RRRoamer

This sucks. I was at chuch this morning in my home town. We stayed late chatting with everyone I haven't seen in a long time and finally decided to head out. My brother and I was just coming out of the building and my car was parked directly across from us about 50 feet way.

And I got to see someone back their minivan into the drivers door of my car! At fist, I wasn't 100% sure they actually hit me. I THOUGHT I had heard something, but I wasn't sure. The couple in the van pulled up a few few feet and got out (bad sign...)

When we got to the car, at first I STILL wasn't 100% sure it had been hit until I saw the very light scrub (not even a scrap really) about 6" tall and 4" wide on the center of the door. Very light and didn't even go through the clear coat. I got lucky I thought.

Then I noticed the slight scrubbed spot on the very edge of my mirror (the plastic housing, not the glass!). Just a scuff mark. Still off easy! I've been wanting to paint the mirrors anyway...

Then we noticed the small (1" diameter or so) dent right below the lower "accent line" (that sharp crease that forms the bottom of the "duct". There was an even smaller dent just above that accent line as well. The crease LOOKS straight, but I have a feeling it is NOT straight. I need to take a good straight edge to it in the morning to verify it.

I'm not sure if it is a bright side or not, but the gentleman that backed into my car is a family friend that I have known well over half my life. He felt terrible about it and his wife was giving him a very hard time about hitting the nicest car in the lot... I know he can and will make it right, even if that means replacing the door, so that is nice.

The amazing this is how much damage that mirror did to his van! My mirror hit the side of his van right at the curve were the side rolls around to turn to the back and it was also curved vertically following the body lines. That mirror creased the crap out of his van! And it was all steel there, no plastic! About 4" tall (the full height of the mirror) and about 6" long. In one place, it is creased in about 3/8". After a saw the damage to his van, I double checked with him that this was new damage and I didn't just get "lucky" and hit him in a place with old damge. It was new and caused solely by my mirror.

Even after a VERY through inspection of the mirror, everything appears to be in 100% working order other than that very light scuff on the outside edge of my mirror. Heck, it didn't even knock it out of alignment, if you can believe that! I DID run it all the way up, down, left and right just to be SURE everthing was happy and it still worked perfectly. The mirror itself is still perfect as well.

I am going to do a bit of research this weekend and find some good body shops in town. I am not going to allow one DROP of bondo on my car! If they can't hammer and dolly it out (It REALLY looks like they can pop both dents out very easily from the inside of the door IF that body line isn't creased! The paint isn't cracked at all or even scratched that I can see) to were primer and sanding filler can't take care of it, I will get a new door installed. And I am going to double check the work before any primer goes on to make sure they didn't say to heck with it and pull out the bondo! That's going to be in writing as well...

On the "bright" side of all this, I will probably use this as an "opportunity" to paint my mirrors body color....

wild stray

Sorry to hear he hit you. I cringe every time I see someone backing toward my car. Hope you get it fixed soon with no problems. Good luck to you!


Paul

mffarrell

I feel for you. I bought a new Porsche last year for about $85K, and my car was hit at the dealer parking lot while I was signing the contract.

BigDog

I got my first scuff last week, and it's myown darn fault! :bang: Backed into a column at the parking garage at work!

Just scuffed the paint a bit, and I'm probably the only one that'll even notice it, but still... :bang: :bang: :bang:

jcopin

you should have gotten all wayne brady on his hiney!

RRRoamer

jcopin,

Not worth it. Accidents happen. If he had done it on purpose, then THAT would be a different matter. The car will be fixed up as good as new (better even as I am going to get the mirrors painted while it is the shop). The damage didn't hurt the functionality of the car one bit as worse case involves just replacing the door.

wilsonchristian

Yeah, Wayne Brady is not known to be too violent, but from time time time he has been known to choke a #$%&

Can you imagine? "Is this mustang owner gonna have to choke a ***?" Hahaha

I feel like doing that when somebody does a hit and run on me.

Dave Chapelle is the best.

-Christian

RRRoamer

I got a better look at the damage this evening. When I came home last night, I went through a major down pour that washed all the road grime my car had picked up on the way down to visit mom. The damage doesn't look too bad when you are standing next to the door.

But move behind the car about 15 feet and you can very clearly see the crease in the door from about 2" above the bottom of the door up abut 14" ending about 4" from the top of the door. Also, when I went around the door body lines very closely, I also found that the bottom back edge of the door was now about 1/8" further out than it should be. From the latch on up, the body line is still perfect. I'm about 99% convenced that the only way to fully fix this will be to replace the door.

The brite side of that is that they (not sure who "they" will be yet!) can order the door and get it fully preped before I bring my car in for the work. Then, it should be a VERY fast job of moving all my existing hardware to the new door and installing and aligning everything.

One question: can they order a new Ford door prepainted in my body color directly from Ford? That would make me SO much happier than them trying to paint match everything! Luckily, the paint is new enough that everything should age about the same. At least, I hope so....

Does anyone know of any good (make that GREAT!) body shops in the Albuquerque, New Mexico area?

94tbird

usually the target is on the rear bumper. his aim was a lil off

Boltzman

this is why I don't go to church

Mike McRann

I've got a few paint chips on my front bumper but that's all the damage since I got the car last December.

I have had a few close calls while driving last month though...
The first one I found out from another driver (I was on a cruise with a car club here in So CA). We were driving on the 101 heading toward Santa Barbara when someone driving in the other direction lost their surfboard and it flew over the divider apparantly over my car.

The second close call was when I was coming home from Malibu (another cruise with a club), I had just turned onto the onramp and started speeding up to merge into traffic when I saw a large cloud of dirt come up about 30 feet in front of my car. I slammed on the brakes and pulled over, and when the dirt cleared I had a Ford Explorer lying on it's roof after rolling several times from the traffic lanes coming to rest on the onramp.

I wasn't involved in the accident but I did stop to render aid to the injured parties (one person pinned in the truck, two others an infant and it's mother walking around on scene.)

After CHP, Sheriffs and LACoFD arrived on scene I went back to my car and sat their for a few minutes as I was a little shaken up.

lodom

Sorry to hear about your car. Good luck with getting it repaired to your satisfaction. Late arriving people at the church I go park in places they aren't supposed to, due to the limited available parking. This makes backing out of your spot a challenge.

RRRoamer

I got three quotes over the last couple of days. It looks like it will cost just under $2100 to repair it. And I will be out of my car for a week. That sucks!

Thankfully, I'm not the one that has to write the check.

The low ball quote in all this was only $1200 to repair the existing door. From talking to the ajuster, I quickly came to the conclusion that she did not have a freaking clue! There was no way I would leave my car at that shop overnight, let alone have them work on it.

The other two quotes were for door replacement (yes, OEM door!). Both of these adjusters actually sounded like they know what a car was... Both of the other quotes were within $30 of each other and they had almost all of the exact same items listed on the job as well as times and materials. I definitely felt much better with the other two places.

daveyramone

Berserker

After reading these forums for a bit, it's become clear that a cars worst enemy seems to be suvs backing up in parking lots. These guys go around backing into everyone.

skitch

Mine took a hit from someones little rug rat on a bicycle yesterday. Had the car parked for 10 minutes on a side street while I ran into the house. Busted the L/H tail light, scratched and gouged the plastic on the bumper. Made me sick to my stomach. I checked every bike I could find for red paint but the little %*&#@ was no where to be found. I had the car two months and 5 days. Oh, and I just put a fresh coat of wax on it that morning. There goes 250 bucks down the toilet. Excuse me while I go

RRRoamer

Sorry to hear that Skitch. I would be fuming if hey ran off.

On a brighter note, the check to cover my repairs showed up yesterday. Now, I just need to get ahold of the shop on Monday and have them order the parts.

skitch

I guess its better that I didn't catch them. Would be hard to enjoy the stange from jail

packhater

I wouldn't paint the mirrors. I've heard that over time, because it's plastic, the paint will chip. Can anyone else back me up on that?

Boltzman

If the mirrors are sanded properly this should not be an issue.The black by itself just doesn't look right IMO :notnice:
P.S.Many of the mustangs parts are painted that are plastic