Rezal

While I'm not sure this is "driver attributed" vs. "reckless pedestrian", I got a nice parking lot dent (inc. scratched paint) over my right front wheel fender yesterday while parking at a public event (reason I don't think it's from another car is the location and the fact that the car next to me hadn't moved). What it does point out is the lack of responsibility and care people have towards other cars, followed by the cowardice and irresponsibility of not leaving a note behind for his/her actions. I'm probably looking at $500-$1000 damage here since the paint is also scratched. I'm just hoping that the bodyshop can (a) match the curvature with the left fender, (b) not use any filler, and (c) blend the paint in


Btw, if anyone knows of a really good body shop in the Philly area, preferably near the Mainline, please let me know. While at the end of the day, "it's only a car", it still bugs me to see the dent everytime I approach the car.

Mark in Baltimore

Sorry, Rezal. Too bad the paint's scratched, as a dent removal place could pop it out for almost nothing.

Rezal

Unfortunately, the dent is pretty significant that I doubt a dent removal place might be able to do it. I might try to take it to one and see if they can undent it, and just live with the scratches until the turbo bumper upgrade

Tom Mazz

Hey Rezal,
Let me know if you find that body shop. I started a thread a month or so ago with your same question (need a good body/paint shop in the area) with no luck. Good luck buddy, hey it was great meeting you at the swap.
God Bless,

Rezal

Tom,

Good meeting you at Hershey as well, actually, more like coincidentally on I-76.

I'll keep you posted. I know someone who lives in Lansdale with a gorgeous Arena Red TT that had some body work done to his car. I'll check in with him and let you know where he would recommend. I'll also check with Jay at J&J Motors since I'm hoping to find a place closer to me.

STLPCA

Rezal
That really sucks.
It's certainly worth a visit to a PDR (Painless Dent Removal) shop. You'd be amazed at what they can do. If you don't know of one, check who does that work for the local P, BMW or MB dealers.

PramTT

Rezal:

Sorry about what happened.

Anyway I got into almost the same situation causing big dent and scratch on my front fender

Ouch!

After 3hrs of metal massaging and hand rubbing with paint polish, you would not be able to see the old dent/scratch.

Try paintless dent removal but make sure find a good one since it is the person doing it is the most important part and not how much equipment he carries (don't ask me how I found out about this)

HTH,

Rezal

Pram,

Wow, that is impressive. I thought paintless dent removals were only for door dings. The extent of my damage is similar to yours (if I'm not mistaken, it looks like your paint was also scratched). Mine is a few inches below, right at the lip of the wheel well.

Dan,

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll cross check with the other local car clubs.

PramTT

Rezal:

Yes the paint was scratched by the steel belts from the piece of tires that flew to my car.

Best way to find out is to rub the damaged area starting with the mildest polish to see if you can rub out the scratch. After that let the PDR people do their work. The only thing is that they cannot repair dent/ding that is located on edge/lines. In the case of our 993 the fenders are nicely rounded with no discerning angled lines.

On big dents, massaging the dents will sometimes crack the paint which is why they usually will warm up the paint using heat gun to avoid or minimize cracking.

I had a big piece of broken pallet hit the hood of my other car once, the dent was pretty significant and unfortunately behind the dent was the brace of the hood which make access to the back of the dent pretty hard. Since I was too impatient too wait for my regular dent guy (who cannot work on my car until the next week, I took the car to a local car wash which offer PDR service. So this PDR guy came with a big rollaway suitcase containing numerous interesting looking tools. He worked and worked on the hood dent and ended up turning one big dent into numerous small dents/bumps. I started questioning him and he ended up using rubbing compound to even out the dent surfaces. I told him that he is out of his mind if he think that he can even out the surface using rubbing/polishing compound. I ended up stopping the work and scheduled the work with my regular guy.

When my regular guy came, he said "he won't be able to repair the damage done by the other guy" but he tried anyway. Well he ended up the repairing the damage perfectly with no sign to the previous dents/scratches. The rubbing compound will only be used in the end too smooth out the repaired surface too take out the orange peel appearance of the repaired area.

I always watched everytime any PDR guys worked on my cars and you definitely need to get guys with known reputation/good referrals. The end results varies a lot depending on the operator.

kkim

Rezal,

I would have to agree with everything that has been said about PDR. You will be amazed by what a good PDR man can do. I have even had a dent on a body crease line taken out. I was simply amazed as I always sit and watch as the guy works on my cars. Find a good one... they are worth their weight in gold. Yes, be careful of the bad PDR guys as they can inflict unfixable damage for a PDR guy that trys after them. Reputation is everything.

I would suggest you have your dent repaired first by a PDR guy, then if you can't get the scratch out by polishing/compounding, take it to a paint shop to repair the scratch as a last resort. The advantage of getting the dent repaired first by PDR is that the paint shop will have to use minimal filler, if any at all.

Good luck. I just had dents/dings taken out from my 993 from damage due to the shipping company. Car body is perfect, now.

p_carfan

I agree......try the dent removal first. My wife got a really nasty ding ( on a contour edge ) of the front fender of her Lexus. I would of never thought it could be repaired, 75 bucks and it's perfect. Those guys were amazing!

Good Luck!

Speedraser

Rezal,

There is a restoration shop in or near St. Davids run by a guy Jay knows -- I can't recall the name. It does beautiful work. Perhaps the very best shop I've ever seen is Karrosserie (sp?) in (I think) King of Prussia. They do phenomenal work (and you pay for it).