Since I've never had to get any body work done on my vehicles before, I could use some expert advice from you guys...

I have a little bit of damage to my front fender, just behind the wheel, almost on the underbody of the car. It's not terribly obvious, but it's a stain on my soul (Out, out damn spot!)...every time I look at the car all I can see is the blemish. Well I finally sucked it up and took it to a reputable body shop for an estimate. Needless to say, their estimate was way high, but it doesn't bother me b/c I knew it'd be higher than my insurance deductible. What DOES bother me is that they've never done any body work on an S2000 before. Is there anything about the structure/material of our body panels that might cause some trouble? Is New Formula Red difficult to match? Should I try and find a joint that's worked on these cars before? I a bit worried that I'm going to get the car back and the fender panel won't match the rest of the car....

By the way, it appears that they are going to take the entire front quarter panel off the car, b/c they were talking about removing the S2000 emblem, side marker, etc. to do the work...even though the damage is at the very bottom only, where the panel is bolted to the frame. Is this standard practice, or am I getting the shaft??

 

I believe they are doing the right thing. First, you want the panel to look good. If the problem can't be dealt with with paintless dent repair, then a body/paint shop is the only option. They need to repaint the whole panel, and they might decide to 'blend' into an adjoining panel so the color will appear the same, and not different from panel to panel. It's just I have had so many 'panels' done on different cars, I think this is standard procedure for even high end paint repair places.

If the shop has a good reputation, a proper painting enclosure, etc., it shouldn't matter that they have not repaired an S2000 before.

Hope everything woks out and that someone expert in painting can also reply to you as well.

 

I don't care what the bodyshop tells you ... every price is negotiable. Make sure they do professional work and look around for the best deal and negotiate. Good luck.