Born in Bost asked:
I have a 2000 white Subaru Outback that has suffered the bangs and scrapes of 7-plus years in New England. It is is good mechanical order, but I need to get the dings out of it, repair a little rust and maybe add a little paint.
I have a 2000 white Subaru Outback that has suffered the bangs and scrapes of 7-plus years in New England. It is is good mechanical order, but I need to get the dings out of it, repair a little rust and maybe add a little paint.
I took the car to a body shop and they quoted me approx. $3,000. Where should I go to get this work done more economically?
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Tags: Bangs, Car Body, New England
Well part of that is the paint job,and that will probably cost about $1000 of that to get pretty good paint job, (though there are cheaper ones).. you want the good one if you are going to drive it 5 years or more! But if you are only looking at a couple – the cheaper one will probably do ok, especially if you have it apinted teh same color!
It depends on the dents, – how severe and how deep, — there are people that advertise “paintless ding repair” you can probably find one soomewhere near you. They remove the dents with a sort of “clamp” looking piece of equipment, and do not need to do major body work to get them out this way . The “paintless” removal I don’t buy though,-since most “dings” also have paint damage by nature of the body damage! You may be able to get all the “dings” for for a lot less (provided there is nothing severe involved)…
Now as the TV commercial says “BUT WAIT” there’s more!
Since you say “New England”, – that part of the country uses salt on the roads doesn’t it? If you have “rust out’” from salt damage, the rust you see is only the “tip of the iceburg”!
It is possible that it is so rusted out that you would be wasting your money to get it all fixed up so it looks nice! I lived with salt rust for 22 years, – it is almost hopelsss to get toal body rework if it has major rust, as you have to first replace all the rusted metal to make it “stay solid”, and then a year or so later it “goes through” somewhere where else and makes it look like junk again! When the first rainy weather of the next fall comes on, the “body putty” starts falling out of the rust holes and rust holes pop up everywhre! So have car checked out very carefuly before you start and see if you can’t get some kind of warranty against this happening for a couple years at least! They of course gurantee the paint itself, — but getting body repairs guranteed is another thing alltogether!
All I am saying is that it might be better to sell this one “as is”, and buy another car that doesn’t need (and has not had) body repairs! If you reall like the Subaru model you have check out “Craig’s List and find one in southern states that hasn’t gotten any salt damage! If you want to paint it up like new then, – it will at least stay together for a while so you can enjoy it for a few years! And you may not actually have much more money “tied up” in it after you get all done, — than you have tied up in an “iffy” one that you already have!
I have “been there and done that”,- and seen even more– in Wisconsin)!