Well, with less than 1000 miles on it my new civic has its first dent. Mrs. Packrat backed into it on our driveway Saturday. Her rear corner hit just below the drivers side mirror leaving scratches and a shallow dent about 8-10" across. I'm bummed. Everything still works in the car--no speaker damage or anything like that. She just missed hitting the front hinge area which would have been much worse. Does anyone have advice for repair? I'm not excited about taking it to Joe-Bob's Body Shop and have some doods tear the interior off to pull the dent. And what about paint matching on these new colors? Should I take it to a dealer? I live and work in the South SF Bay Area if anyone happens to know a reputable body shop.

Thanks,
Packrat

 

The difficulty of repair depends on how deep those scratches are. It sounds like they may be able to pop the dent out from the outside with a bridge. Paint matching won't be too tough since the car is so new and hasn't had any time to weather and fade. Dealers usually have a body shop or two to which they farm out work. I'm sure they would tell you if you ask.

 

Is there a scratch or crease in the dent?

I had a ding removed with one of those "paintless" dent repair guys. Where the shelving unit in the garage fell on it I ended up with a scratch AND a crease. In the end it was around $800 worth of work AND the paint isn't quite a perfect match.

 

I just went out and took another look at the damage. There is a slight crease above the indentation. There are several scratches and scuffs that show the white undercoat and a couple that appear to go through to bare metal. Man, if it's $800-1000, I wonder what a new door would cost? Ugh. I'll call a couple of local dealers tomorrow. Thanks for all the advice.

Packrat

 

Mine was on the rear B-pillar, numerous scratches to the metal and primer in a 8-10 inch area much like what you've described. It was in a bad spot though, that's how it cost so much for me. I did make sure to note that I was a "cash paying" customer which helped a bit. Also it was an upscale body shop, not Billy-Bob's Auto Body and Cafeteria/Feed Center.

Don't limit yourself to the dealer, they are rape specialists. There are lots of competent body shops. The place where I had mine done did have my car for about 4 days and would of had it longer if I didn't push them.

 

I was still working retail at a gawd-awful discount store when I bought my HCH. It got a dent or a scratch every single week. Why? Because 400-pound welfare hogs don't look where they're going, don't care how they park, and don't mind when they let a shopping cart slowly drift across the lot into a parked car.

I call these dregs of humanity "Welfare Spheres" because they're as wide across as they are tall. They typically drive piece-of-crap Kia SUVs with unpaid insurance.

My car is riddled with dents and dings.

One of these pieces of human trash almost totalled my partner's car two years ago because the welfare sphere was speeding and talking on her cell phone at the same time. After the accident, she exclaimed "Ah aints gots no muthah'******' un'surance, yo! Dis be muh buh'friends car, yo!"

At least my partner wasn't hurt.

 

AshenGrey, Why not tell us how you really feel about the US Welfare system !! Seriously, I fully agree.

My '06 has its first dent too. This is the first car we have had in years, as we have had Mini-vans and pick-ups in the past. Well.... my wife found out that if you cut the curb in the shopping center to close in the van, it just goes bump, and up ond over the curb. Well as any owner knows, the HCH is a little closer to the ground and when you hit the same curb with the HCH, you scrape the crap out of the frame, but also can ding the piece of metal that runs horizontally under the doors ! Luckly, where most of the paint is scraped off, is out of site, and the ding in the metal is not bad enough to cause the paint to crack, so once the wether warms up a little, I am going to wire wheel, prime and paint where the paint is scratched off and where the metal is begining to rust.

 

3 years with NO dings on the metal (besides the one I hit with my Corvette, but that's another story) and yesterday someone opened their door into my car. All I can say is I am thankful I wasn't around to see it happen. I was parked WAY over on the line in an end parking spot everywhere I went yesterday. For someone to be that absentminded to damage someone elses property after so many precautions are taken to NOT get dinged, I have no remorse on the "eye for an eye and maybe a bit more" mindset.

 

In my experience it is passengers, especially children who throw open doors unsupervised in supermarket car parks who are largely responsible.

My last car, an Accord Coupe, was unmarked for 4 years and then on a windy night an old lady as a pasenger in a car parked next door failed to hold on to her door and.....

With a new car at the moment I am paranoid and try to park miles from anybody!