(I know this is for my Civic, but SL doesn't have a body section)
The previous owner took it to a cheap shop, and they didn't prep it properly. Now, the bondo is chipping in two areas, and it looks like ****. I was wondering how much it would be to just repair the bondo. I'm assuming (since all of it is beginning to spider web) would be to strip off all of the old product, and repaint the panel. Judging from how the inside of the panel looks, it shouldn't have any dimples/waves/dings, so I don't think it would need a new layer of bondo. Here are some pics:

One year ago:


Now:






Far away:


I know theres a dent there, but I don't see the point of paying $1000 to fix the entire panel, when the car is only worth $3000. Rough estimates are welcome. Thanks guys!

 

if your gonna have it repaired, you might as well just find a civic at the junkyard, cut out that part with a sawzall then weld it in and have the body work done.

sure it will cost a little more, but itll look way better

 

x2 on that,if not take down the damaged paint a good 5-6" around it to ensure blending, and yes some filler or spot putty will probably need to be used

 

i'm not completely sure what i want to do yet.
how much would a shop charge to fill/paint it?

 

prices change state to state, but a buddy had a quarter replaced and painted on a neon and it ran him 1000, but that was a full replacement

 

man you can do that fix yourself, bondo at autozone is less than $10.00. i fixed a dent this weekend in my fender, filled it in where i pop the dent out at an smooth it down with sandpaper an tried to get it as close as possible to factory as possible. primed it after that an now its ready for paint. but now since i did tha i might just make all my fenders rolled or flared.

 

If you're going to have a shop do it, I'd look into a place like Macco(sp) or something because if it's only worth $3k, you don't want to throw that at it just to fix a small section. But if you're hands on, I'd go with trackedtc's idea, if not, then pick your poison from above.

 

It's 1k if I bring a shop my own quarter panel and have them weld it in etc etc. Another suggestion I got was to hit the dent as far out as possible, then fill it again with a thinner layer of filler. But the thing is, I'm 99% sure that theres a small area that was pushed forward, so there's a crease more or less:


I don't know if this is possible or not, but would a shop be able to just... not touch the dent at all, and just fix the patch of bondo that's missing? I'm fine with the dent being there, I just want the missing bondo patches gone.

 

Macco actually has decent paint jobs IF you get the right one and IF you do the prep work yourself.

Ive also heard that it varies from Macco to Macco though

 

take off the interior panel and try putting a deflated football or basketball in there and inflating it to see if you can pop it out any more.

 

^ I know I can get the dent out more, but I haven't pushed it any further than I hate, to avoid cracking more of the bondo for the time being. I'll get a few more pictures up in a sec.

 

Tried to get a few different angles:

 

something like what you have for one patch area would be $30-$40 around my area for airbrushing. find someone local to you who does "on the go" airbrushing. some dealerships may have a guy that does all their touch-ups on their inventory and used cars. that would be a good place to start looking if you want the airbrushing to look professional.

 

I don't think we have those in Cali

 

it looks to me like the shop just filled that dent with bondo, without even pushing/pulling the dent out. That would be why the bondo is cracking because it was layed on too thick, which would lead the paint to come off. My advice to you is not to worry about cracking more of the bondo as it is cheap, take the trim off of the interior of your car and push the dent out as much as you can. dont worry about pushing it out too much because you can always hammer it back in. Bondo should not be used on a panel of a car where it is any thicker than 1/8"-1/4" so i would recommend either doing the bondo/ prep work yourself or taking it to a better shop where they will actually do the sheet metal work before slapping a bunch of fiber glass/ bondo onto the car. I agree with a couple of these guys, maaco is decent but you gotta have it prepped before you take it.

 

oh, and if the bondo is already cracked... it needs to be removed anyway

 

No. From how it was explained to me, the car was repaired, and was hit in a parking lot, which caused the dent. The silver where the bondo is missing is just touch up paint.

 

Oh ok I got ya, well either way if the bondo is cracking it needs to be taken off and re-applied so you may as well try to get more of that dent out

 

Regardless of the cars history, paint shouldnt just start chipping like that, that means that something somewhere along the line was done wrong.

Your best bet is to save up money and get it done right the first time.

 

But the thing is, I don't know if I was to dump the extra $1000 to fix it, because when it becomes time to resell, it's only going to add up to $300 to the cars value. Would a shop be able to just fix the bondo only? Not fill in the dent etc etc, but JUST the bondo itself?