BODYWORK DAMAGE !

[lagonda]

Hi all,its been a while but i would like some advice! 3 weeks ago some hoody sh1ts etc let off huge firework rockets at a Golf course near me! I heard big bangs over my house then a wallop! I look out the window and see a huge dent in my roof! First of all went around to main road to see if could see anything or catch the barstewards letting off fireworks! They ,who ever they were seemed to have dissapeared! Phoned police to get a crime number for Insurance reasons and also so its was on record due to any problems in advance! next morning Police turn up,knew they would do funk all though a crime number would be helpfull for Insurnace reasons! Why ...just changed after 2 years literally to a new one ! This could be more of a hassle as they have hardly had any money out of me while morethan had 2 years and no claims off me! Anyways...weet to see how much it may cost to repair at Renault london without claiming and paying myself:roll: Shocked to hear that roof damege is the worse place on a Megane and was looking like £1k to fix! prtotector shield or something ?

Know to my Question...is it worth fixing a small dent on my roof for that ££££! I would lose 2 years no claims and next years premium will surely be a 100% rise and taking into account the trade value and what i could have got in pristine looks before this on Private sale...is it worth it!

Is anyone here a bodywork specialist ? Is the roof the hardest to fix? I assumed he was giving me aload of a gab to gain work! By the way this was London Renault on the A40!

I have to pay the excess but also was told my new insurnace company only pays £400 out for any bodywork damage unless a writeoff sort of accident!

So ,does anyone know if the gab talk is true from Renault of roof repairs!

reagrds and look forward to any responses!

[morganjake1544]

A photo or an idea of the size and location of the damage would be useful. Also, how old is the car, what is it worth?

It may be worth fixing on a '08' plate, say, but not on a '52' plate worth £1000.

Have you had an independent bodyshop look at it? Most of the cost would be labour and an independent would have much lower hourly rates than a Renault Dealer.

[ikhan]

I feel for you mate - really do.

As said, a pic of the damage and it might not be all that bad. However, if you do decide to get it done privately, this will still affect your premium - I know because it happened to me with MoreThan. I only reported it for insurance purposes, but know better not to now.

I'm not sure how much damage a firework can do (if any) so are your sure it wasn't malicious / vandalism? Again a pic would be useful but hopefully the dent could be pulled out and the roof painted at a significantly less cost at an independent.

[lagonda]

Thanks for taking the time of interest for those who replied! I will try to provide a picture! The car is Black which apparently is the worse colour to repair ! Also its a 2007 plate and has only done 17k mileage! Its a spare car and got a VERY good deal on it back in 2009 and thats why i aquired it,actually it was a song! Looking at values at Cargiant and say Autotrader ,trade 4k /private before damage 5.5k maybe even 6k due to such LOW mileage and such a well kept car! It really always looks like its just left the showroom until NOW!

The car damage is left hand side towards back rear window near the edge! Dent is a PERFECT circle circumference of 1.5 inches and impact slope down towards it>> aka the buckle of the metal work! 1/4 sq ft overall slope damage included i suppose from an angle! I am really suprised how a rocket could do this..Gravity i suppose or indeed VERY thin metal work on roof! Yes... i am also thinking of aquiring more independent QUOTES...BUT Bloke at Renault told me of the difficulty of this job being a roof panel and all the safety that is under the roof which renault is big on...mentioned a safety curtain I know its got Airbags but warned me that alot of insurers try to send work out to cheaper independent bodyshops and do not correctly sort things out...especially where paint is Black and where Airbags are involed Did not even think there was one in the Pillars or edging of the roof linning?

Anyone know more on this or is this just "Gift of the gab"??? Tried to find out tech on line ..ie like tech drawings to see the proof..still researching this!

regards.

[lagonda]

Oh someone mentioned,did i know it was a firework! Well yes still got the firework which was on the roof i found and Police inspected it!

[morganjake1544]

My thoughts.

Colour. Some colours are more difficult to match than others, I think Silver is probably the worst. Is that your problem? No. Should you be charged a premium because you own a Black car? No. What is the guy implying, that it might take him several attempts to get it right so you have to pay for his failures? Rubbish.

Airbags. Yes your car has a curtain airbag which fires in the event of a SEVERE side impact. Does this have a cost implication to you? I don't see why it should. The dent sounds like it could be pulled out from the outside then filled and painted. If he wanted to push the dent out from the inside he would have to remove the roof lining and some interior trim for access and may need to disable the airbag whilst working near it. That would seem to be the longer (and more expensive) option but it is still not rocket science, doesn't take that long and should not cost £1000.

Paint. Have you asked how much he is going to paint? Does he intend to paint the local area of the damage and blend it in or is he proposing to paint the whole roof?

When I worked at a Renault dealership we often had to send p/x cars to the local bodyshop (we didn't have our own) for panel work before prepping them for sale. A rough rule of thumb when giving a part exchange value was to allow £200 per damaged panel (wing, door, bonnet, etc) for repair and paint. In 6 years I think I had to send two back to be redone because I was unhappy with the colour match. Obviously redone at no extra cost.

It's over 4 years since I left the motor trade but I'd be surprised if ends up costing £400 from an independent bodyshop.

Let us know how you get on.

[peter h]

another option is to ring a dent removal service... they come to your house with a high suction vaccum and pretty much suck the dent back into shame.

probably cheapest and best option

[ikhan]

Agree with morganjake that ilver is probably the most hardest colour to match (and pearlescent painst which have to be applied in a certain direction, otherwise the colour-change effect is wrong).

The guy I use has got this impressive device that looks a bit like a gun and it attaches itself to metal (after the damaged area has been rubbed down to bare metal), and you pull it off which in turn pulls the dent out this the bond breaks. It's sort of like a spot weld but without the mess, and is somewhat more precise as you can pull any remaining small dents out with it too and pull the dent in any given direction (within reason).

I think its possible the whole roof might need respraying but being a corner you could possibly get away with blending it into the rest of the roof - depends on the colour match and how precise you want it to be (and of course how much you want to spend).

On another note, if its just a dent without any creases, maybe you can try the youtube metho I came across. I've never tried it myself so not sure if it will work or not, but basically you heat the dented area up with a hairdryer till it gets quite hot, and then use a air duster upside down immediately on th same area which cools it and brings the dent up. Again, I've never tried it, but they make it look so easy!

[lagonda]

Hi its been a while since i visited the forum,so happy 2013,bit late! Anyways the headsup!

Due to financial reasons i have sat on the dent issue till now as wandering wether it was really worth the hassle for little return in a resale etc. At the mo,still have the car & this year i should sell it in May before i loose too much on the resale value as it will be 5 years old with not even 20k on the clock! It will be a bargain for someone and i have come across an independent bodyshop in Wiltshire that can do a good quick make over job as its only small for a little amount compared to the OBSCENE amounts Renault and other bodyshops wanted for a 10 pence size dent!


It just needs filling,re-skimming and painting and no one would no the wiser! Renault what a laugh a 1K and roof off job for that,joke & milking the insurance company & myself for the work carried out! Well they loose out on that one i am afraid,not impressed at all with the tricks of the trade con! So hopefully by March i'll get that done for a few quid the sell on for a good price privately in May time when hopefully people would have recovered abit financially from XMAS,
me HOPEING! As i am not going to give it a way....want a good 5k for such a car in good condition with all the xtras.

Lastly i noticed Renault London must be in real trouble as their PREMIER flagship retail floorcourt sale centre is now half occupied by Nissan and1/4 by Dacia! I know in France that Renault is in deep crisis as they need to RADICALLY scale back the business,smaller economies of scale needed and the French Gov will not let them do it as they own part of Renault! Having a very Socialist Gov in place must be giving Renault finance people a very big headache indeed!