My dented car - courtesy of my wife

[BrianG]

I have a single car driveway that opens slightly into a 2 car garage. I arrived home one afternoon and saw my wife was parked in such a way that I could not go around her to get into the garage so I parked my car a couple car lengths back as close to the house as I could to give her room to go around if she needed to. I went into the house and told her where my car was. She left shortly after and saw my car parked there. But between seeing the car and getting in her car, she forgot I was there and proceeded to back into it crunching the front fender area. I honestly don't know how she could NOT see an orange car in daylight, but whatever.

Anyway, now the lower plastic part of the fender popped out and looks like crap. So, I took it to a couple body shops to get an estimate just to get it fixed somewhat (nothing pretty - just functional) and they wanted between $800-$1000. I contacted my insurance and since both cars are covered by me, it would be treated as a collision that was my fault, so I'd have to fork out the deductible not to mention the rate hike.

So, I decided I would do some repairs on my own. The dent is more like a "crinkle" so a simple pop-out job won't suffice. I ended up drilling a few 3mm holes in strategic areas, putting a bolt with washer in the holes and popping out what I could. I still have some denting and of course the holes to fill.

I figure we have at least a couple body repair guys here (linc?) do I figured I'd ask the best way to go about the rest of the repair. I figure I'll need to sand the area to bare metal, apply bondo, more sanding, and then spray some primer and paint. Nothing fancy, just so it looks halfway decent from a distance and prevent rusting. Here is a pic of how it currently sits, which, despite how crappy it is, is still about 90% better looking than it was:



The car is a 2005 Mazda 3 with close to 100k miles on it. I'd like to drive it maybe another year before I get something else. I'm not concerned about resale value, I just want to get it functional and semi-ok to look at.