side skirt damage

[QuanBlackBug]

About a few months ago before my mother gave me this car she hit a curb going around a bend, therefore it put a nice dent on the under part of the sideskirt. I talked to my autobody repair and they wanted about 700 dollars to fix it which i though was crazy. Has anyone else had this happen before? i dont have much money so im mostly a DIY'er. here is some pictures of it

http://totallyforums.teegtahn.com/web/dent/dent1.jpg
http://totallyforums.teegtahn.com/web/dent/dent2.jpg

if you notice there is some electrical tape on the bend because the paint is starting to come off.
dont mind the door and the pin stripes (my car needs washing)
any help on it would be nice

[jdesigns]

Unfortunately, unless you have access to a welder and are proficient at welding, you'll either have to have the body shop do it, or put up with it until finances are availble to fix it.

The damaged piece is welded to the body, with no way to get behind it to pound out the dent.


Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

[marvins_dad]

$700 is about the norm.
I had a friend with a "hook-up" that had it done for $500 and I had to pay $900 for mine because of the custom paint.

Look around in the Paint and Body or Sytling Forums - there is a thread somewhere where I give the breakout of the labor charges for the Dallas area...also you might consider getting aftermarket side skirts to hide the damage if you were thinking about going that direction.

[QuanBlackBug]

the autobody technician runs at $46/hr and the painter is $46/hr. but i do have access to a MIG welder and my father is a pretty good welder.

[marvins_dad]

Originally Posted by QuanBlackBug

the autobody technician runs at $46/hr and the painter is $46/hr. but i do have access to a MIG welder and my father is a pretty good welder.

The part from VW is only about $50...let us know how it turns out.

[ramgarjun]

I had mine repaired for about $300. I believe they just used a dent puller all over the area, then filled in all the holes, bondoed, sanded, and painted.

If you look really hard, you can see a slight curve where it is not exactly perfect, but for the price it is excellent.

[LadybugEwa]

Mine is much worse, and on both sides. One of the 2 previous owners (both guys) was a curb rider. It's been killing me for the last 16 months, to look at this, but I wanted to make sure I have it done right. This weekend I'll actually be driving 300 km out of Toronto and camping for 2 days while the rocker panels are being pulled out, welded, filled with an anti-rust compound and painted with OEM paint. How's that for crazy?
Why I'm doing this:
#1 The person doing the job just retired after doing body repairs all their life, and owning a shop - I saw his work and it stunned me.
#2 The cost will be under $500 CND, that's both rocker panels, both more damaged than yours is, plus other bad scratches all over
#3 This gem of a guy actually shuddered when I mentioned putty,
and looked like I guess Santa would if you told him Christmas'd be in July this year

[mexi09]

Originally Posted by QuanBlackBug

About a few months ago before my mother gave me this car she hit a curb going around a bend, therefore it put a nice dent on the under part of the sideskirt. I talked to my autobody repair and they wanted about 700 dollars to fix it which i though was crazy. Has anyone else had this happen before? i dont have much money so im mostly a DIY'er. here is some pictures of it

http://totallyforums.teegtahn.com/web/dent/dent1.jpg
http://totallyforums.teegtahn.com/web/dent/dent2.jpg

if you notice there is some electrical tape on the bend because the paint is starting to come off.
dont mind the door and the pin stripes (my car needs washing)
any help on it would be nice

this happened to me last year!!! it sucks!!! vw wanted 700 also to fix. i had a accident a few months later.... and got it all fixed at the same time.... 6000 worth of damage to my car!!! i ran over some huge rocks and essed up the bottom, but it is all fixed now!!!

[SilverVw3]

I did something similar to my silver beetle, I found a body shop to fix it for $350. I would shop around for a few more places and compare prices.

[brannwkid]

Me and my dad are using bondo and painting it ourselves. Our car looks awesome, until i get my custom paint job, u wont even notice. I mean you could go my way, which is probably more effort, but the money is killer in this situation, and you feel great when your done. Just make sure you know what your doing, we did this with my old camaro. And if you screw up, well then bondo it up, sand it again, and repaint it.NO PUDDY.

[NIK!]

I have this on our beetle the wife went shopping and cut the corner and bang just klipped the curb over here in England the VW garage wanted about $1200 to put it right. I am going to take the wings and rear fender off and the cost has come down to about $650. They will weld pins to the dent then pull them out grind the pins off when the rough shape is there then fill and paint. For me to save over %$550 it is worth me removing the body work and still have the job done by VW.

P.S. The wife is now banned from going to the shops on the upper level of the car park.

[brannwkid]

Haha same here.My sister will never drive my car again. I think her problem was speed bumps, she uses to much speed on the bump part.

[BB2000]

I recently scraped up my driver's side skirt...REAL bad. Apparently this is common, so I don't feel so bad now. I'm also glad to see the average cost is not too outrageous. If anyone knows a good place in Jersey that works on Beetles, let me know!