Bad Day - Debris Hit !
 

I picked up my x5d on Saturday. Today something happened that has never happened to me with cars.

As I was driving on 95, I hear loud noise on the right side, I thought I got flat. But I wasn't pulling or did not notice handling problems. There were bunch of cars to my right side, behind, as I kept driving.

As I come home and inspect, there is bad ding on passenger door. Appears to be rock. What do I do ? Is it touchable ? Or the panel need to be replaced ? Would insurance cover it ?

Feeling sorry for myself. :(:(:(:(:(:(:(

Sorry for your bad luck. Looks like a trip to the BMW paint shop.

I can't see why insurance wouldn't cover it.

Where are you located in Florida? I would try the Dent Removal place first shouldnt be more then $75 to get it out. The paint may the more expensive issue if your in Palm Beach or Broward I can give you a place in Boca that does a lot of high end work for pretty reasonable

That will buff right out ;)

It's not a big deal, easily fixable.

Thank you BGReddy00, I work in Boca. Please let me have the information about the place. If you see the picture, it is dented too. Can they level it ?

Thanks for your response.

I just shed a tear for you and for the X. Not fair, not fair at all...

in the meantime just slap a ///M sticker there

I live in Boca and work in Miami...I'll shoot you a PM

Crap advice.

The paint is gone, it needs repaint. Why bother with a dent repair when you need at least the door or both repainted?

Furthermore, you can see that the dent is not uniform- that there is a reinforced edge at the trailing edge of the door- folded over sheet metal- and hence the dentless guy cannot get at that. Also the metal has been 'over-stressed' around that internal lip and cannot be done perfectly.

Even if you could, it needs paint.

Not sure what your paint is, but when work is done so clse the edge of one panel, you sometimes need to color/metallic blend onto the next panel. The door with the repair needs clearcoat all the way to the edges. If you need to blend onto the next door, that one needs clearcoat to the edges.

You've got a brand new car, repair it perfectly.

Of course consumers these days haven't a clue as to a quality paint job...


Depending on your insurer, they may let you claim it on Comprehensive.... in which case there may be a lower deductible and it will not be a 'claim' that counts agaisnt you...If they say 'we cannot be sure you didn't open the door into something' or otherwise say it it a "Collision" claim, then you have a chargeable claim, and a deductible. Some people will say "The insurance guy said 'one claim will not increase my rates'"... true, but what if you have another claim in 2 months? The one 'freebie' was wasted on the first.

You should be a clear as possible about the circumstances of the event in your initial report. It would be nice to be able to say "I saw a chunk of concrete bounce off a truck and hit the side of my car"...

GL

A

PS My guesstimate for a perfect job would be ~$1000-1200. This is matching the factory paint in every aspect- even matching the crappy BMW orangepeel

Agree with everything 100%

Just sent you a PM with a great shop in Fort Lauderdale....

ard...+1. Do you live in my head?!? That is exactly the reply I was about to type...

Thanks ARD, I went to see the mod shop Bret (one of the posters helping me with this) has referred, the guy said both panels needs to be painted. So I might as well go to bodyshop. I will take it there and see what they will say.

What'd insurance say?

Curious as to the final $ tally. Do you know what orangepeel is, and how to evaluate paint quality? You want to get a sense of the factory paint- in particular the 'high visual' and medium visual areas- and assess the overall paint smoothness. The repaint should match these. Generally upwards facing surfaces, from waist heigh to eye height are high visual. (Like door handle to window). Look closely at the car and you will begin to see how the imperfect paint is distributed. You want to match this.

You also want to look at any metallic 'clouding' that you can see. This must be matched too. Stand back, get close...compare sides... after a while you'll be picking out painted panels on the highway! :)


Finally- and this is the MOST IMPORTANT- make sure the shop understands what your criteria are for the job. Worst thing to do is wait and see what kind of job is done. I clipped a deer in my P turbo at 90mph:yikes:... $2600 to the rear fender and tubo inlet. The shop knew my criteria- and really liked the idea that I came by after they shot it to inspect- this is before they took off all the masking and before they started putting trim and glass back on- I found some issues they could (with relative ease) correct. Had I waited it would have been a PITA.

Communicate your expectations.

GL

A

Wow, sorry to hear and see that...

Craig

Very good point...One of my cars was sideswiped by a ten year old kid who stole his sister car and was joy riding....my car was 10 days old...anyway..found the "best shop" that was in town, all Porsche, Ferrari, Rolls, Lambo's etc, nice and clean shop...very expensive...had them do the work...the finish they put on the passenger side was flawless, you could read the fine print off a legal document from it, but....the factory finish on the car had ton's of orange peel, so this side stood out...I sold the car a week later cause i just couldn't stand it.

Matching the original fiish and color are very important, you should never be able to see where the work was done...the shop i gave you does exactly that and has a very picky customer base so you should be in good shape if you go there, or do as ARD says if you go elsewhere..

For minor damage like that, I really struggle with having entire panels painted. I prefer to have as much of the original finish as possible.

On a few occasions I have asked my insurance company to approve a 2-step approach. Go to a reputable shop and attempt to have the ding fixed and the paint blended into the rest of the panel. If *I* am not satisfied with the results, I can ask to have the whole panel repainted. The insurance company agreed as the additional cost of this approach (if this went to both steps) was negligable and the potential for them to save the cost of full repair (and ultimately the cost to me in premiums) was worth it. In one case I was extremely satisfied and stuck with the small repair, in another case I had the whole panel painted.

How do you "blend" clearcoat?!?!?!

id go with a paintless dent remover, then throw alot of touchup on it, sand it with 2000 grit sandpaper followed by polish, good to go!

OMG. But then again, you live in the land of fine well cared for cars... Joisey.

i'm talking about a cheap temp fix, if you do not want to get the entire door repainted. obviously this wont come out perfect, but i think it would work pretty well

wonder if that is really just debris, kind of a daamge from a really big piece of rock that should not be lying around in the highway...are you sure no one dinged your car intentionally?

I did not see since it was already dark in the early evening on interstate. But I too suspect it that it is a rock as big as my fist.

I have seen it happened once. A car steps on a rock with the edge of tire, rock jumps to the side. I believe that has what happened.

I had a brick fall out of a dump truck once years ago and hit the side of my car
when I dodged it on the highway.

Craig