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$1237 for dent removal

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Insomniator

Diamond Member
So I have a ~baseball sized dent on the hood of my car that's been bugging me so I figured I'd finally go see if I can get it popped out.

Its an 04 mini cooper s, decent shape, entire car is worth MAYBE $2500.

This guy comes out, he's like might as well take out these little dents (~dime sized) too, plus I'd have to paint the entire hood for sure. Writes up a whole list of crap that I bring to the woman who calculates it out to $1237. 20 hours of work! LOL. Seriously, I would pay like $300 just for him to take a rubber mallet and pound out the dent a bit.

What planet are these people from? Am I not recognizing the great art that is body work? Do they think I'm gonna spend $1300 bucks to paint the hood of a 12 year old car because of one dent that is bothering me? I repeat, 20 hours.
 
Never take the 1st offer. Take it to another shop. If they charge more then you got a bargaining chip. They probably are redo-ing your car to perfection when you just want to get an eye sore out. If so call up a mobile Paintless Dent Repair.
 
Never take it to regular body shop for minor dents. PDR is the way to go. Especially on a car that doesn't need to be perfect.
 
Insomniator said:
So I have a ~baseball sized dent on the hood of my car that's been bugging me so I figured I'd finally go see if I can get it popped out.

Its an 04 mini cooper s, decent shape, entire car is worth MAYBE $2500.

This guy comes out, he's like might as well take out these little dents (~dime sized) too, plus I'd have to paint the entire hood for sure. Writes up a whole list of crap that I bring to the woman who calculates it out to $1237. 20 hours of work! LOL. Seriously, I would pay like $300 just for him to take a rubber mallet and pound out the dent a bit.

What planet are these people from? Am I not recognizing the great art that is body work? Do they think I'm gonna spend $1300 bucks to paint the hood of a 12 year old car because of one dent that is bothering me? I repeat, 20 hours.
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The problem with hoods is that it isn't as simple as just pounding on it with a hammer from the other side. Your hood isn't just a flat piece of metal, there are structural elements welded to the underside of the hood along with sound deadening material and heat shields.

Might be cheaper to just find a used hood in the color of your car at a junk yard and bolt it on. Or paintless dent removal.
 
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jlee said:
That would not surprise me at all.

(Quality) body work takes a long time and is an art. It's not as easy as pounding out dents and calling it done.
Click to expand...

I did some body work many years back, and painted the car as well. It was actually pretty easy. When I traded the car in a couple years later the dealer asked me who painted it, when I told him I did it he flat out said "no you didn't".
If you take your time, it's not all that hard to get pretty good results.
 
I drive a 22 year old Nissan with 365,000 miles on it. I think it's worth about $500-1000.

Every time I take it in to the dealer for an oil change, they come back with about $4000 worth of repairs that they recommend.

I'm sure there's always some sucker that will take them up on it and that's why they keep doing it.
 
I'd search out an experienced independent dent repair specialist. I went with an online recommendation and had an awesome job done on a couple of dents (one very noticeable dent) and it was perfectly rectified at a very reasonable price.
 
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