[cdahl383]

Driving home last week on I-696 I heard a big thud! Thought something had hit the underneath of my car. Didn't notice it until the next day, but something had come up and scraped my passenger side fender pretty good. :SHOCKED:

Think it might have been a rock or something that flew up from someone's tire. It was a small scrape, but right down to the metal! It was too big for touch-up paint too. So I had to take it to a body shop.

Called up my insurance company, and it turns out one of the better body shops around my area is one of their direct service places. If anyone is in the Metro Detroit area and needs body work, I highly recommend Rony's Bodyshop in Taylor on Allen Rd.

So I drove it there Monday afternoon and picked it up today after work! They did an awesome job, you can't even tell anything even happened. :smileup:

Just have to wait 30 days before I can wax that area, which will kill me! Haha! Glad to have it back and looking good again. Only cost me $100 out of pocket for my comprehensive deductible, well worth it!

My garage is happy again and so is my Nova, it was getting lonely all by itself in there! Couldn't stand looking at that nasty scrape on my nice clean Challenger!

Here's a few before and after pics...

BEFORE:

AFTER:

 

[jkelly16]

They did a nice job on that, can't even tell you had anything done!

 

[70barcuda]

Looks like they did a good job. :smileup: Do you know if they repainted the entire fender? That's what I was told was necessary when I had my rear quarter damaged by someone with their truck door.

 

[cdahl383]

Yeah I agree! Did an awesome job! I was so pissed when I first saw it. I thought oh no, there goes my nice factory paint job, they'll have to blend it and it'll probably turn out crummy, etc. But that body shop is really great. What made me go with them over some other options was how many classic cars and muscle cars they have there all the time. They restore old cars and everything there as well as doing regular insurance claim type work. I'll definitely be using them in the future if I have any other issues.

Just glad to have it back and looking good again. It may not have been a huge deal to most people, but to me it was horrible! Haha!

 

[cdahl383]

He said they would have to apply some color in that area where the scrape was and then clearcoat most of the fender and part of the door to properly blend it in. So they only painted a small portion, but used clearcoat on a larger area to blend it. Whatever they did, it looks awesome, very happy with the results!

 

[MommaBetty]

Well that is great Carl. So glad you found a nice shop to do the work. I think just about everyone on the forum would feel the same as you if we had that happen!!

 

[dodge boy]

Looks great Carl!!

 

[MOPARMOM]

Phew!! Good thing you posted an after pic Carl! That first photo made my heart sink to my stomach! I'm sure you were sick when you got out and saw that! Sooooo glad your baby is good as new!:smileup:

 

[cdahl383]

Haha you're not kidding. I was super pissed and bummed at the same time. My wife was even sad, she felt bad for me. She said "I'm sorry Carl" haha! She knows how crazy I am over the car.

I sure felt good when I went to pick it up and saw how great it turned out. Now I can sleep a lot better!

 

[Dodgeguy]

Great ending to that mishap. Been there done that recently with the Charger, flying debris on the road.

 

[Hammer Down]

Congrats Carl. Glad to see you're back in business. Kudos to the shop.

 

[bad8nti]

Glad you got it fixed as good as new, Carl!

 

[letsjet]

Always go to an ultra high end body shop, Mercedes, Porsches, etc. that's where the best body and paint guys are. Pay once to get it right or keep taking it back to a lesser shop, I would never recommend a dealer for body and paint as they get them in and get em out.

Glad to see a quality hemi orange repair !

 

[cdahl383]

Yeah I took my S-10 to a smaller bodyshop to get it repaired years ago and the work wasn't all that great. I took it back and demanded they repaint it because there was mist and spots where it was light on paint. They did a little better job the second time, but at that point I didn't care anymore. It had almost 150,000 miles on it and it looked really good still, and I ended up selling it to get the Challenger anyway. At one point the when I pointed out the light spots and mist the guy told me "huh, I didn't see that in the shop under the lights". Well maybe you need better lights dude!

This shop always has a lot of nice old cars in the lot and in the shop. They do regular bodywork and also restore old classics. So I figure if guys with nice old cars trust them, they must be pretty good. Looks like I was right!

The bonus is now I have a shop to go to for my Nova if I ever need anything done. The shop that did my Nova went out of business a few years ago. They did an awesome job on my car, still get compliments on it to this day 9 years later. The owners wanted to retire though so they shut it down unfortunately. So now I have a new shop which is cool.

 

[redbull42665]

Really nice job, I know you are happy

 

[Sweden]

Thats great, Carl. I am happy that your baby looks like new again.

 

[TikiMan]

Very nice job.

 

[cdahl383]

Thanks! I drove my wife's 300 to work yesterday and while that's a really awesome car too, driving the Challenger this morning just felt right! I missed shifting and the nice V8 rumble!