I will post pics later...

However, I had parked this afternoon. Clear day. Really warm, too.

I park on the street due to the fact that bastets 87 is in the drive. Because I park on the street, I always check the rear view door mirror before getting out. So I check, nada, open the door about 8" or so, and pick up a couple of magazines.

I then open the door the rest of the way and some old lady not entirely paying attention - or with zero depth perception, clips the door!!!!

All it did was shave off a couple coats of paint and damage the drivers side door strip. My door did more damage to her car than to my door!!

I do have one question about the door... the impact was glancing. I haven't seen any stress cracks yet. How long would it take for them to show?

Andy,

First of all, good thing you didn't get personally clipped or it could have been much worse than a door. Wow, that's crazy!

It would have to have been a pretty hard hit for the fiberglass to crack. If anything, you'll probably notice the clear coat crack first and it can take a couple day to rise up to the top. Dude, that sucks a$$.

Maybe you need to replace them with gull wings or Lambo's. Sorry to hear about this Andy. It only goes to show that it's always sumpin.

Let's be honest Andy, this is how it all went down!

Sucks to hear that, Andy. Glad to hear the damage isn't that bad. But you can't blame it on the little old lady...



http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d11/vc22517.htm

Opening and Closing Doors

22517. No person shall open the door of a vehicle on the side available to moving traffic unless it is reasonably safe to do so and can be done without interfering with the movement of such traffic, nor shall any person leave a door open upon the side of a vehicle available to moving traffic for a period of time longer than necessary to load or unload passengers.

Amended Ch. 162, Stats. 1963. Effective September 20, 1963.

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That really sucks.

Which way was the door hit? Was she coming in the opposite direction and the blow just pushed the door closed? Tht would be better than the blow pushing the door towards the hood.

Your best bet is to take it down to bare SMC to check but I'll wait on the pics.

Man, that sucks - good luck, hope there's no underlying damage!

.....

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I agree, but the bold letters save my bacon.

I checked before opening the door, and with my door partially open already gave intent. When I started the act of opening the door, there was NO TRAFFIC. Remember, I always check, just for the reason stated in that statute. And most other states have the same statute.

This is a small residential street, with very light traffic. I mean LIGHT traffic. If I see 10 cars on a Sunday, that's a lot.

She had a ton of space left to adjust for my door, and did not do so. Remember, it takes two to tango and I took all reasonable precautions; I cannot be responsible for those that don't do the same.

I have parked in this exact same spot now for the last 5 years. Seriously. It points my car in the right direction for going to work... and this is the first such incident. The reason? I always look and open when safe. When I looked, she wasn't there. When I finished opening the door, she was - and she admitted to seeing my door being open and felt she gave me enough room! Apparently not...

The road is more than wide enough for her to have moved over. That is why I am reasonably convinced she has a depth perception problem. There was no two-way traffic... and she had all the room in the world to swing out.

Oh, and get this, she had just picked the car up from having the bumper fixed from a prior accident!!! I don't think this woman should still be driving. The small fender benders are really piling up... Any day now she will have that big one on the freeway because she misjudged the location of the car she passed and clips said car.

And her personality... she seemed very nice, but scatterbrained. She was quite confused and very appologetic. The dents on her front fender were minor, sure, but she was not concerned if the car was safe to drive home! uh, yea...

I am going to reinspect the door today. This happened rather late in the day yesterday and the light was not perfect. So I will check the door where the hinges mount up. I will also check for stress fractures.

The only real damage I saw yesterday was to the trailing edge of the door. There was some white showing on the very trailing edge by the rub strip, and about 1" of the rub strip was snapped off. She was traveling in the same direction I was parked in. The door barely moved.

Nuts Andy! I would have been so pissed! Glad you are ok, the stuff will fix. If the 16 year olds don't get you the 80 year olds will. It's dangerous out there!

I checked the door again in the light of day... bmwgsa looked it over, too.

We saw no signs of cracking in the door skin nor anything out of wack where the hinges mate up. Also, the door closes fine.

I think, other than a scuff, there isn't any reason to pursue this.

OOooh! What a lucky man he was ......... Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

ouch that $uck$

Not bad... she accepted responsibility and the insurance company sent me a check for $510.00.

On my way to a new paint job!!!!

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I know where there's a couple shops just outside of Washington D.C. that advertise for Complete Paint Jobs $250. I think you could get two cars painted for what the insurance company sent you.

I always thought it was odd that they could charge $250 for a paint job, yet a complete detail and polish cost about the same!!

Uh Oh! Better Get Maaco!!

For $250 they use watercolor paints.

Here you go - with money left over for some new floor mats!



Matthew

Maaco/Scheib, Eck,

But, you can find discount painters where you're at.
We have a shop here called Payless Auto Painting, they only use PPG paint.

I took my Chev van to numerous shops. All the body work was done and the truck was wetsanded, ready for primer.
The regular shops all quoted $3k.
Payless quoted $1k because it was a van and required a lot of paint (they would shoot a car at that time for $500).

They used a gal and a half of primer, sanded it, put on 2 and a half gal of metalic cherry and a gal and a half of clear. Like $550+ in materials.
Damn nice paintjob for a grand.

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paint wise, you get what you pay for......

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That's both true and false.
For bodywork and prep, it's true.

But for just shooting paint it's not. The $3k vs $1k paint thet I had done was the same high quality PPG paint, shot with the same paintguns in a booth and baked on the same way. The only differene was how much profit the bodyshops were looking for.

Yup.

I got an estimate from a shop here called One Day Paint. Alcee1 uses them and I have seen their work. They shot his 84 Vette, and it looks really nice.

They estimate me $1900 for a full on base/clear with some prep work (dings in the hood, door fix, scratch from keying, bubblign paint on top), plus a full on wet sanding. They use Sherman-Williams paint. A friend said his dealership paint shop was using their paint and didn't like them... mostly due to colour matching, but that's not a concern. The product is ok, apparently.

Sherwin Williams is good stuff.
Dealersips don't usually have the equipment (or take the time) to do good color matching. You have to have all the primary colors (lots) on the shelf and mix, shoot onto a color match card, et.

SW does make some bitchin' custom paint.

Remember your ultimate Jade Metalic????

If nothng else, you can really bling it up by adding some House of Color pearl (just a little) to the clearcoat, may cost less than $50.

I've done this and in the sun, it explodes. The yellow car behind me in my avitar has some cherry pearl in the clear on top of the yellow, you can't see it in the shade but in the sun, wow.

oooh... I am gonna check out the pearl... that would rock. That little pop is what I am after.

Thanks for the suggestion!

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Click our feiends at the left on Kustom Shop or Restoration Shop and find the House of Color.
http://www.tcpglobal.com/hokpaint/hokpearls.aspx

These are dry pearls, mix any amount you want with the clear. One tin is probably enough for the car - $30
The color chart on the web sucks, so I'd find a HoK dealer near you and go look at the charts. A Hok paint supplier will be easy to find.
You may want to look at HoK's other products for their jade type of colors but your costs will go up.

If you can get your painter to work with you, there's another technique that will make the paint pop. You shoot the first jade cost normally, then shoot a coat 70% jade mixed with 30% clear, then 50% each, then put on the clear.
Depends on how much you want to spend on paint.

The Shwewin Williams site sucks as far as their custom paints. Also note that SW makes 3 or 4 different refinishing paint types, I'd find out which your painter uses because SW does make some "inexpensie" paints.
http://www.sherwin-automotive.com/
SW's custom paint site sucks too: http://www.planetcolor.com/

You may be able to look at a planet color chart at a NAPA store, they're supposed to sell it.

Pearl Chart:

http://www.houseofkolor.com/speedshap ... edshapes_pearls.jsp#opals

aaaaarrrrgghhh!!! too many choices!!!!!

Some are too heavy, but others are nearly perfect.

I would love that bit of metallic in the clear, that would look HOT.

Not a bad price

So, you going to add any stripes while it's in there?

And maybe a hood scoop too. You know, "while you're in there."

thinking about it... but I donno yet. I might just do fender hashes.

oh, and no hood scoops.

I would consider a high-rise hood, but I ain't spending that kinda $$$.

However, I am $200 closer! I won the half in a super bowl pool.

as they say over at GRM, "that'll buff right out"