. A good wax fixed that as well. Then while passing a truck on the turnpike something hit my lower bumper causing the chrome ring around my passenger fog light to vanish(At least thats what I think happened). That was about 60 bucks to replace. Then on the turnpike passing a truck again something hit the passenger side of my car knocking the back cover off the mirror and causing 2 deep scratches(All the way down to the metal) on the fender and the passenger door. Paid 70 bucks for a new mirror cover, and 95 bucks to get it painted. i bought some touch up paint to cover the scratches in an attempt to prevent rusting until I can get the car painted again. And last and most recent, riding behind a truck on 95 and one of his tires shred. I'm a good distance behind him so I think I'm in the clear as far as damage goes. Got to my destination only to find the lower portion of the passenger side of my bumper dented in near the fog light. Needless to say I was pissed. Luckily I was able to pop the dent out from the inside of the bumper. Driving in Miami is hazardous and Im now especially wary of trucks. Seems they have a personal vendetta against my g. But if it cost me 95 bucks to paint a mirror cover then i believe the bumpers and hood will be greater than 1000 bucks. Sorry for the rant.

cy7878

iTrader: (1)

once damage spans more than 1 body panel, it's insurance time. Like others have said, the OOP costs are going to be in >$1000. Since it's not accident related, meaning you didn't plow into someone where insurance will have to pay damages and medical, your premium should not go up.

I hit a tire on the freeway once and ripped apart my front bumper, cracked the pain on the side and the door. cost to repair and repaint just from that little damage was over $1200 and took over 1 week. My rate never went up. It's not even considered an accident.

irrelevant

I had some wheels stacked on shelves in my garage. The weight over time caused the shelves to pull out just enough from the wall to allow the wheels to fall on the hood, and fender of my G35 coupe. I was sick with disgust.

I sourced my own O.E.M. hood, and took it and a car to a local body shop. There were a couple of dents in the fender that could be fixed easily, but the aluminum hood wasn't worth the time, since I found a replacement for less than $300.

So here's what's important to you...

I had the new hood repainted inside and out, and mounted.

I had a couple of dents in the fender fixed, and the fender repainted.

Since the car was in the shop anyway, I had them fix the damage on the front and rear bumper covers and repaint them as well. We all know how Infiniti's paint isn't the best. There were a lot of small rock chips in the front bumper cover also.

So I had a little more work done than you need. My total was about $1200 for the work the body shop did. I suspect you could get your damage repaired for closer to $900 or so...and you'd have superior paint to what came from the factory.

Just make sure you find a reputable shop to do the work, and don't just shop around for the cheapest price. My coupe is OB, so that's a lot easier to color match than the BS color.

Honestly, those wheels falling on my car is one of the best things that happened to it. It looks brand new now, without any paint chips in the bumper even after eighteen months since it was repainted.

Mudgen

Blue Slate may seem boring to you, but it's one of the more rare colors for the car, and I think it stands out. Changing the color on the car will definitely add to a full re-paint, since they'll have to paint absolutely everything, door jambs, trunk channels, etc.

UN1263

A color changes is going to be expensive when you consider what's involved like removing the lights, doors/door panels, hood and decklid. Not to mention to do it right you need to pull the bumpers, door handles, sunroof trim and window trim.

If the shop uses better quality paint products they easily could have $1000 in just paint materials depending the color. You can figure around 100 labor hrs.

An allover paint job changing the color could easily be $5000 if not more. Granted you could probably get it down for $2000 at Maaco but you know that game.

movinon

The first thing you should concentrate on is establishing a method of parking in your garage without damaging your car.
When I had tight/short garages, I would hang a ball from ceiling. When my windshield came in contact with the ball, the car was properly spaced between the garage door and the wall. This method will always keep you from hitting the front wall.
I never shut the garage door without walking back and checking that the car has enough clearance.
I never hang anything above my vehicles, like bikes,etc. and do not have shelves close to the sides of my vehicles. I learned my lesson years ago when a shelf collapsed and an old oil lamp put a crease in the back quarter panel of a car.
Tom

RISKY GUY

iTrader: (9)

I put a rubber speed bump on floor of my garage.
Best investment, no worries pulling in.

mpellowski

I use a guy that fixes this kind of damage in my driveway. He does this at a lot of dealerships and for many of the car clubs in the area. He charges $250 per panel and the repairs come out nice and well blended. Check Craiglist for this kind of service or ask a car dealership.

UN1263

These are called 'lot lizards' and they can be found on the back side of any big car dealership during the week. FWIW they charge the dealer ~$75 for that same panel but the dealer has 10-20 cars lined up that day. Lot lizards are the reason used cars at a good dealer never have scratches, door dings or cigarette burns in the interior. It's amazing what some of these guys can do in a chitty environment such as a windy cold dealer parking lot.

Next time you go to trade you car and the dealer says we knocked $500 off your trade for that simple door ding, tell him to shove it because he's gonna get it fixed tomorrow for $75.