illdeviant

Hey guys. I messed up the body on my rx300 suv recently and was wondering about the severity and how I would go about fixing it.

Heres the situation..

I was visiting a friend's warehouse and had to park the car. The parking was essentially inside the building where if you're looking in, there are 3 spots to your right immediately after the garage door perpindicular to the entrance and on the left, there is a wall. Outside the door at either side there are yellow metal poles which have a little handle protruding from the top half of the pole. These little handles are basically metal rectangular strips bent into an angled 'u' . As I backed into this spot turning the wheel counterclockwise, the handle, which at this point was higher than the bumper, dug into the housing of the car right above the headlights.

The body was pushed in enough to kick the headlight casing out of its niche. Since the handle on the pole was also angular, it had edges, not fully rounded, it scratched the car where it dented it in (meaning the paint is chipped away and you can see the metal underneath). I popped the hood and remounted the light as best I could. The light was fully operational with the exception of the automatic day bulb popped out of it's socket. The light currently isnt making full contact with all the mounts in the hood due to the whole frame distorting. Also, the bracket which the light screws into .. basically looks like a washer welded to the frame.. half of it snapped off. I nudged the light as best as I could into the frame and retightened the screw around the half chipped 'welded washer' so that hopefully the pressure contact as well as the hood itself (it kind of wraps around the light) would keep the light in. Right now it seems pretty secure although I try to avoid going too fast or over nasty terrain.

Now, I was just wondering how bad it may be. I will try to get some pictures up in the near future.. I don't have my camera right now.

- Would rust be an issue? For where the scratch exposed the metal underneath? can i just get some paint at a shop and cover up? I don't want to have the whole panel repainted..

-Granted you haven't seen the car, but I'm thinking all that has to be done is the dent to be pounded out and the light should fit right back in. Would that process be an arm and a leg?


Anyway.. I know that this is just the bare bones of the situation and I have given you little to no info . I'll try to get pics up asap. But if anyone is godlike with cars or have had experiences with it, I'd appreciate suggestions/comments and whatnot. Thanks for your help guys.


btw. if any more info aside from the pics are needed, hit me and I'll try to respond to the best of my knowledge.

Daniel_

Over here in the UK, there are countless little paintshops that will pop out the light, hammer out the dent and re-spray the damaged section for a small handfull of notes.

Given the issue of rust and of getting a matching paint finish, I'd have it done by a pro.

Also - have a professional check that the lights are fully alligned.

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shakran

yes, absolutely rust will be an issue. Any time you have exposed metal and winter driving (or driving near an ocean) you have rust problems.

Some body shops will want to replace the whole panel. I had one try to pull that on me once for a little scratch - -- I guess they didn't expect me to ask why buffing out a scratch cost $1500 Don't let them - unless the dent is in a very hard to hammer out place. If that's the case you may need to replace the panel.

I wouldnt' recommend doing the job yourself because 1) it'll look ugly and 2) if you don't do it right, you could still let moisture get underneath the new paint, and then you have the rust issue again.



It really does depend. The fact that the dent is near the headlight is not the best sign - sometimes it's REAL hard to pound out a dent when it's in a bend like that.

It also sounds like the light bracket may need to be rewelded or replaced.

Bottom line, if you replace the whole panel you're looking probably at $700 to $1500. If he pounds it out and resprays it (have him repaint the whole panel - it's gonna be off the car to pound it out, and it just looks better if you do that) then probably $200 to $300 or so.

But like I said it's REALLY hard to give an estimate without seeing the full extent of the damage - - and keep in mind that there might be damage behind the panel that you haven't found, and that the shop won't find until they get the panel off.

illdeviant

fuck me. yea. I spoke to a friend and he told me that in order to paint that single spot over, they'd have to pull the whole panel off. I'll try to get a pic up when I have a chance. THanks for your help up until now.

shakran

The good news is that it's the front fender. Those usually come off by removing a few bolts. If it was the back fender you'd be looking at cutting the metal and welding in a patch panel

BadNick

There are metal brackets and whatnot under there that you would want to make sure are straightened out, but almost the entire front of the RX is a big plastic molded bumper. Obviously plastic won't rust, but if it's cracked or seriously scraped, you might have to replace the entire bumper.

Scorps

That sucks, but might want to go around to every body shop in town and get quoted.

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illdeviant

yup ok so i got the pictures, now i have to find the usb transfer wire. my parents are bad with keeping stuff together.

now some people are reading and getting the idea that the scratch is on the bumper. that is not the case. since the handle on the metal pole is what caused the scratch, it was high enough to bypass the bumper alltogether. The scratch is above the headlight. It certainly is not on the plastic and you can see metal showing through. the dent from the outside doesnt look extreme. the scratch is maybe about 3inches long. but the dent in the body is enough to misalign the cantact points for the light casing