Expected cost and time of bonnet repair

MatteRB26

MatteRB26

MatteRB26

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Location
Brighton
We recently had an incident where a trampoline blew onto our car and dented the bonnet.
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The owners of the trampoline have offered to pay, so I took it to a local body shop and they quoted me £400+VAT and would need the car for 3-4 days...

The other people contacted another body shop with a photo and their quote was £250 and they can repair the bonnet from our house...

It seems like quite a bit difference in cost and expected effort to me. Is either quote more like what you can expect for fixing a dented bonnet? How come one needs 3-4 days and the other can do it on the cheap from our house...?
 
Body shops varies in price and end result. £250 is probably a smart repair.
There should be some videos on YouTube, there definitely some on tictok and Facebook reels. It’s amazing how they massage the dent out, chips away are franchises so might be hit and miss.
 
Hard to say without a full cost breakdown. The job could be done in a few different ways:

1: Source new replacement bonnet ready primed and just spray it and lacquer top coat
2: Source second hand bonnet which is straight and undamaged, but needs paint stripping back and then new prime and paint and lacquer done
3: Repair your one, by bending/manipulating/filling and strip back then prime and spray and lacquer

4: Some combination of the above?

Also, depending on age of car, could you not source simply a replacement bonnet in the exact same colour? Can work out cheaper from a breakers.
 
jaybee said:
Hard to say without a full cost breakdown. The job could be done in a few different ways:

1: Source new replacement bonnet ready primed and just spray it and lacquer top coat
2: Source second hand bonnet which is straight and undamaged, but needs paint stripping back and then new prime and paint and lacquer done
3: Repair your one, by bending/manipulating/filling and strip back then prime and spray and lacquer

4: Some combination of the above?

Also, depending on age of car, could you not source simply a replacement bonnet in the exact same colour? Can work out cheaper from a breakers.
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The body shop I went to was option 3, they'd fix the dent then respray the whole panel hence needing the car for 3-4 days.

I had a look online for a replacement bonnet, our car is a 2015 Fabia, but couldn't find anything. I rang Skoda directly and they advised against it as sourcing a genuine part would likely be difficult and the bonnets are a pain to fit (though there's a mechanic garage literally 2 minutes down the road which would fit it.

red eye said:
Body shops varies in price and end result. £250 is probably a smart repair.
There should be some videos on YouTube, there definitely some on tictok and Facebook reels. It’s amazing how they massage the dent out, chips away are franchises so might be hit and miss.
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I believe their quote was a smart repair company - he did say the name but I didn't write it down... It's another local one though. The difference between a "proper job" at a shop and a repair & repaint at home just seems like a big difference to me... Don't want to have them pay out, get a dodgy job done and then have to fix that myself
 
Bonnet respray is usually about £1K!

You sure the quote is just pulling the dent out or a complete respray as well ? because that's the entire bonnet (for a decent job!) they cannot just blow in the damaged area it will look awful!
 
Someone with a flatbed van reversed into my car and the corner of the flatbed kissed my bonnet causing a small dent and scratched the paint. I ended up taking it to a guy that restores classic cars and he charged £450+VAT and took 2 days so your body shop quote seems reasonable. As an aside, Mercedes wanted £1.5k
 
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how obvious is damage from a distance - in the context of the cars value are you better pocketting the money and just touching up the paint.
since bonnets aren't double skinned on most of the surface, just a skeleton frame, you'd probably find you can push the dent yourself

I'd bought a bmw bonnet from ebay in the past (clearcoat degradation, cheaper than a respray) issue was it wasn't well packaged / manhandled and they snubbed a corner, with refund was nearly free
easy to fit, just the transplant of the washer jets and 20 odd screws for soundproofing, the closing latch on replacement was OK,

e:maybe get an online car evaluation with w/o damage to see apparent value loss.
 
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i think the problem is that they will only want to pay 250 regardless, and as good as dent removal is that paint is damaged even a smart repair is going to be noticable.

in fact unless repair prices have gone down last time i asked about 12 months ago about a dent in daughters zaphira literally a 1 pence size ding they quoted between 90 and 120 and the first comment was has the paint been damaged , because they wouldnt entertain starting to remove the dent if it was. bodyshop wanted 200 cause you know sharp intake of breath middle of panel, masking up,matching etc, needless to say dent still there...
 
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Sorry, not been about for a while!

It's not too noticeable from a distance, but the paint damage is as it's taken off chunks in a few places.

It seems like our quote of £400+vat is reasonable for a body shop repair and respray then. I was recommended by a mechanic friend and told to tell them he sent me so that may have had some drive in the price.

We're in a bit of a battle at the moment over payment, but if they absolutely refuse the Council will pay for it. I won't settle for a cheap mobile job, this was just waiting to happen!
 
Absolutely don't use a smart repair for a repair on the middle of a bonnet!

Smart repairs are meant for damage/scratches/scuffs to places like bumpers where they can "lose" the difference in texture/colour of the new paint in areas like the corners of the bumper where the light naturally reflects differently or in areas around the numberplate and grills break up the possibility of a direct side by side comparison. Large flat panels like a bonnet/roof are absolutely not ideal for a smart repair and if you're repairing any part of a bonnet, I'd want the entire bonnet to be done by a proper bodyshop. Even if they get the colour match spot on (which they simply won't be able to do), i'm willing to bet the lacquer will not go on properly and will be much duller compared to the factory paint. Thing likes temperature and humidity make a big difference to this (at this time of year it's cold and damp which is the worst time) so the lacquer doesn't cure properly. Not to mention the possibility of getting foreign objects stuck in the paint/lacquer such as dust and anything flying around in the wind.

And I forgot, on white paint too? Ha, forget it.
 
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Just the fact the body shop wanted the car for 3-4 days, and the smart repair would be done on our drive in a matter of hours raised an eyebrow...

Definitely stick to the body shop! I'll do it through Council insurers if I have to
 
MatteRB26 said:
Sorry, not been about for a while!

It's not too noticeable from a distance, but the paint damage is as it's taken off chunks in a few places.

It seems like our quote of £400+vat is reasonable for a body shop repair and respray then. I was recommended by a mechanic friend and told to tell them he sent me so that may have had some drive in the price.

We're in a bit of a battle at the moment over payment, but if they absolutely refuse the Council will pay for it. I won't settle for a cheap mobile job, this was just waiting to happen!
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Not really relevant, but why would the council pay for it? If a private individual has damaged it by not securing their trampoline, the liability would fall to them surely?
 
Vanquish-Storm said:
Long story short, donated our old bed 2 men and a van came to collect it. Parked infront of my car, bed fell off the back of the lorry when they were loading it and onto my car.

Only had the car 2 weeks haha!

Trying to find someone to actually quote to repair was a nightmare.
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Wow that really is unfortunate!

Semple said:
Not really relevant, but why would the council pay for it? If a private individual has damaged it by not securing their trampoline, the liability would fall to them surely?
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It's a whole ordeal with Council tenants who weren't allowed it there in the first place, Council didn't get it removed after telling people that would
 
MatteRB26 said:
It's a whole ordeal with Council tenants who weren't allowed it there in the first place, Council didn't get it removed after telling people that would
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Unless the council has already agreed I'd be amazed if they accept liability. It might be one you have to make a claim against this individual, especially if they only want to pay for the smart repair and not the full body shop repair.
 
Semple said:
Unless the council has already agreed I'd be amazed if they accept liability. It might be one you have to make a claim against this individual, especially if they only want to pay for the smart repair and not the full body shop repair.
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The Council have already agreed to take liability via their insurers as it's their fault it was never removed in the first place (multiple houses contacted them).

I'll see how it goes though, just wanted to make sure the expect cost was about right which it seems it is!
 
I'd stop messing about and just go through the council then, you'll never get them to agree to more than the £250 as that's what they've deemed acceptable and to be fair why would they choose to fork out more money if the council will pick up the tab.
 
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tom_e said:
I'd stop messing about and just go through the council then, you'll never get them to agree to more than the £250 as that's what they've deemed acceptable and to be fair why would they choose to fork out more money if the council will pick up the tab.
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Yeah this makes no sense. Why wouldn't OP just get it done properly via the council?

Also, why are the council liable lol
 
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