Ben, sorry to hear about you problems on the 405. I drive on the 405 (Irvine) every day to work with my 997S and have never had a problem. Then again, there's a big difference between LA 405 and Orange Country 405.

 

get a paintless dent guy to adjust the hood

 

Hey Ben, any good news to report yet? Need you back in good spirits!!

 

Hi Adam, thanks for the well wishes. I'm taking the car in tomorrow to this shop that I've used before that's close to where I live. I emailed them the pics but I need them to see it up close and hear what they recommend. I'm not saying I'll go with them but I'm leaning toward using them because of their experience with high end cars. I've been really busy and so that's why tomorrow is the soonest I can take it in. They're closed on Saturdays, unfortunately, the day I was hoping to take it in. Here's a link to their website. I've seen this image before that they have on their homepage. I just can't recall where. But it's a classic image.

www.autobahnautobody.com

Anyway, I'll keep you guys posted and let you know how it goes.

 

No, it won't be as good as the factory, it will probably be better! That guy at the body shop that you spoke to has clearly inhaled too many paint fumes....

 

Thanks for your optimistic comment. I know it wasn't your intention but when you quoted my statements in your post you actually took it out of context and made it seem like those were my words, when I was actually quoting what the guy at the body shop was telling me. Like I said I know that's not what you were trying to do but anybody else reading that without having read the original post might think otherwise.

But that was just one guy's opinion. I'll be seeing another shop today and get another opinion and will probably make up my mind today which shop I'll be taking it to. It's been a somewhat depressing time for me the past week or so. Hopefully the car will look as good as new when it's all done.

 

It's more than optimism. I've had mine painted four times, and each time it looked great!

 

OCBen --
I've been away for a while and just tuned in to hear of your ordeal --
You clearly have been thinkin' about this in the right way and seem to be on your way to satisfactory resolution of the issues --- Physical and cosmetic damage can be repaired, but it takes longer to get rid of the bad taste left in yourmouth ...
Good luck.

 

The shop crew took off the bumper cover and tried to work the plastic back to shape with some heat and shaping tools, and though it looked a 100% better, I could still feel a slight subtle bump which would be noticeable and so I had them go ahead and order a new bumper cover.

As for the hood, the crew chief told me he could somehow shape it back but that it would require shaving or sanding the paint off the corner of the hood, which obviously would require a repaint on that portion of the hood. That was not sounding good at all. And not only would the corner of the hood require a repaint but so will the adjoining section of the fender so they can "blend" the repaint. And then the entire hood would get a coat of clear and so will the fender. That sounded just horrible and made my stomach queasy. I wanted no part of that if I could help it.

I told him to just repair the bent flange bracket (highlighted) and replace the bumper cover, and after it’s installed I’ll be able to see if the hood really looks that bad that it will need the drastic work he mentioned. If it isn’t noticeable I’m just gonna leave it alone. I know it certainly won’t look as noticeable as that other Seal Grey 997 in Canada that the poster was wondering if it had been damaged or not. It wasn’t that noticeable after the mishap and hopefully it won’t be noticeable at all once the bumper cover has been replaced.

What do you guys think?

 

I think you are approaching this exactly as you should. I too would order the new bumper cover if I felt a subtle bump. And I think the drastic move of repainting all or part of the hood should be avoided if possible.

What I really think is that they will replace the bumper cover and repaint it so well you will never know the difference - even at your standard of excellence. You meticulously searched for the right shop and if you are there its for a reason. And, the hood was not noticeable anyway even before the bumper cover removal. I think the repair will exceed your expectations.

 

dont let them do all that repaint-blending-butchering, just repaint the cover, have paintless dent adjust the hood if needed, these body shop butchers are all frankensteins dont let them mutilate your car

 

Thanks for the tip, Dark. I'll call some of the paintless dent repairers to ask if they have experience tweaking an aluminum hood. Hopefully it won't need it. But if they think they can do it I might let them, but only under my observation and supervision.

 

sorry to hear what happend to you. just in case, if you need a body shop, there is an excellent BS on pico & 405 in west LA, called "golden hammer". ther a famous for their porsche work.

good luck!
-r

 

Well, before any of you starting asking for a status report in the other threads I thought I’d go ahead and post the latest updates. And seeing that I’ve been somewhat reluctant to do so, you already have your first clue as to the state of affairs.

I already told you that I instructed the shop to just replace and paint the bumper cover and not to touch the hood at all or do any of that drastic work they were proposing to do that would have required the fender to be painted as well. Okay, so when I eagerly picked her up last Friday she looked good, the paint job looked good under the overcast sky. And though the corner of the hood was still lifted up by about a hundred or so thousandths of an inch, it wasn’t that noticeable. I don’t think anyone can notice it. I certainly didn’t when I first examined the hood under what I thought was close scrutiny. It wasn’t until I brought out my measuring instruments that I noticed it. So even though this slight damage will forever remain there, I can live with that. I certainly didn’t want to risk the possibility of mismatched paint just to get the hood perfect like it used to be.

When the wife got home she was excited for me that I got my baby back home and wanted to see how it looked. So we went into the garage, I flipped on the banks of fluorescent lights that transforms my garage into a detailing laboratory, and let her see the fine workmanship. The wife is quite near-sighted and wasn’t wearing her glasses, but the first words out of her mouth were “The color doesn’t match!” …. Omigod! She was right! I could see it too, sure as ****, right there in front of my eyes under the fluorescent lighting. Outside under the overcast sky it wasn’t that apparent but under the fluorescent lighting it was quite obvious that color on the bumper cover had a slight lavender or pinkish hue to it. Oh man, talk about disappointment.

Over the weekend I took the car to my dealership to have them take a look at it. In the shade it’s not that noticeable but in bright sunlight you can see it. It was obvious to one of the sales guys there but not so obvious to another one. They told me to take it back and see if the shop can do a better job of matching it.

And so that’s where it is right now. The shop admits that Seal Grey is a difficult color to match, and they think that the clear bra on the hood and fenders may be acerbating the problem somewhat in that the clear film alters the optical properties some. But they didn’t give me a hard time about it. They’re going to strip the clear film off the old bumper cover and use it to color match the new. I should have an update from them today.

Good thing I didn’t agree to letting them paint the hood and fender!

 

I had a similar experience with an SL several years ago. It was "desert silver" metallic. I suspect a very difficult color to match. Someone dented the hood of my car and it had to be re-painted. It did not match very well but I left it alone and just got used to it. No one ever noticed it except me. The body work was done at a Benz dealer and I was dissapointed that they would do such a careless job on such an expensive car.