Agony... of a minor degree

Mon Jul 22, 2013 12:53 am

The inevitable of driving and parking in a city; dents, nicks, and scratches from other cars. It's agonizing when you do your best to keep the car looking great and then some chump opens their door into your car or taps your bumper while doing their miserable parallel parking job.

I have consulted a few pros on these matters and here's the deal in case it happens to you too:

Dent on rear driver side fender: Can be easily removed by paint-less dent removal. I was quoted $75 to 100 depending on how hard it is to remove and whether the tech has to remove tail light.

Scratches on bumper: Best to just use touch up paint. Pros can't do easy patch work because to make it look good, the paint on entire bumper needs to match therefore the whole bumper needs to be removed and repainted. Roughly $350 to cover up small nicks that are bound to happen again. Not a good deal. Best to just cover up with touch-up paint.
Note: I find that the Kizashi's bumper is extra bad at parking nicks. These are caused by the license plate mounting bolts of other cars that contact your bumper as they are the foremost objects mounted on the front of most cars. They basically dig into your bumper and cause these nicks when the other car's bumper taps yours during parallel parking. The Kizashi appears to have some white-colored paint undercoat on the bumper that makes these nicks very noticeable. Far worse than other cars I have owned.

Nicks on front lower grill: Repaint once it gets bad. This one is unavoidable and is probably caused from road debris, bugs, etc. I just wonder how easy it's going to be to get this blacken chrome kind of paint to match the upper grill.

Just going to get these fixed soon (dent removal and do my own touch-up job) and then do my best to avoid them occurring again. Going to try park far from people in lots and avoid tight parallel parking as much as possible.

Mon Jul 22, 2013 12:21 pm

Paintless dent repair is great unless it's on a body line, such as over the rear wheel, like the one I have. It's very irritating to look at all the time. It's right there to admire while I fill it with fuel.

Galileo · Mon Jul 22, 2013 2:09 pm

No matter how small the imperfection really is, people like us see it every time we approach our cars. It is frustrating, KuroNekko, like you said. We work hard to have nice things and spend valuable time maintaining the things that make us proud. So when someone damages it out of ignorance, carelessness, or sometimes even spite, it can really get under your skin! My first Kizashi, a 2010 S, had mysterious dents on the roof one day. My crack detective work found sneaker prints in the surface dirt. So somebody, probably a kid, climbed up on the roof and left dents all over it. Why? I'll never know but I wished 30 days of diarrhea on that person!

Knightstruth · Mon Jul 22, 2013 3:18 pm

Galileo wrote:No matter how small the imperfection really is, people like us see it every time we approach our cars. It is frustrating, KuroNekko, like you said. We work hard to have nice things and spend valuable time maintaining the things that make us proud. So when someone damages it out of ignorance, carelessness, or sometimes even spite, it can really get under your skin! My first Kizashi, a 2010 S, had mysterious dents on the roof one day. My crack detective work found sneaker prints in the surface dirt. So somebody, probably a kid, climbed up on the roof and left dents all over it. Why? I'll never know but I wished 30 days of diarrhea on that person!

That would make me furious also. I have learned to NOT show in public your worried about your car looking good. Why you may ask? That makes your car a target. A co-worker who got offended somehow, a neighbor that is annoyed at you, an employee you had to address, all could be out to get back at you. Our cars are easy targets, because there is no way to prove who did the damage unless it is being monitored.
In public I just shrug my shoulders when I get scratch or dent (inside I'm crying).

LPSISRL · Mon Jul 22, 2013 3:32 pm

I wish I could have the WESHOOT2 mindset. Drive the wheels off and have fun. Don't wash it, vacuum it or any such nonsense. But I can't... <sigh> I don't even like a little dirt on the floor mats.

WESHOOT2 · Mon Jul 22, 2013 5:23 pm

I used to care, but I learned not to.
CANNOT keep a driven vehicle pristine.

I did not buy my car to look at; I bought it to drive!
Ay?

(91,062)

LPSISRL · Mon Jul 22, 2013 5:29 pm

Mon Jul 22, 2013 5:52 pm

Yes, it's true that damage like this is inevitable when you do as the car was made to do: drive.

The thing is that I like to take care of things I like and if you can't tell from my 500 posts here, I am a rather meticulous person.

It would be one thing if I owned an offroading SUV like a Wrangler. Dents and scratches would be part of the experience from offroading. However, a road car like this one is something I want to keep not only running good, but looking good too.

What is infuriating is that little damage like these are caused by the carelessness and disregard by other people. What is worse is when people deliberately damage your car and you weren't even specifically targeted (like people walking on your hood, roof, or trunk or people throwing eggs and rocks at your car). 30 days of diarrhea is genial. I was thinking more of a curb stomp, but I guess that is too much.

Knightstruth · Mon Jul 22, 2013 6:27 pm

KuroNekko wrote:Yes, it's true that damage like this is inevitable when you do as the car was made to do: drive.

The thing is that I like to take care of things I like and if you can't tell from my 500 posts here, I am a rather meticulous person.

It would be one thing if I owned an offroading SUV like a Wrangler. Dents and scratches would be part of the experience from offroading. However, a road car like this one is something I want to keep not only running good, but looking good too.

What is infuriating is that little damage like these are caused by the carelessness and disregard by other people. What is worse is when people deliberately damage your car and you weren't even specifically targeted (like people walking on your hood, roof, or trunk or people throwing eggs and rocks at your car). 30 days of diarrhea is genial. I was thinking more of a curb stomp, but I guess that is too much.

Its sad but I have talked to people who get off on intentionally parking next to nice cars that are parked away from other cars and purposely door dinging them. I tell them they need to get a life. I don't think there is anything wrong with taking car of what you own in order for it to age well. How many of us have seen a good looking 10 year old car and seen one that wasn't taken care of.

LPSISRL · Mon Jul 22, 2013 7:20 pm

I think I do that with everything I own. Try to keep it looking new. Cars, electronics, I've even been known to wash the lawn mower. When I was a kid, we used to play baseball with rubber-coated league balls. They lasted longer and could get wet. I used to scrub them with a brush using soap and water so they looked new again.