So, heres the story....This white-trash girl from South Dakota backed into my driver's side door and won't admit it. Its clear from the damage on her car that she definately hit me. I called to police, filed a report but It didnt really help. The police can't do anything since she wouldn't admit it so its not looking good for me.

Mind you, this happened the next day after I had just rear ended some lexus-drivin' attorney last week when it was raining real bad...So to add to the damage this girl hit and ran on my driver's side door, she put a huge dent in it. Now she wont admit it and quote "Not payin' him nothin', cuz yall can't prove nothin'." Let me tell ya'll, she's a real class-act.

Anyway, the body shop quoted me 950 for a new door skin installed and painted. I don't have the money since I'm broke and in college. Is there any thing I could do temporarily to make it look a little better, like bump it out? It did not take any paint off my car but I think the metal creased a little bit.

Anyone with any ideas/methods/experience/suggestions, please give 'em up.

 

Tell her that you know she did it and if she won't pay then you'll just **** up her car later.

Get a door at a junk yard and install it yourself.

 

Go find yourself a paintless dent remover shop. I had 8-10 dings ironed out of my doors for $120 bucks. It's quick, simple and will cost a heck of a lot less than getting a new door or having a body shop do it.

 

+1. That definitely looks like it can be reduced if not completely eliminated by a good PDR guy. Shouldn't cost you more than $100/panel.

 

3rd. It's pretty big so might cost a bit more, but if a PDR guy can get to the spot after taking off the inner door panel, most if not all should come out.

Then you'll just need a new trim piece.

 

most PDR guys, legit ones at least, will charge per panel not per size of the dent... i had a similiar one on the body line on the upper part of drivers door from some idiot throwing another idiot into it.... drove me nuts for the longest till I got my PDR guy to do it, $75 later ($120 if I would have went thru his boss) it was almost completely gone.... in the right light and at the perfect angle you can still see a slight blink but thats all.... I detail and it's acceptable to me.... but as RW said, you need a new body-side molding piece.. hit up the junk yard!

 

There must be different schools of PDR, cause my guy went down through the outer part of the window and massaged the dings out from there. Never had to take the door panel off at all (which I was thankful for)

Oh, and to the original poster, there does seem to be room for negotiation when it comes to PDR work, so don't be afraid to haggle or hym and haw when a price mentioned. I didn't do it intentionally, but when the guy first laid a price on me for what I all wanted to do, I was like uhhh, and he came down on the price and threw in a few dings to boot. Never saw it coming, but it let me know that the prices aren't in stone and can be negotiated or atleast discussed further.

 

I did PDR work for a couple years and a dent like that is out of most PDR peoples league. I do agree that if you haggle a bit you can get the price down. It's pear profit so there is deffinately room to work.