Hello, I am new here and have recently bought a 2010 Fabia 1.4 tdi in black. Great little car. Problem is yesterday morning I stopped off at a supermarket to get coffee before work and as I was turning into a parking space I heard a massive crunch - got out and I'd driven past a bollard and damaged my passenger front door and buckled the sill. Rang work to let them know and drove to a body shop where I was quoted around £450 to repair with the possibility it's a write off. My excess is £450 so no point going through the insurance (or is there?). I wondered if its possible to reshape the sill with pliers, hammer etc and reshape with fibreglass body filler? Got a door from a scrap yard. Would this be MOT failure/dangerous to do? I don't have the money to get it done professionally.

12 minutes ago, JPW2010 said:

Hello, I am new here and have recently bought a 2010 Fabia 1.4 tdi in black. Great little car. Problem is yesterday morning I stopped off at a supermarket to get coffee before work and as I was turning into a parking space I heard a massive crunch - got out and I'd driven past a bollard and damaged my passenger front door and buckled the sill. Rang work to let them know and drove to a body shop where I was quoted around £450 to repair with the possibility it's a write off. My excess is £450 so no point going through the insurance (or is there?). I wondered if its possible to reshape the sill with pliers, hammer etc and reshape with fibreglass body filler? Got a door from a scrap yard. Would this be MOT failure/dangerous to do? I don't have the money to get it done professionally.

 

That doesn't look very good at all mate, although everything is fixable. I'm not sure about UK laws but I don't see why it would be a reason to fail an MOT. 

You CAN fix it yourself it you've done bodywork before - the sills on VAG cars are pretty much like playdough so you get quite a few bent or dented, mine suffers from it too. 

 

The decision is pretty much the following

• You fix it yourself
  • Risk rust due to improper repair
  • Probably going to be very difficult to get it looking good
  • You're likely going to spend close to your insurance excess to fix it
  • BUT it is cheaper
• Save up and Pay a body shop
  • ~450 out of pocket
  • Proper repair (assumption)
  • You have to wait
• Insurance
  • ~450 out of pocket again
  • Going to be done right
  • You have to wait...
  • Insurance premium might go up

 

To be honest, depending on how much you care about the car, I'd attempt to do the major parts myself (pulling it back into shape as much as possible) and saving up to get a panel beater to do the rest. If you decide to do it yourself, use as little filler as possible and try get the metal back into shape first.

 

 

Cheers

You will struggle to pull it back into shape and in the end it will look worse. It’s too deep to fill with filla. Even if you managed to do either it would be unlikely to be watertight which will cause you more issues. 
At £450 I’d get it cut out and replaced. Your insurance isn’t going to go up either with having a claim against you. 

Thanks for the response. I will try to reshape it as best as I can. Pretty handy with sculpting so I’ll have a go with filler. Any recommendations for type of filler to use in this area? Nice one. Really appreciate your input.

That is a fairly good clump there and you've rippled a major bit of the car.

 

I can't help thinking that it needs assessment and then repair by someone who knows what they are doing so you can be assured it is safe. That's aside from the aesthetics, you'll almost certainly not manage to make it look even acceptable with pliers, a hammer and tons of fibreglass filler, whatever your sculpting skills.

 

Its my view, but in your place I'd either get it repaired properly or sell it as is for scrap/repairs and put that cash together with the money you'd spend on the repair towards something else that is undamaged.

 

As they say, YMMV, but I can't help thinking that a self repair will at best be a dogs breakfast and at worst unsafe.

 

I would personally get the sill fixed by a semi-pro to get a safe job. It is not corroded so filling might be do-able but will still need straightening as much as possible, prior to filling and painting. Might be quicker to chop it out and fit a new sill. Most of these sorts of panels are quite cheap. could even be cheaper to buy your own and get the bodyshop to fit/paint your part.

That might give you time to then source a used door. I just binned a damaged one I was keeping for a spare, as I had a garage flood and needed to clear up. Doh! That said, my guy said it would be just as easy to swap the door as to fix it, which I did. I paid a mere £40 for a complete door, had it fitted and painted my colour inside and out, with my parts all refitted, for £250. I had all the spare parts, motor, wiring loom, glass, etc but binned them! Shame really, I could easily have re-couped the door price!

If you were quoted £450 for the door fix, along with the sill, etc, thats a good deal!

 

I looked again at your damage... Its the inner and outer part of the sill bent... I think a proper fix is the ONLY way to go. Again, the price was a steal!

I also think the insurance will say that is a thousand pound up repair for that. I was quoted £1800-plus for a door, along with the mirror. The door was dented, the mirror broke beyond repair but cheap and simple to fix! The company wrote it off, paid me the cars pre-accident value, less a fee to keep the car or around £300. I got the fix I mentioned, got the small bonnet dent fixed and the alloys renovated for around £850-900! (They valued the car low, at around £2300. They go low if your wheels are scratched and any other dents are there, despite saying it is worth about the same value without the damage. I think its a way of trying to get more diesels off the road!

So, now, my car should be worth MORE then they claimed as I fixed things, and had the mot done again. The big difference here was my car was damaged by a mini cab drivers passenger opening his door as I was passing. You did your own damage so you will most likely lose a bit of NCD bonus, along with your excess fee. If they write it off as a low group cat, you could end up better off, if they write it off as a total loss, you will be without wheels and if you pay and do not inform them, its still worth the same as pre-accident. As long as it is a good repair, of course! Usually, after a write off/repair, it will be worth 10% less but thats a small amount and if you DID get a lump sum and made things better, it will be worth more anyway so 10% less then say, £2,900 is better then 10% less then £2,300.

 

My gut feeling is pay for the fix, though and learn from it!

Edited 14 October, 20196 yr by mrgf