My wife and I decided to stop by the mall today, so I parked in the last space in a secluded area of the parking lot. Sure enough I come out and someone has backed their Maxima in right next to my car. There were tons of other spaces, so why he picked the space next to mine is a mystery. I noticed his rear door was open and a little kid was playing between the two cars. As I began to walk over they threw the kid back in and took off. However, they left me a nice ding right in the center of the door. I couldn't get it to show up in a photo, but it's there. Like their door was resting on my door and they just applied pressure to make a crease-like dent. Ughhh!

1. Can anyone recommend a PDR guy around the Manhattan Beach/West LA/Santa Monica area? (I did a search, but all the results were kind of old for this area)

2. What the hell is wrong with people that they can just trash your car and then take off? Second time in 3 months. Last time was on my old jetta parked right in front of my house. Someone clobbered the front driver's side hard enough to spider the paint and break the foglight assembly. Broken glass and paint chips, but no note, nothing!

 

Sorry to hear about this Mike - that really sucks. Too bad you didn't get his plate.

I don't know any DentDudes in your area, but there's a guy here local to me & he will come to your house (not sure about MB, though). He also gives a PCA member discount as well. Here's the info:

Jeff Magill
Beach Cities Paintless Dent Removal
714.965.6943
Jeff@beachcitiespdr.com
www.beachcitiespdr.com

Steve (ca993twin) may know of someone more local to you. I think he used a pdr guy several months ago.

 

Sorry to hear. Take your car to Arling at Lucent Motors 310-231-3328. He's at Sepulveda and Olympic. He'll take care of you.

 

Addison - Can you please call or email me...my emails to you the past few mos have gone unanswered. Thanks.

[sorry for the thread hijack]

 

Sorry to hear of the mishap. I always parked the car as far from anyone as I could and sure enough... come back out and someone is parked in the space next to you.

Good luck with the repair. If you can find someone who knows their craft, you'll be unable to tell it was ever creased as long as the paint hasn't been broken.

People sped off cause they were afraid you'd kill the kid.

 

Addison - didn't know that Arling did body work. Tom did my alignment over there about 6 weeks ago.

Kelly - Thanks for the kind words. I wouldn't have killed the kid, just broken a few fingers or something.

 

You should see me wifes 2 year old car... it has small dents and dings in seven different places! Of course she always has to have the closest parking space to the Supermarket. It is sad that people don't take any responsibility for their actions these days. I feel for you.

 

When I lived in Irvine I found a local specialist PDR by calling the Porsche, Rolls and Ferrari dealership and asked who they used. All the same guy. He was magic.

There are far more butchers out there that took the $19.95 correspondence course from a Popular Mechanics advertiser than real artisans with a feel for metal. So aside from calling your local high-line dealers, you might give Kevin at Automotive Innovations and Restoration

(15020 Oxnard St. unit E; Van Nuys, Ca. 91411; 818 786 2181) a call and see who he recommends.

Good luck,

Don

 

Quick follow up here. Jefff from Beach Cities came to my house and cleaned up a quarter-sized ding in the left front fender on the Mercedes for $125. He and his brother Mark were very pleasant and professional. They seem to prefer that you get to their shop in Huntington. If I did that, the RL/PCA discount for the job would have been $65(?)-$85, IIRC, but don't quote me or them on that.

I snuck a peek "behind the curtain" and noticed that there was a significant amount of tools involved, including nylon covered mallets, a pair of vertically-mounted flourescent lights and perhaps another white reflector mounted on the driver's mirror and of course the signature long rods. It took maybe a little more than 1/2 hour.

Jeff Magill
Beach Cities Paintless Dent Removal
714.965.6943
Jeff@beachcitiespdr.com
www.beachcitiespdr.com

 

I used Rich at Dents out Plus, he is a local Torrance guy, he did the 993 a few times, as well as our van.
Rich's number is 310-523-9455

Jeff sounds great too. hopefully I will need neither in the future.