This past month I have hit more freakin things then I ever have before. It is frustrating me so much that I am ready to get rid of the TA. Feels like no matter what I do I cannot go without ******* up the car in some way. Anyways a few weeks back I was getting on a highway in charlotte when I reached to grab a cd on the floor on the passenger side. I didn't pay attention, nailed my steering wheel with my leg, I'm 6'4" very easy to do, the car jerked right and nail a highway construction pylon. That left me with a nice long scratch all the way down the passenger side of the car. It also popped out my passenger side mirror. Luckly the motor unit was fine, all I had to do was replace the glass. A friend and I tried buffing out the scratches, which helped, but I can still see them which pisses me off. That leads up to today. Im visiting my family in ohio, we got a **** load of snow which lead to banks of about 3 feet on either side of the driveway. Its now 17 degrees so the snow is harder then ****. Anyways my dad and I were trying to move the bird so my grandparents can get into my house through the garage. Needless to say the bird keeps slipping on the ice. Finally going in reverse I get it to go, but it goes right into a jagged edge of a 3 foot pile of ice. What happens? The rear corner of my bumper completely dents in. We popped it out but there is still a crease in the bumper and the paint has stress fractions in it now. I'm so frustrated right now it's unbelieveable. First of all, do you think a detail shop will be able to buff out the scratches from the pylon. Secondly, is their anything I can do with the bumper to bring it back to original form. Sorry this is long but I had to vent. I appreciate any advice I can get. BTW, I live in Charlotte, so if anyone knows of any good body or detail shops I would appreciate it.

Erik

 

Damn that sucks. Can you post a pics of the damaged areas? The best case would be that the scratches will be able to be wet sanded out of the side of the car and that you can pull the rear bumper off and the body shop can do something with it for a few hundred dollars. How deep are the scratches? Can you dig into them really good with your finger nail?

 

Cant post pics yet, I can feel them with my fingernail when I run it over them.

 

If there wet sanded, will it have to be repainted and recleared?

 

It depends how bad it is. I've had small scratches that I could catch with my finger nail sand out without breaking through the clear. Unfortunatly, GM doesn't use a whole lot of clear so there is not much room to play. If you look at them really close you can almost see if the scratches are through the clear. Do you have full insurance coverage with a low deductable? I know with my insurance company you can file a $1000 claim and it will not affect your rates at all. If you where able to do something like that it could really help out.

 

I might look into that as soon as I change companies. My insurance is raping me now that I moved from Ohio to NC. Im going with another company but it wont be to after the new year. Thanks for the help!

BTW: Who is your insurance through

 

I have State Farm. As far as prices go they seem to be hit or miss with some people. They came in the cheapest for me. I'm 21 with a couple of tickets and it's about $2,200 a year for my 2000 Silverado and the Camaro ($50 deductable and my limits are one tier up from the state mins.). The next cheapest was Gieco ($2700 with about the same coverage). I wonder if you put in a claim then dump your insurance if that will affect your next insurance rates?

 

I have Nationwide, I think the insurance Im going to switch to is State Farm. Its a difference of about $400 a year.

 

Check with Farm Bureau , too . They were a heckuva a lot cheaper than State farm. You have to pay 25.00 /yr in membership dues but they 're very reasonable in their rates and provide good service. My insurance is 267.00 every three months for full coverage on my'89 Camaro convertible and '95 chev dually.

 

I had a nast scratch on my drivers side quarter panel, down to the primer. I got one of those duplicolor pen touch up paint things, and carefully went along the scratch until it was about level with the paint. I then used polishing compound starting with coarse working up to very fine, to blend everything together. I can't tell there was a scratch deep into the primer there. Made my day, and it cost me like $15 and a couple hours.


PS my car is black, which makes it even better

 

if you can see "white" in the scratch it's not going to go away.