hit and run in parking lot

[Noodle Boy]

this morning i got to a market to get some groceries. my car was parked in their car park and when i came out their was a long line of rubber or black paint on the two left doors. pictures are below. there's a dent on the rear door which is shown on the right, and a few scracthes in between. unfortunately no one has evidence upon who had done it, so i have to go to the expense of getting it repaired myself. my question to you is whether it can be repaired without a repaint. i know that the dent can be done with PDR, considering the dent isn't sharp or has any paint stripped off. but ultimately what should i do, get the insurance involved or not in this instance. correct me if i'm wrong, but i have to pay excess if i were to go with a claim don't i?

thanks all in advance.

[jeffy]

damn ! that sucks man ! which area was this ?

if you do go ahead and do an insurance claim, you will have to pay the excess for it.

[Ronnyboy]

it sucks when that happens. get a few quotes first before going through insurance.

[alan.chalkley]

The same thing happened with my corolla.

I used my insurance to repair it and insisted that I wanted a top quality repair job with no bog used.

It cost me $650 excess , but it was a first quality job.

If it was done on the cheap instead of using insurance it would be a cheap nasty repair full of bog.

[Noodle Boy]

i knew that if i'm not able to obtain the details of the other party that i would have to get the car repaired at my expense. this occured in the northern suburbs, fyi jeff. i was wondering if the quote were to be a little high(if the panel beater were to repaint the whole two panels), whether i could try and get the paint transfer off and moving on with some scratches and getting the dent repaired with PDR. the damage if looked closed doesn't look too bad, the paint transfer seems to be quite clean with the occasional scratch and scuff.

[Noodle Boy]

got a quote for the repair of $800 or thereabouts. i asked the technician whether the paint/rubber transfer and he stated that i needed some rubbing compound. i went to repco and grabbed some mothers scratch remover which was on special. after some elbow grease, most of the scratches were covered, leaving only a few tiny paint/rubber dots that are still hard to remove. the dents still remain however. i may consult pdr once i have time, or even giving it a shot myself. overall, the car looks heaps better than before. spot the difference.

Edited September 9, 2012 by Noodle Boy

[jeffy]

pretty good, its like theres nothing there,

[Andrew357]

A claybar may be able to remove the bits you can't remove. You may need to buy an aggressive clay.

[Noodle Boy]

my hand was so worn out that i didn't bother with trying any further, hence i left it as it is and placed a layer of wax over it, before going on to detail the rest of the car. i might give it another shot with the scratch remover before considering the clay bar(yet to have any), since i can still see some small scratches, now that i gave it a close look from another angle.

[Brad - SX6]

That's unfortunate mate. But try the suggested clay bar, they work a treat :) Also great for removing bug/tar stains on the front bumper!