Can I fix this dent/paint scrape?

Lima Tango

Original poster
Member
Dec 4, 2011
242
Ladies and gents,

It's not important HOW this happened, just that it did, and a terrible consequence thereof is my wife hasn't stopped giving me long sideways glances and snickering since. Suffice to say the passenger fender made sweet, sweet love to a concrete pillar in a parking garage when pulling out of a spot tonight at about 5MPH.

See the picture attached below: please note the mass of white in the middle of the dent is just the camera flash. There appears to be only one dent of approximately 1" depth, with no ripples or anything like that. The paint scrape is fairly substantial but I'm not yet sure if that's paint from the white pillar on top of my paint or if the black paint was scraped off revealing a white substrate of some fashion. I do know it wasn't coming off with my fingernail.

The plastic wheel well was somewhat dislodged from the little plastic plugs that affix it to the holes in the fender, but nothing else (door/hood gaps, tire clearance, etc) appears to be adversely affected.

So, what's next for me, presumably starting with the dent? I was thinking of pulling out the plastic wheelwell and smacking the back of the dent with a deadblow hammer to see if it pops back in place. If that doesn't work, I'm not sure what else to try - the long but relatively narrow shape seems like it wouldn't work with any of the suction cup type dent pullers. I could throw a heavy C clamp on there and pull back, probably with something wide underneath it to spread out the force and protect the paint. Other ideas?

After the dent is fixed to my satisfaction - what do I do with the paint? Sternly but lovingly direct it to straighten up and fly right to love up to its potential? Buff it with compound on a DA? Wet sand? If it ends up being scraped off too far to simply repair, am I going to have to have the whole truck painted to avoid having one fresh paint fender and the rest of the truck conspicuously 7 year old paint?

Appreciate those who stuck with my through my ramblings above. I'm really hoping this is a DIY fix situation. First time since high school (10 years ago) I've done anything of this nature and it's killing me, so the sooner the evidence is gone the better!

Cheers,

LT

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harmless

Member
Nov 21, 2011
2,049
^^^^ That, won't buff out. :raspberry:


You're gonna have to take the fender panel off and try to gently tap the dent out from the underside.

Once you've done that, you're going to need to sand the whole fender down and re-paint it. Primer and all.

A good DIY bodyshop place will be able to give you colormatched paint to what's on the truck now. Yes, to reflect the current pain't age/UV exposure. Remember to choose your sample under good sunlight, not artificial lighting.

Or suck it up and take it to a bodyshop.

Those Sir, are your two options from what I can deduce from the picture above.

Good luck! :thumbsup:
 

Denali n DOO

Member
May 22, 2012
5,596
Yep it sucks but s--t happens. Maybe JosueLT can give his opinion on the damage and how to repair it. If it were me I would have a professional like JosueLT do the repair and you'll never know it happened. If you get a cheap ass fix it won't look as good and you'll always see it. Take it to a proper body shop with a good reputation.

Just my opinion.
 

harmless

Member
Nov 21, 2011
2,049
Denali n DOO said:
Yep it sucks but s--t happens. Maybe JosueLT can give his opinion on the damage and how to repair it. If it were me I would have a professional like JosueLT do the repair and you'll never know it happened. If you get a cheap ass fix it won't look as good and you'll always see it. Take it to a proper body shop with a good reputation.

Just my opinion.

Was waitin' on something like that...

"Professional Bodyshops" aren't always the end-all solution. Research the place you choose. Ask former clients, take a look at previous work done. Trust me, after my dealings with such an outfit, it makes me even happier that I know my shit so I can call them on their mistakes (when I'm too lazy or the job's too big). (To their ONLY credit, metallic silvers ARE so finnicky to spray.)

If you know what you're doing, you should be fine. If not, take it to a shop, but be on them! :coffee:
 

Lima Tango

Original poster
Member
Dec 4, 2011
242
Thanks for the input, gentlemen. If I do end up taking it somewhere, it will probably be to the on-base Autoshop because their rates are about half of shops on the civilian side and I know people who have gotten good work done there, but I'm trying to see if that's necessary. I'll try to gently persuade it to pop out as a first step and go from there.

I have a little experience with auto body stuff, but don't have any of the tools where I'm stationed; no compressor, paint gun, DA sander, etc, and I'll be moving again next year so really don't want to buy a bunch of specialty tools only to have to lug them around.

On the other hand, there are a number of scratches, chips, dings, and (on the hood especially) a bunch of little spiderweb cracks in the clearcoat. It might be nice to just completely repair all that and refresh the paint on the whole truck. I'm not sure how much money I should pump into a 90k mile, 7 year old SUV, but I am planning to keep it another 5 years so it's not out of the realm of reason. I wonder if I could go with a metallic black, maybe get SS or aftermarket bumpers and a hood scoop if I get it all painted anyway :undecided:... or not.
 

harmless

Member
Nov 21, 2011
2,049
bugicon.png


Uh oh! Cosmetic mod bug just bit someone! :rotfl:
 

Porkins

Member
Dec 5, 2011
6,960
LineX the whole TB!
 

Lima Tango

Original poster
Member
Dec 4, 2011
242
Phew, got lucky! :wootwoot:

After tapping the fender from behind to pop it back out and about 8 rounds of rubbing compound with my dual orbital polisher, it's nearly back to where it was before having angry pillar sex. Most of the white crap was foreign paint.

There are a few scratches that compound didn't get out, any opinions on the best method of dealing with more substantial scratches (deep enough to catch a fingernail but not wider than that)?

See the after pic...

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harmless

Member
Nov 21, 2011
2,049
That is good news indeed!! :thumbsup:

The bad news about that is those scratches you can't fix. If you can catch your fingernail in them, they're paint deep. Maybe even deeper.

Touch up paint or a compete job at this point to fix those. Sorry man. :frown:
 

Sparky

Member
Dec 4, 2011
12,927
My first thought was to hit up a junkyard for a used black fender. Done.

When you said concrete I thought you meant a raw concrete pillar. Glad it was mostly paint on top of your paint. For the deeper scratches you can get a touch-up pen from an auto store to fill them in. Or if they aren't down to the metal just leave it be. Or get it resprayed. Or go to the junkyard idea. Heck, just rhino line the whole thing :biggrin:
 

JosueLT

Member
Nov 20, 2011
315
Some good advice in this thread, pretty much what I would've suggested. :yes:

The dent looks like it popped out pretty decent too, at least to the point where you can either live with it, or live with it long enough till you can have it fixed all the way.
 

Lima Tango

Original poster
Member
Dec 4, 2011
242
JosueLT said:
Some good advice in this thread, pretty much what I would've suggested. :yes:

The dent looks like it popped out pretty decent too, at least to the point where you can either live with it, or live with it long enough till you can have it fixed all the way.

Thanks for the input, Josue. It popped out better than I expected; lools great at a glance, takes the light hitting it right or running your fingers over it to realize there is the slight variance in the smoothness of the surface. Given the various other blemishes (all paint issues, no other body problems) it doesn't really stand out as a problem area. Definitely good enough to call it good unless I decide to really overhaul the thing with fresh paint, etc.

Thanks again for all the help, guys.

Cheers,

LT
 

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