| OCDetails |
There is a summer lunch program in the valley that lets kids go to the park and get a free lunch. Jennifer takes Erik there so he can play with the other kids. Today when they were there I guess the wind picked up and blew one of the coolers that they bring the lunch in right into the hood of my Pilot. The lunch lady wasn't even going to say anything until Jennifer freaked out over the damage on the hood. The lunch lady played dumb and said "The cooler is right here in front of the truck and not on the edge of the hood, so how could it have caused that?" Uhm... it's called 'Gravity' you stupid person. What did she expect? Did she think the cooler would just stick to the front of the truck?
I just spent 5 hours polishing and sealing this truck last week and I know every scratch on it. There isn't a dent on the thing and that is one of the reasons I bought it. These are definitely new and not something I'm likely to have caused myself.
The lady gave Jennifer a number to the main office to call. I talked to them and they wanted me to submit two estimates so the school district can give it to their insurance. The two estimates I got were for $400 and $350. The only difference was in the labor hours. I had another shop do an estimate just out of curiosity and they came in at $375. lol So I guess my original esitmate when I saw the damage of somewhere between $350 and $400 was pretty accurate.
So now comes the wait. I faxed the estimates in for them and now I need to wait to see what they do. It may not be a brand new car, but this sucker was perfect when I bought it. In fact, the fact that it didn't have any dents anywhere was the reason I bought it. It is a 2003 with less than 35K miles on it and I couldn't believe how great it looked on the outside. I would just get a bug shield to cover it up and forget about it if I wasn't so damn anal about this kind of thing. lol |
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| sblvro |
| :1: relax take it easy! just bring it to dentwizard or dent doctors and for $75 they should take care of it. it seems that you don't have any paint damage thus it should be a quick 30 minute fix. |
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| OCDetails |
| If the solution were that simple then I wouldn't be looking at three esitmates for over $350. This is not damage that simple PDR can repair. The process to fix creases and pinhole dents in the panel require painting. Typically they use heat in this process and that pretty much wrecks the paint. Also, because it is a metallic, in order to blend it right you have to paint most of the hood. PDR can't fix everything. |
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| drm1111 |
| If the Dent Wizard could get his tools in the spaces needed I think its a repairable job. I would go that route first and see if they can do it. I hate breaking the factory paint. Its never the same after that. :1: |
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| cwa107 |
quote:
Originally posted by OCDetails
If the solution were that simple then I wouldn't be looking at three esitmates for over $350. This is not damage that simple PDR can repair. The process to fix creases and pinhole dents in the panel require painting. Typically they use heat in this process and that pretty much wrecks the paint. Also, because it is a metallic, in order to blend it right you have to paint most of the hood. PDR can't fix everything.
You might be surprised - a number of members have had similar damage and the PDR folks can do some pretty amazing work just by poking and prodding at it. I've never heard of them using heat before on a metal surface.
Anyway, do a search on here for examples, there are several of them (even creases):
http://www.hondapilot.org/forums/se...tby=&sortorder=
Seems like Dentwizard is the most popular. I'm sure they wouldn't attempt a repair if they weren't certain they could obtain a quality result.
I would say it's at least worth a visit to get a quote. Your fellow taxpayers will thank you ;) |
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| sblvro |
quote:
Originally posted by OCDetails
If the solution were that simple then I wouldn't be looking at three esitmates for over $350. This is not damage that simple PDR can repair. The process to fix creases and pinhole dents in the panel require painting. Typically they use heat in this process and that pretty much wrecks the paint. Also, because it is a metallic, in order to blend it right you have to paint most of the hood. PDR can't fix everything.
did you actually checked dentwizards or dentdoctors? |
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| Tim |
I got one in almost the exact same spot a few months ago, that looks as big as the largest one you have, caused by a piece of shingle or siding thrown up from the road..........:(
it's depressing.........:bangh: |
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| dragoncoach |
| I'd try dent wizzard first. If he can't get it out entirely, you could always install a hood bug deflector. It should hide the dents or minor flaws without having to repaint. Keeping OEM paint intact is always preferred in my book. |
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| ThePilotster |
| The dent busters do work, or you can put on a hood deflector & hide it. Similar to hanging a picture on a wall with a hole in it:D |
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| OCDetails |
You can't see it since it is silver paint anyway, but there is paint missing in the crease. The paint is also cracked on the lower part where it folded down. This isn't something that PDR can fix. The paint would still be cracked and chipped when they got done with it. Besides, by the time I paid for the PDR and the touch up work and the bug shield, I'd probably be into it as much as just getting the body work done on it anyway. I'm thinking about long term resale value and having a dent on the hood like this brings it down.
You guys don't know me very well yet, but I'm probably about the most anal paint care person you are ever going to meet. Having a chipped and cracked hood is not something I am ok with. Covering it up is even less acceptable for me. They school districts insurance will pay for it and that is fine by me. My tax dollars have been paying their premiums for years, so it is about time they do something for me. :D Maybe if this was coming out of my pocket and I didn't have the $400 bucks to get it fixed I'd be looking for the cheapest alternative, but in this case I want it fixed back the way it was. |
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| sblvro |
quote:
Originally posted by OCDetails
:D Maybe if this was coming out of my pocket and I didn't have the $400 bucks to get it fixed I'd be looking for the cheapest alternative, but in this case I want it fixed back the way it was.
:1: if you haven't notice we usually do not look for the cheapest alternative but the best alternative. oem paint is always better for me than a perfectly painted aftermarket one. |
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| Chupula |
I feel your pain... 2 weeks after we bought our 2003 Pilot (20K miles, perfect paint, panels, etc...), somebody pulled the ole hit-and-run on us. Mangled the passenger front fender and scracthed the front bumper as well. Had to pay the $250 deductible and after everything was repaired it was almost $1K in damage.
Just be happy if you can get them to pay for it. The worst is having somebody else damage your vehicle and you have to pay to fix it. |
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| OCDetails |
quote:
Originally posted by sblvro
:1: if you haven't notice we usually do not look for the cheapest alternative but the best alternative. oem paint is always better for me than a perfectly painted aftermarket one.
True, but fortunately I'm dealing with silver and it isn't a vertical panel. If this was a door that was going to be compared to the panels on either side, then I would probably look for as many options that didn't require painting as possible Being a horizontal panel helps because there isn't really a whole lot to compare it against. The angle of the hood makes the paint look different than the fenders anyway. I'm going to have the work done at a body shop that has done work with metallic paint for me before. They do an awesome job at color matching. |
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