Car body work advice

[SaneAdam]

Ok, so, to cut a long story short, some idiot (my mate) has reversed into the drivers side of my Subaru Outback (2010, 2.5 SE Nav plus) in his Nissan Navarra and gone down the side of it.

It has totally wrecked the driver and passenger door skins. From what my untrained eye can see…. the damage is only to the door skins. The door moulds themselves LOOK ok. The damage is to the lower part of the doors so it doesn't appear to have affected any of the internal fixings and panels of the door.

Thing is… he has reversed into it not realising it was there. So i think he has hit it fairly hard. The saving grace (i think) is that we were parked on a wet muddy field. So, he has pushed it to the side about 6 inches, i can see from looking in the tracks in the mud and its clearly visible where the car has slid to the side. I am hoping this means that because it slid on the incredibly sloppy mud some of the impact will have been less than if it was rooted on concrete.

I am just praying that there is no serious damage to any pillars or whatever they are called. The Outback is reputably fairly robust frame wise. But not much would do well against a Navara reversing into it. I just hope it is just the door skins that need replacing. But it might have totally warped the door moulds themselves, or perhaps worse. I have no idea of the possibilities.

I guess i am just asking for advice from anyone with experience with Auto body work to tell me what i could be looking at repair wise… or rather… what my mate will be looking at cost wise :) I realise that is very difficult without actually looking at the damage. But I'm just wondering if someone that knows cars would know if it its likely to have twisted or bent anything that isn't easily repairable. As i say it doesn't appear to have, but could there be a lot of hidden damage?

I appreciate any advice anyone has. But i suppose the only thing i can do is take it a few places and get some quotes. God knows where i would take it though. Would i be charged for taking my car in and asking how much to fix that? Would it be best to ring a few places and just ask them what is the best thing to do?

[james_2k]

technically it doesn't have a frame (in the traditional sense), but is a unibody design. if they get bent you can have issues even if repaired fairly well. tracking, suspension geometry etc.

hopefully its ok but it could have bent something, even slightly, which could cause issues later.

get a professional to look at it, would be my advice (i know, duh)

some boring reading: [url=http://www.web2carz.com/autos/car-tech/2332/body-on-frame-vs-unibody-construction]Body-on-Frame vs. Unibody Construction | Web2Carz[/url]

[SaneAdam]

[QUOTE=james_2k;1161600]

hopefully its ok but it could have bent something, even slightly, which could cause issues later.


[/QUOTE]

Issues that will be fixable though?! if correctly identified and repaired? Or could it quite easily be written off if something is twisted?

[james_2k]

for it to be written off it would have to be measurably bent id imagine.

im on a jeep forum in the us and they are always banging on about unibody vs a frame type deal. they say if you even just tweak the unibody it can really mess up the car, general drivability and safety.

im no where near any kind of expert on this though. but with a potential heavy impact like this, you certainly need it checked out.

bear in mind most cars today in the uk are unibody, they get repaired all the time. im fairly sure its fine, just get it checked out and fixed (by a reputable place). but when it is fixed, make sure it drives like it did before the impact.

[SaneAdam]

[QUOTE=james_2k;1161607]

they say if you even just tweak the unibody it can really mess up the car, general drivability and safety.

[/QUOTE]

Well it has defo been tweaked i would say, to move it half a foot even along wet mud he must have hit it hard. It didn't witness the incident. He came sheepishly looking for me…. if he has killed my car i will twist his head off the carless absent minded ****. To be fair he was incredibly apologetic and suitably understanding of my…. annoyance. He said whatever it is he will pay…. Now to find a decent body shop that is not going to charge £120 an hour labour and tell me things are damaged which are not.

[james_2k]

good luck!

[Rachel]

First sorry for your bad luck, now generally speaking door skins on modern cars are not replaceable, even if the frame of the door is OK, most have built in impact protection bars which also bend in an impact.
As for frame, we call it pillar damage, it's possible but usually easy to see, creasing of the Big pillar, that's the one between the two doors is the most likely.
It's quite hard to give an accurate prognosis without seeing it but, sadly doors are not cheap!
Not entirely sure of this exact situation but if it's not covered by your or your exfriends insurance then second hand doors would be the way to go.
Good luck and hope you get it sorted.

[SaneAdam]

[QUOTE=Rachel;1161619]
Not entirely sure of this exact situation but if it's not covered by your or your exfriends insurance then second hand doors would be the way to go.
Good luck and hope you get it sorted.[/QUOTE]

No need for an insurance claim… he is paying cash. It would be covered. But i don't see the point if he is prepared to pay whatever it costs.

Well the door skins £168 per door from the research i have just done… which is peanuts, plus £40 for the moulds so thats not too bad if it just needs 2 door skins. It would appear they are fairly easy to replace on the Outback as they effectively glue on rather than lots of crimping and heating

So £400 parts is ok if thats all it turns out to be… i told him i thought he would be looking at £1500 for the repairs which he was ok with.

(… plus… second hand doors Rachel?????? :) lol )

[Red five]

Don't forget the repainting once the new skins are on.

[SaneAdam]

[QUOTE=Red five;1161627]Don't forget the repainting once the new skins are on.[/QUOTE]

Good point Bryan, thanks. That will certainly take it up well over a thousand i would think.

Im fairly happy as i have found what appears to be a decent place called Simon Greens in Horsforth which advertises very reasonable labour costs vs main dealer madness. I am going to drive down there to get an estimate.

[Gixxer]

Even if there's no damage to the B pillar, I'd be surprised if you get a quote under 2k.

[trexamanic]

The car will need to be completely tested by a main dealer. The expertise of the main dealer is definitely required. I think you will be in for a substanial bill for the work and you have raised a question. When you say it was on a wet muddy field, does that have an effect on whether insurance is valid? It is something that better be checked as they could say you are not covered.

If your friend is very wealthy and you trust him implicitly then he should be preparing himself for a large bill.

I strongly advise a quote from a main dealer as we are not talking a ford Ka here.
Good luck

[p4ddy]

If your car is parked on the street facing into the traffic & someone hits your car, yours or the third party's insurance company can refuse any pay out. Irrelevant info but just so everyone knows. And if it was a private field then your probably screwed unless as said he's made of money.

[DaveG]

Adam,

Sucks to hear about this buddy, any autobody repairers will supply free of charge quotes for repairs. Well, any good ones will anyway. I would take it to a few and multiple quotes and if they are all about the same price go for one which suits you. They should be able to inspect them from inside to see of the damage and give very close accurate quotes for the work needed. If the internal panels are easily removed then you can take them off yourself and reduce any chance of being charged any labour for inspecting and quoting, which should'nt happen anyway.

[SaneAdam]

[QUOTE=p4ddy;1161658] And if it was a private field then your probably screwed unless as said he's made of money.[/QUOTE]

Luckily…. he is :) literally made of money. No insurance necessary at all. No need to involve insurance in this instance. So no point anyone wondering if it is covered or not. It is covered by cold hard cash :)

It is not worth it to him not to pay. I have watched him spend 10k in one night on drinks (not all for him lol)…. so yeh… he can afford it all right lol :)

Maybe if he had as much sense as he has money he wouldn't keep crashing into things. Lucky for him