Night Time Smash and Run

[Volk81]

Hi Guy

I went to pump my tires up this morning and noticed a nice dent left in the front drivers side panel. It is a sizeable dent and they also managed to leave some paint behind. So it was a white car. The funny thing is all white cars where parked around me this moring when i left. My car is parked on a side street. So cant really blame anyone.

Any way anyone know how much this might cost me. i think the panel will need to be replaced. can i pick up a new panel from somewhere or is it better to just get it done through insurance my excess is about $500.

[Corey_R]

A guy in the Tiguan forum was asking this same thing yesterday.

If the door can be reskinned, then you can replace just that panel. (Unless you mean the front quarter panel... i.e. the panel with the wheel in it). On the Tiguan the doors cannot easily be reskinned, so they'll need to replace the entire door. Then if you have a metallic or pearl painted car, they'll more than likely respray the entire side of the car so that the "metallic" matches. If you have a solid colour car, then they can respray just a single panel or even section of a panel without issues.

In other words... it can end up being a several thousand $ job, and therefore better to just pay the $500 excess.

[Volk81]

Hi Corey its the panel above the wheel. The car is black.

[Corey_R]

Solid black or metallic/pearl black? (My Polo history beyond the GTI isn't that great).

[Volk81]

its a GTI and its solid black (Im pretty sure)

[Corey_R]

Nah - I'm sure that in Australia the only black the Polo GTI came in was Black Magic Pearl Effect. You're likely going to need the entire side of the car resprayed...

[Volk81]

Thanks Corey.


so not the news i wanted guess ill call the insurance company.

[Fishoross]

Sorry to hear about your bad luck. I had a similar thing with my R32 a couple of years ago, Both door skins scraped down one side - $3500 later etc etc

[kangfu]

Consider yourself lucky it wasnt a bunch of drunk hooligans who did more damage. I have a Peugeot 205 GTi track car parked undercover outside my house (with a car cover on it) that was broken into recently by drunk neighbourhood kids.

Broken windows, ripped interior, kicked in door panel and a myriad of other things.

Neighbours truck was broken into as well.

[Volk81]

That is true guys. I guess it could have been alot worse.


Ill have to put the chipping off now till i get this fixed.

[Corey_R]

Heh... don't you hate that though... someone else had worse so you're LUCKY that you've only got one smashed panel....
I don't know, but I still think it's unlucky, annoying, and a major waste of time and money...

[Pommie]

If it's only the front wing, then you will only need to paint that and blow it in through the door to match the colour. Depending on who you take it to the may need to blend it across the bonnet if they can't match the paint properly. I would always just do the wing and door. as for the cost - if the panel needs replacing it would depend on how much a new one would cost, but it takes around 2 hours to remove the old one and fit a new one. plus around 3 hours for paint. All up you'd probably be best of paying the excess unless you can get a mate to do it properly on the cheap...

[Rob Burns]

Couldn't you just find a panel that's the same colour through a wrecker and bolt that on?

[Pommie]

You could if you can find one but there is still no guarantee it will match 100%. You'd be surprised by the mass of variations at the factory although VW would be better than most I'd imagine - I know the quality of paint is far superior to say Ford or GMH as I used to spray them all and have been to the factories to see them getting built (UK). But if the panel is trashed, then finding a secondhand one may be a cheap alternative. Good luck...

[Volk81]

Good options there.

It is just above the front drivers side wheel and also a bit of the bumper.

When standing front on it doesnt look to bad. But when you look from an angle you can see how pushed in it is.

Ill have look around and see what i can find.