n2cars

Door opened too far and hit a concrete wall. Literally gouged out part of the door. One inch of damage. Dealer's touch up paint person doesn't want to try to fix it. Might make it more noticeable? Certified Porsche body shop wants to repaint door, quarter panel, and part of the roof rail. Basically repaint the entire left side except the front fender. Cost is $2500. My concerns are that the paint may not match the rest of the car or raises a red flag when I sell it that so much of the car was repainted.

What would you do? Fix it or do nothing? If I ever trade it in I could let the dealer worry about. After all it is considered a used car but I'm sick over what happened. 2016 with 2K miles.

twlai

Ouch!! That hurts!!! I feel the pain all the way over here....

i wouldn't want to repaint it....

how about some protective rubber to cover it?

https://www.amazon.com/Molding-Prote...0QEH37Z02EAW3N

n2cars

Thank you. That's ironic because the body shop owner said to do the same thing. Thanks for the link

theporscheguy

Not good. I would get a few more opinions from highly reputable body shops and perhaps even well known detailers in your area. Personally I would not get the whole side of the car painted.

LexVan

Ooouch, that does suck. Sorry for your problem. Ask a high quality shop to just paint the door, and not blend into the other panels. Might be fine if they can nail the color.

Keep your picture file to document the cosmetic only repair.

Larry Cable

dont repaint the door, but find your dealers detailer/scratch repair guy and get him to touch it up ... not sure if you are ever in the bay area but if you are contact Luis @ lmcartouchup.com.

Larry Cable

why not?

that's nuts they really dont need to blend *that* much of the car IMO ... go find another painter...

Porsche_nuts

+1

I think sand it down, put some filler in it, sand some more and then paint. If the guy is good, I think it would be hard to notice unless you know what to look for.

Larry Cable

+1 IMO

n2cars

Here's the long version on "why not." The touch up painter (and that's all he does. works out of a trailer going from dealership to dealership) is afraid that I won't like the job he does and then the entire door will need repainting. No matter how I much I tried to convince him that I wouldn't hold him responsible he refused to do it. The annoying part is if the car belonged to the dealer and not a customer he would try to touch it up.

Yes. I have two more body shops to explore. The good body shops in Denver take weeks to get an appointment and months more to get your car in. Most of the body shops are 6 months out due to repairing cars from hail damage. The body shop I went to was full of Porsches, Mercedes, and Teslas. Brand new 2016 Targa had $45K in damage. New Tesla had $55K

Larry Cable

find another touchup guy, I think you will find the most body shops will want to blend at least one of the panels if not more ... it will cost $1000's and may be an issue later...

a really good touchup guy will fill it and paint it and I'll betcha you wont be able to tell...

STG

What IDIOT would suggest painting that much of the car??

The damage being on that edge is in a spot that would be easy to do a minor fix that probably wouldn't be noticeable.

They could literally repair, spray the small edge while blending in about a an inch, and clear the whole door worst case scenario.

STG

+ 1

CarManDSL

Easy fix.

Mask it off very tightly to the damage. File down the burs - only the parts that remain higher than the rest of the surrounding door.. Clean with a Q tip with a bit of lacquer thinner. Use an aluminum based filler. You'll hardly need any. The less the better as it can cure very hard. Sand down extra initially with 150 grit over a very small hard rubber block until flush with masking tape. Careful not to go through the tape when sanding. Remove masking tape and replace with a thin packing tape. Then use 300 grit, then 600 wet, again over a small hard rubber block. Sand until tape starts to fray but not through it. Remove tape. Use a touch up paint. No primer required.

It won't be perfect, but it is low on the door and won't be noticed. It is NOT WORTH to blend/paint the entire door. It will NEVER look the same as the rest of the car as it's very difficult to match the clear finish to the other parts of the car. Call it orange peel for this discussion - every paint job has it to some degree - but unless you wet sand and buff the entire car to a Pebble Beach finish, you will never match the clear.

This is what I would do.

PS. Do a practice run on the repair. Find some aluminum sheet metal and do similar damage, then repair as I have outlined. It's OCD detail work but you can do an excellent job with a little practise.

vjd3

Sand it smooth, put a little touch-up paint on it, and you'll never be worried about dinging that door again. If you go to the trouble of having the whole door professionally refinished it's almost guaranteed someone will ding the door in a parking lot a few weeks later. It's Murphy's Law.

When you go to trade the car, they will look at that and figure it will cost them $100 to have their detail guy touch it up better. Much better than dinging you $2000-$3000 because the car has paintwork on it when they put the paint meter on that panel or it shows up on the CarFax.