Hi all,
This is my first post to the forum. I own a 2007 scion tC. I parked my car roadside in CT (I am from RI) and went to a resturant, When I came back, my car had a scratches and dent on the driverside fender. I called my insurance and they say it comes under collision (even though uninsured motorist insurance covers the case when the actual motorist who hit the car is not identified, my insurance agent (gieco) says that in RI, the law says the "hit and run" comes under collision coverage, since i dont know who hit my car). The problem is the deductible is $1000 and i cant spend so much on this now. Can you guys give me some suggestion. Is there any cheap work up to fix it? Can i buy the part and assemble it myself? Can i cover the scratch with some factory paints without going thro body shop? Please help guys, I hate to see my car with a dent.


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your links dont work, what color is you car, im sure some one here has extra stock fenders that they would be willing to sell you

 

I have posted the pictures again. The car is metallic silver.

Thanks

 

i literally dont understand how someone could do such a thing.... you bash someone elses car and just keep driving....


i have been in this situation and i have never been so ____ed off in my life. Im sorry to hear about your incident, but it doesnt look too bad....it could have been ALOT worse...

any witnesses or anything like that? cameras or anything?

i know you said you cant do 1000 bucks right now, but save and get it done right, cheap work almost always isnt real good work

my and almost everyone elses rule of thumb round here:

you get what you pay for, right guys? (and girls :D )

did you want to kill someone when it happened? sometimes i thank god i didnt see it happen and didnt have a weapon because i prolly would be gettin my salad tossed in the slamma

 

heres what you should do: just touch up the spots that have bare metal exposed with any silver paint to prevent rust and wait until you can afford to get it fixed and yes like jiggaman said look to see if there were any cameras nearby that could have caught this, most places will let you look htrough their footage, good luck!

 

I am not a body shop guy and i dont think it would even be over a $1000, mabey around 900 max including a new fender (from sparks for $165.33). But as i stated above i am not a body shop guy. And make sure you take it to a GOOD body shop, or something like this might happen, original $1800, total damage by shop $4200
https://www.scionlife.com/forums/vie...543&highlight=

I used http://www.instantestimator.com/index.html for a quick estimate and was like $764 w/o a new fender

 

dont claim it... you can fix it for the amount of ur deductable. and if you pay out of pocket, your insurance wont go up

 

Thanks guys for the replies. Yes I was very mad when I saw that someone hit the car and fled the scene. I called the cops and the cop said the chances of catching the person who did this is zero. What I dont understand is why uninsured motorist wont cover "hit and run" in RI atleast. This is so unfair, why am i paying so much when someone hit my car.

I had to report it because I didnt know this would go under collision (gieco website says this is covered under uninsured motorist but the agent says RI law says this is collision if the person who hit the car is not identified). But my rates wont go up coz its not my fault but I still end up with huge bill for no fault of mine. Also the car was parked in CT, so the law is dictated by where the accident happened or where the car was registered?

I think I will fix the scratch and wait for sometime to fix the fender. But can I buy a fender and install it? Is it hard? Is it not worth a try since it would save $400 or so? Can you guys recommend some paint to fix scratch (OEM that will have good finish)?

I also checked, there are no cameras there... my bad luck.

Thanks again.

 

Hi all,

I got a quote from 3 different body shops - $1600, $1800 and $1000. The $1000 is a small time body shop. I cant believe a small fender on the side of the car would cost upto 10% of the car cost.

I think I would like to paint the scartch to prevent rust and wait for sometime.

 

yup...

hmm thats a bit much for slight dent removal and paint. search around more for more shops... 1k is good enough, but do u trust that shop?

 

hmmm
i'm picturing more around $800 atleast
the fender needs to be repainted, clear coated, then the side of the bumper needs to be repainted, and blended with the resr of the bumper. They also have to check for chasis fatigue or bends

$1000 sounds about right, but $1800?

damn!