Hey there, my car was recently backed into causing a nice series of dents in my rear drivers side quarter panel. question is, should i just have the body shop pull the dent as best as they can and add bondo, or get a new quarter put on. cost is not a concern, its being covered by their insurance, its also at my friends shop. Im just wondering what is better for the car.

thanks .

 

bondo is not meant to fit in dent, cover holes or anything that carry a structural load.

one simple rules, if it's anything over 3/8 of an inch, you are asking for future problem with body filler.
without picture, no one can answer your question, a 5mm dent is a dent so is a 5 inch push in from a SUV

 

Consider that the rear quarter panels are part of the chassis and have to be cut to remove them.

 

umm fiberglass filler

- bondo is heavy and can crack (but if dents arent too deep thats the cheapest way to go!)

DO NOT GET A NEW QUARTER (cost far more then u think

 

^^ Insurance is covering it so price doesn't matter he said. I had a dent/scrap on the rear quarter panel right by the wheel area. I had the shop replace the wwhole quarter panel. Looks like brand new and no worries about bondo cracking later on or anything.

 

In that case go for gold man - personally i wud want to pocket some of that money especially with this economy (everything so expensive... gas. etc.. lol)

for example some guy hit me last year (rear bumper), I had the veilside body kit... I took an estimate from honda and they replaced the oem bumper with veilside millennium rear bumper and gave me an estimate for replacement - I faxed it over to the other parties insurance company they sent me a nice fat check - what you do with that money is up to you - i took it to a body shop and they fixed it with fiberglass (looks spankin new!)

 

Yeah I had someone hit my rear bumper just so the corner caved in. Got $900 for the bumper and found a painted one on ebay for $120 shipped so pocketed the rest. Was nice. As for a rear quarter panel I would want it done the best way possible as if it screws up later expensive to fix!

 

good deal, thanks for all the input guys.





it was a nice fat 3- 5 inch dent that was worked out to near perfect. ( i saw it before they started adding bondo). the rest , which was not much at all, was filled and filed down.

Ive already had the passenger side quarter replaced btw. im not a big fan of all the original welds and seams having to be broken and redone. with that said, i figure filled was the best way to go.

hope everything turns out well. im really getting sick of the fact that the one nice thing i have keeps getting F***ed up and its not even my fault. I have the car maybe once a weeks, and some how bad luck seems to find its way right over to me.

6 months after i bought it some guy runs a red light and does this.




FML.

 

holy sh^t

 

Take it to a body shop. They can give you a estimate. I would rather the 1/4 panel was replaced than bondo shoveled in the dent.