I took a nice shot of my car on Monday  :sun:

 

And some not-so-nice shots on Tuesday 

 

 

A guy driving a focus decided to share some of his car's paintwork with mine.

Mirror, signal, manoeuvre. 

 

Look like I'm going to need some T Cut and a bit of elbow grease.

Edited 8 November, 20196 yr by xdq

Oh mate :(

 

Gorgeous O3 in the BEST colour, well...I would say that

Awe man, that just sucks. 

Awful luck there xdq

 

Thats a full repair and repaint of one side needed 

The doors are replaceable but I hope they can do a good job of removing the bash from the rear arch.

On the plus side I'm going to ask the guy whether he can repair a small scratch on the other side and the stone chips on the bonnet at the same time. Hopefully it'll be a bit cheaper if they've already got the car prepped, the paint mixed etc.

Think I would get out of my car see that damage and be physically sick. In six months when it's all done and dusted his car would be getting another visit as well.

Do you know who did this ???

Do you know who did this ???

 

Yeah it was a coming-together at a crossroads.

I was in the left lane, sign painted on the ground shows it's for left turns.

He was in the right lane behind another car, sign painted on the ground shows ahead & right turns.

Lights were on green but I was taking it slowly as it's a 90 degree turn and there's a sunken drain cover in the middle of the road. (VRS on 19" Xtremes doesn't like bumps)

The car in front of the guy was waiting to turn right and he intended to go straight ahead. As I came alongside him to make my turn he decided to drive around the waiting car but didn't check his mirrors.

 

So all things going well our insurance companies will both agree that he was at fault.

 

Edited 22 September, 20169 yr by xdq

Bad story Bro :(

 

Yeah good idea, use abrasive cutting compound and it will take out hopefully most of the pain or enough to see whats going on.

Though may I say plenty better products out there than Avg Joe product T'Cut though, mind (despite this being etched into the public imagination as the only and only product for paint finishing).

 

A good comparison it makes me think of in regard to legacy well known names versus better products is like Sellotape TM versus scotch TM Magic tape, anyone tried the 2 and know what I'm on about?

( i.e. yellowing, impossible tearing, etc)

 

You think I need to polish my car and then think TCut, I think, christ, is that all I have Maybe I should just use brasso....not much between em they smell the same

Loads else you can use better. 3M finesse it/perfect it, Meguiars, Collinite, etc etc. Just saying. If thats what you have so be it.

Another though, you definitely not gonna claim ? If you are you might want to leave it as as, honest damage.

 

If it looks like its not new and you are concealing might not look good for evaluation of damage - get it quoted/checked first if you thinking about that route ?

Oh yes I'm claiming, the t cut was tongue in cheek

Both doors have a crease running along them and the arch is pushed in a little. If the car was older and if it was my fault then I wouldn't bother.

Out of curiosity I checked eBay to see what doors are selling for. There's not much for the mk3 but if I had a mk2 the doors are £50 upwards.

The body shop guy reckoned two new doors and attempt to rectify the arch damage.

I don't know what happens if they can't fix the arch. Would they fill it, cut and weld a new panel or (doubt it) write-off the car as it's integral to the rest of the body?

Oh yes I'm claiming, the t cut was tongue in cheek

...

I don't know what happens if they can't fix the arch. Would they fill it, cut and weld a new panel or (doubt it) write-off the car as it's integral to the rest of the body?

 

 

Ah, T-Cut. Works best when applied with a Brillo pad.   (Not really.)

 

I've had a few damaged arches and damaged doors like that over the years (not my fault) and the usual repair is fill the arch, skin the door, paint the whole side. The arch profile can be a barsteward, even for the best bodyshop. Don't hesitate to complain if they don't get it right to your satisfaction - and the colour match, to state the bleedin' obvious.

Remember

 

1) you can pic your own repair shop, not the insurers.

 

2) You might want to get a like-for-like hirecar on their insurance, not a noddy car, if you have genuine justification (family, dogs, distance etc.)

The days of repairing doors are long gone. If it's an insurance job it'll be two new doors.

Silly question time... Do the body shop order the doors from Skoda in the race blue colour or do they get a bare door and paint it themselves? The car is only 11 months old so hopefully the rest of the car hasn't faded too much for it to be an easy match.

 

The wheel arch is my main concern. If they fill and paint it how long does that last. Or if they pull it out and it's not (close to) perfect what else can be done?

 

I've gone through Skoda's Ensurance partly because of the loan car situation. My insurance states 1L, small manual car but I had a Fabia courtesy car once before and that was too small. I'm not expecting a VRS equivalent but I'll be asking for something bigger at least.

 

 

On the plus side, since I've taken photos and the bodyshop guy has done the same I gave it a wash today. Giving the doors an aggressive scrub with Autoglym super resin polish (no brillo pads though ) I managed to remove the focus' paint and hide a couple of the scratches - they'll return once the fillers wash out.

Edited 23 September, 20169 yr by xdq

My car had a bang this week and it sucks, mostly my fault, 60.40. My bumper is scraped. I live in newcastle and one of the sugested companys aveva sugested is in benton square industrial estate called north east accident repair centre. I specificaly ,mentioned is this vw group approved and recive an evasive answer, like this is where all our new cars go. Having never had an accident in 20 years of passing my test the whole thing is relatively stressful having visions of them not ,maching the paint colour. The company who aviva apoint is vizion. It all smacks of cheep and nasty, but i could just being cynical.

I doubt they would do to an unprofessional standard, last thing they want is car being returned and their future business jeapourdised with the insurance.

 

Longevity ? Hard to say, but I would expect them to aim to slap on as little fillers as possible

( going by dissusion of someone with family experience lifetime in this trade area, and direct experience of watching them remove golf ball sized barrier dints ).

 

But this isn't hard for most to imagine either, we are bombarded with all the ads about paintless repair etc, the technicques for repairing the increasingly thin tin cans are out there.

 

Fillers is for bodgers and amateurs. Repair professionals will use pullers etc to get it as close to perfect as possible.

Then there still be some fillers required but I would expect it to be much.

Any concerns about that specifically why not go just ask them. Maybe even ask if they can send you a couple of snaps of the most difficult bit of the repair.

Dunno about others it could vary but I have had experience of having a door changed on wifes car.

 

My wife had a knock on the old MPI - one thing very obvious after they repaired the door ( which was faultless, colour was pretty much spot on ),

but on normally slamming it shut, the weight of it was completely unlike the old door it didn't have the confidence inspiring clunk weight of before:)

 

I'm sure it was a pattern and it did annoy me that they charge £1000's for repair then can often use substandard parts.

If I had that on any of my current cars, I'd definitely be telling them about it.

I wasn't bothered about that the wifes 1.4MPi so much ( used to be mine!) but would definitely be piping up if I ever experienced that on one of my own cars.

I'm surprised to hear that even the doors could be non-genuine parts.

Alpha: I've gone through Skoda ensurance in the hope that the body shop being "vw approved" actually means something and because they promise to use manufacturer parts and paints.

...

 

I've gone through Skoda's Ensurance partly because of the loan car situation. My insurance states 1L, small manual car but I had a Fabia courtesy car once before and that was too small. I'm not expecting a VRS equivalent but I'll be asking for something bigger at least.

 

...

 

 

 

As Jono said before this - THEIR insurance should be paying for everything, including the loan car. The fact YOUR insurance might have something small as the default loan car size is irrelevant. They'll try to get away with the cheapest possible (and pressure you into accepting), but you've a legal right to expect (and insist on) something roughly comparable with yours in terms of size (and auto gearbox if preferred) and ability.

My old Saab 9-5 (2.3t, 220 bhp) once was hit by a BMW X5 and wrecked a wing. (Just reversed in to me, 100% her fault) and her insurers - Diamond - pestered me for weeks afterwards (and they shouldn't be contacting you at all) to justify the supplied BMW 520d.

Told them to eff off fairly politely and I wasn't prepared to do a 700 mile weekend round trip we had planned (which was true) with four on board in their preferred Ford Fiesta 1.4.

 

This also applies even if you're both with the same company.

 

AFAIK Skoda Ensurance is just a "manager" of the process - not a decision maker.

As Jono said before this - THEIR insurance should be paying for everything, including the loan car. ...

Thanks for pointing that out. I had a feeling that's the case but wasn't sure. I did have a Fabia diesel as a courtesy car once and it was a very noisy relative to the larger Octavia and not enough boot space for or bulky pram.

You are lucky they have copped 100% blame early on.

I spent months driving around with a big dint until they finally admitted it (they finally checked the police report, despite my insistence that it should be job 1....).

If they hadn't ****ed me about so much then I might not have pursued the hirecar, injuries and expenses as thoroughly and it would have saved them thousands.

 

Then I took great delight in making sure they had to cough up for like for like. Long distances, camping trip, 2 dogs, safety - all genuine rationales. 

 

Was a A4 S-Line DSG auto. I hated it... So very basic and way more expensive than the equivalent Octy.
 

I chose my own repairer too.

 

I asked who the local VAG dealerships used  - it turned out it was the local VW bodyshop, so went there.

They tried to pressure me by saying I wouldn't get a courtesy car if I went there. It didn't work.

Thanks to everyone for the input I've been in quite a few accidents but never my car or with me driving so it's been an interesting experience.

I'm hoping they don't contest the liability but we all know what the insurance companies are like. It wouldn't surprise me if the third party insurer tried to argue that I was undertaking or something to push for 50/50.

 

I've done the personal injury claim route before when I couldn't work for a few weeks after my knees were pushed against the dashboard in a bump - back when my job involved kneeling down fixing photocopiers or carrying them up flights of stairs - and it was still only just worth the trade-off of hassle vs fair compensation for taking time off work. Fortunately this was so low speed that any claims would be laughed at.

 

 

The doors are still creased and the deeper scratches visible but from my lounge it looks 'ok' for now.

Edited 24 September, 20169 yr by xdq

I'm surprised to hear that even the doors could be non-genuine parts.

Alpha: I've gone through Skoda ensurance in the hope that the body shop being "vw approved" actually means something and because they promise to use manufacturer parts and paints.

Good advice cheers i am going to use this, vw have a place on the tyne tunnel trading estate.