View Single Post
Old 03-11-2018, 04:17 PM   #1
V
Stalker
 
V's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 12,077
iTrader: (12)
Dented door/ body work advice needed

So this morning someone decided to back out of their driveway and play bumper cars with my moms '14 Cadillac ATS. Well, both drivers side doors got damaged. The other party is paying for repairs, either privately or insurance, so I need to now go take the car this week to get an estimate or two.

My question is as to whether I should expect the doors to be fixed or replaced. I have some experience with dealing with body work and estimates before and I've always been pretty close on what I come up with compared to the body shop but I need some input as to when a door is repaired vs. being replaced. The hit was mainly right between the 2 doors, and the rocker/b-pillar do not seem to have been touched. The front door is caved in right at the edge but when you open the door, the inside edge/frame is also deformed slightly and the paint has cracked/flaked off. This leads me to believe the whole door may be quicker to swap then to bodywork back into shape(cheaper from a financial aspect too). The rear door, I feel is repairable, but the hinge was affected and the door shifted down in the back where the latch is. The bottom edges of the doors where they meet are also out of alignment, but I feel this could easily be corrected with adjustment or a new hinge at the most.

Being that the repair is not an insurance job (as of right now), should I request the estimate to reflect replacing both doors entirely? I priced them out through GM and the door shells are just shy of 600 each. I feel with the repair on the current front door, labor would exceed, or at least match that amount. Plus they have to remove the door panel and weather stripping in order to repaint the inner jambs properly anyway.

Another thing is the paint. It is a tri-coat metallic, "red obsession". So blending the paint will involve a little more skill and also a little more cost for the paint.

In my mind, I'm figuring on an estimate between $2500 and $3500. With replacing both doors, I'd expect it to be on the higher end, at 3100-3500. With repairing both doors, I'd expect around 2500, maybe just under. And I feel that replacing the front door and fixing the rear would be around the 3k mark. Personally, I think I'd want the front door replaced.

As for the car it is a 2014 Cadillac ATS Luxury, 2.0 turbo awd auto, all basically options, one owner, with only 6,xxx miles.


V is offline   Reply With Quote