Damn and blast...

[triumph coupe]

Driving home from work on Tuesday and a car in front of me kicks up a three foot piece of truck tyre probably ten meters in the air and it lands smack on my bonnet. Scared the life out of me.

Pulled over and see this



Thought it had gone through the paint but most of the scratching was rubber from the tyre. There is a bit of scratching but I think only in the top coat, I’m certain that with a bit of t-cut there will be no scratches. But there are dents...



I spoke to a dent guy that was recommend to me and he got all “teeth sucky” when I mentioned the bonnet was aluminium but is coming round on Monday to take a look.

In the meantime I’ve taken it to the local Bodyshop to get an estimate. Their response was....

Can’t fill and spray it because it’s an aluminium bonnet. It’s s new bonnet job. Wait for it.... £2k


Seriously?
I hope this dent guy can work magic because I can’t live with dents like that and 2 grand seems excessive

I never knew aluminium was such a pain in the rear




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[Liner33]

A decent dent guy can work miracles. Dont be afraid to get a second opinion as some shy away from the harder jobs
I

Driving home from work on Tuesday and a car in front of me kicks up a three foot piece of truck tyre probably ten meters in the air and it lands smack on my bonnet. Scared the life out of me.

Pulled over and see this



Thought it had gone through the paint but most of the scratching was rubber from the tyre. There is a bit of scratching but I think only in the top coat, I’m certain that with a bit of t-cut there will be no scratches. But there are dents...



I spoke to a dent guy that was recommend to me and he got all “teeth sucky” when I mentioned the bonnet was aluminium but is coming round on Monday to take a look.

In the meantime I’ve taken it to the local Bodyshop to get an estimate. Their response was....

Can’t fill and spray it because it’s an aluminium bonnet. It’s s new bonnet job. Wait for it.... £2k


Seriously?
I hope this dent guy can work magic because I can’t live with dents like that and 2 grand seems excessive

I never knew aluminium was such a pain in the rear




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[CardShark]

Ouch. If there's no option other than to go the route of a new bonnet then I'd be contacting my insurance company rather than pay that kind of sum from my own pocket, even if it increases your premium it would probably be the best way to cover it.

If the dents can be knocked back into shape try tar remover before T-Cut, the latter really is nasty stuff that will mar the paintwork unless you're going to machine polish it after.

[zanderpants]

I had an incident a few weeks ago with my 3 week old car. Parked it on the high street and whilst I was away someone hit the back scraping a decent size chunk of pain off the bumper. Heart breaking stuff!! The relevant thing is that I got 3 quotes for the repair work and the first place I went to was double the price I settled on, did a damn good job so just goes to show you need to shop around.


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[Beanie]

I was once told that aluminium body panels "stretch" when dented, and that's why repairs are often unsuccessful, you have a greater surface area post impact. This was from the days when Land Rovers had aluminium panels, so technology may have moved on since.

[wileeeeeey]

Check out "The Dent Network" in Peterborough. Never used but mean to be good.

Review here: https://youtu.be/odFP7n9dOOo

Can't believe that's £2k! Would have scared the life out of me too!

[Mj2k]

Sorry to read this, always bad to see a dent like that, could happen to anyone.

Agree on the tar remover first, and with all respect, if you are even considering T-Cut, you’re out of your depth in trying to improve the paint yourself.

TC is an awful product that doesn’t break down well, so you just put more and more smaller swirls into the paint, smaller than your original scratch but still visible.

If your near the Reading area, happy to machine polish it once the dents are seen to & get rid of the scratch marks.


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[mitch1956]

ally panels can be repaired ( as in repair and paint), however you need a specialist repairer to do it, a normal b/ shop won't have the facilities , you need separate prep/ repair areas , tools that have not touched steel ( as it contaminates the ally) all can be welded too , dents are removed with heat to reform the ally molecules , very skilled job! I tried it just on a training course on ally repair with limited success ! the repair of the dents will be determined by were the structure is on the underside of the bonnet as both sides of the dents will need to be accessed.
2 K for a new bonnet & paint is not bad nowadays, you can pay that for a headlamp on one of the new bmws.

[TheFlyingBanana]

I agree insurance is probably the sensible route - but without knowing what year your car is, would it be worth seeing if you could get a replacement bonnet from a car salvager - either in matching colour or one you could get resprayed?

Probably a long shot, but half an hour online might save you a wedge.

What a damned nuisance though!

[walkerwek1958]

Even if the dents can be pulled out the whole bonnet will need painting, after fixing the dents as well as possible there will be some filling/ refinishing/ levelling to be done. If it isn’t done properly it’ll stand out like a sore thumb.

[hogthrob]

You can do paintless dent repair on aluminium, but I think your complication is that paint is required. I'd take the hit on the no claims bonus.

[Liner33]

This is the guy I use why not pop the pics to him and get his opinion . Some of the jobs he has on Facebook are pretty awesome and he always does good work for me

http://www.bodytechpdr.co.uk/

[eagletower]

I had a paintless dent removal job done on my door, it was huge . Am really pleased with the results , however up close you can see really small dots which is an after effect of the dent being pushed out. You wouldn’t notice it unless I pointed it out but it’s less apparent on the door side . You may notice it more on the bonnet.

[triumph coupe]

It’s 98% gone. If you know where to look and really look you can just see a bit of evidence, but it’s pretty much gone.

£150 and a good dent guy contact made
I’m a happy man this morning.


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[Franco]

Excellent work. In the last year had a super-guy here in Sheffield repair similar dents for me.

[Thewatchbloke]

Considering that's aluminium that's outstanding work!

[Mj2k]

Excellent result for you there


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[Liner33]

Great result. Saved yourself a fair bit there in excess and increased premiums .

[doctorj]

That guy has done a remarkable job. I've been scouring eBay for a replacement bonnet for my Cayman because the corners at the windscreen got bent, but looking at this I might just take it somewhere...

[raptor]

Great work

[Tooks]

A good dent professional is worth their weight in gold!

I’m fortunate to live around the corner from one, and he’s done a couple of jobs for me.

I did once buy some tools and had a go myself, but left the characteristic tiny dots in the repair from pushing from the rear that walkerwek mentioned, as well as it not being that well repaired either!

The dent man finished the job for me, using a light that projected straight lines onto the panel so he could see when it was straight, and all I could see afterwards were the dots I’d put there! Some things are left to the pros...

Mind you, even he couldn’t do anything about this one! A piece of timber fell off a lorry I was passing on a dual carriageway, and it scraped up the bonnet, through the windscreen, ripped the dashboard, passed between passenger A pillar and head rest, hit the rear seat and exited through the rear passenger window. Fortunately no passengers, nor my daughter in her child seat, yikes...

Golf GTE Damage by iaintookey, on Flickr
Golf GTE Damage by iaintookey, on Flickr
Golf GTE Damage by iaintookey, on Flickr

[Rodder]

That frightening, I presume the lorry driver drove off in ignorant bliss.


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[Tooks]

That frightening, I presume the lorry driver drove off in ignorant bliss.


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Yes, unfortunately the driver of the lorry didn’t stop, despite my trying to get their attention.

The buffeting through the broken screen and now missing rear window was quite severe, and that along with my shock meant I dived into the nearest lay by!

[Thewatchbloke]

That's when a dashcam comes into its own, that's a shocking set of pictures!