Can I repair car damage myself ? If so.. any ideas of best way?

Question

Someone borrowed my car (2002 VW Golf) last night.

They went to a small sports hall in our town which has an "awkward" car park at the back. A twisting run of narrow road, leading to a turn.. with concrete posts on either side and just 3 inches of clearance for your car to fit through. Also its very dark there at night with no lighting.

On her way home she went in to the space between the posts, and turned out, but misjudged it a little. So dark so she couldn't see anything in her wingmirrors behind her to judge the turn and she scraped the back passenger side arch down one of the concrete posts. Its taken big sections of the paint off down the arch. :(

http://www.stormkrewsaders.com/louise_car_golf1.jpg
http://www.stormkrewsaders.com/louise_car_golf1.jpg

I think Body Shops cost alot as they remove and do the whole wing.

Would anyone know if its possible for a person to make a decent DIY repair for this kind of damage ? And if so.. any ideas of the best way to go about it?

http://www.stormkrewsaders.com/louise_car_golf2.jpg

Answer 1

It would be better to get some one to do this as they will fill the scratches,prime it and respray the wheel arch with the correct colour paint depending on the age of the car and how faded the paint is.They can then buff in the edges of the new paint so you don't see any difference.If you try and do this your self you will see the masking line of the new paint plus you have to get a good paint match, as for removing a panel for this,as its unnecessary with so little damage well its only a minor scratching.On a different note i don't know if they do a stainless steel wheel arch covers to fit your car there,i have seen this in many country's,that would save you a lot of time and just fit them on all arches.

Answer 2

Damage only appears to be on the surface. if there's no dents to the paintwork, then its a relatively easy repair.
Are you sure the white scratches are paint off your car and not paint from the post that was scraped, if it is you may be lucky enough to get it off with some cutting agent like Tcut..

If not, your going to need to mask off the area around the wheel arch, preferably taking the time to perfectly align it round the raise in the panel. sand it down using various grades of paper till very fine, then prime, resand with wetpaper then spray with the right colour a few times, then spray again with lacquer.
If you take your time, you can get a very good finish with this as its only the raised arch so the slight discolouration between the old paint and the new paint will be barely noticeable.

However as its just the arch that's damaged, it may be cheaper to go to a body shop. Once you take into account the time it'll take you to try and fix if you don't know what your doing, and the cost of the grades of paper, the primer, the colour matched spray and the lacquer . It may be more cost effective to just let a professional do it.

Answer 3

The repair cost shouldn't be too bad from what I can judge by the photo. Is it just the paint or is there body damage also? If it's just a paint scrape, you may be able to rub off some of the white paint on it.

If there is body damage, then you can use body filler and sand it down smooth yourself. As for painting, to get it to look right again, you may need to see a body shop and have them do the paint. You may be able but you will have to buy a paint spray gun to do it and get an air compressor.

Since they borrowed your car, they should be responsible for the damage. At least that's the way we did it, if we damaged another guy's car, some years ago.

Answer 4

The damage look very minor, but, if you have no experience, you couldn't even do a half decent DIY job. If the person is not that concerned, it could wait a while, but i suggest having it fixed before it starts to rust and gets under the pain on the fender. Hope this helps, good luck.

The reason a body shop may remove an entire section is because it may well be cheaper. Its alot more time consuming to repair small damage than large damage, because the easiest way to go is to just swap, that way they keep work coming in and going out fast enough and still make money.

Answer 5

well i can tell you $1600 sounds pretty cheap to get a new fender, and a bumper, tC's are newer cars, your getting those parts from the dealer, by the time you buy those parts, and put them on, then take the car to get it painted, you'll probably spend more than $1600, just too paint those two parts it will probably cost around $300.. i do a lot of my own work, but you should call the dealer and find out the cost of those parts first, and find out how much just a paint job would be

Answer 6

you might not want to attempt to do it yourself,it could come out looking worse than it does now.to repair that damage from what i can see it would take about 6 labor hours,and then some 4 hours paint,then some paint and materials so it would cost about $500.00 to repair that in a shop,leave it to the pros, get an estimate then deside.

Answer 7

If you are a real handy man and have all those equipments and know how,other wise forget it,because you can never make it looks as before the damage.report to the insurance co.just pay the deduction.

Answer 8

take it to a body shop because if you come to sell it a diy repair will stick out like a sore thumb

Answer 9

getting it done pro will be £150 2 max if you talk to them nice if you get me meaning. its not that bad easy to repair yes you could do it your self but macthing the paint and trying to get it to look nice will be a nigthmare unless you experienced.

Answer 10

whats the good ol saying "never let a woman drive"... sorry mate self inflicted... now you gotta pay someone else to set it right... dont do it yourself,,, only make the matter worse