My dented car - courtesy of my wife

[BrianG]

Seeing this thread reminded me that I should probably post an update. I went to several other local body shops and they were all pretty much in line with each other.

To just fix the problem area to be passably decent and nothing else, I'm looking at ~$800. A couple places were quite a bit lower, but they were in run-down garages with crappy lots (looked more like a chop-shop IMO). To me, the appearance of your business means a lot, so I'm not gonna go to those places. Who knows, the car may be passable cosmetically, but I might be mysteriously missing other parts by the time they're done.

To get it fixed to new, it's gonna run ~$1800. To get that figure, I talked to my insurance, explained the situation, and took the car to a few of the places they recommended. My deductible is $250 for collision (which is what this would be claimed under), and my rate wouldn't increase since I rarely make claims.

So, it comes down to if I think $250 is worth it on an older car, not to mention being without a car for a few days. Or I just half-ass it myself with a little sanding, bondo, and slap some paint on there. At this point, I'm thinking of sanding where metal shows (mostly where I drilled the holes), and just prime it.