Aluminum Doors

3664 Views 8 Replies 6 Participants Last post by lefty, Nov 26, 2020

marschja

Discussion Starter · Nov 19, 2020

The other day an exuberant golden doodle chasing some other dogs ran into the driver's side door of our 2018 base Clarity PHEV as my wife was approaching our house. Charlie left a good-sized dent in our driver's side door; fortunately, the collision didn't harm the dog. Yesterday, I took the car to a local body shop for an estimate. They took photos and jotted down all my info and then called me back with the estimate--it was nearly $4,000! The door (as well as the rest of the body?) is made of aluminum. They can't just replace the skin; they have to replace the whole door. On top of that, because we have a pearl white paint, they need to repaint the whole driver's side of the car. We have a $250 deductible for collision but I am worried our rates will go up after this. We pay close to $1,000/yr to insure the car. Wow.

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ClarityDave

· #2 · Nov 19, 2020

marschja said:
The other day an exuberant golden doodle chasing some other dogs ran into the driver's side door of our 2018 base Clarity PHEV as my wife was approaching our house. Charlie left a good-sized dent in our driver's side door; fortunately, the collision didn't harm the dog. Yesterday, I took the car to a local body shop for an estimate. They took photos and jotted down all my info and then called me back with the estimate--it was nearly $4,000! The door (as well as the rest of the body?) is made of aluminum. They can't just replace the skin; they have to replace the whole door. On top of that, because we have a pearl white paint, they need to repaint the whole driver's side of the car. We have a $250 deductible for collision but I am worried our rates will go up after this. We pay close to $1,000/yr to insure the car. Wow.

So the golden doodle didn’t have liability insurance? :grin: That’s interesting about the body. I just went to the garage and checked and most of the Clarity body is aluminum with the exception of perhaps the roof and rear fenders. We have a Chrysler Pacific hybrid and it uses aluminum on the rear doors, rear hatch, and the hood (the rest is steel).

By the way, there are some companies that will access the door from either the edge or the inside with tools that can push certain kinds of dents back out. It may not be perfect or it may not even work at all but maybe worth a little investigation.

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ClarityDave

· #3 · Nov 19, 2020

marschja said:
The other day an exuberant golden doodle chasing some other dogs ran into the driver's side door of our 2018 base Clarity PHEV as my wife was approaching our house. Charlie left a good-sized dent in our driver's side door; fortunately, the collision didn't harm the dog. Yesterday, I took the car to a local body shop for an estimate. They took photos and jotted down all my info and then called me back with the estimate--it was nearly $4,000! The door (as well as the rest of the body?) is made of aluminum. They can't just replace the skin; they have to replace the whole door. On top of that, because we have a pearl white paint, they need to repaint the whole driver's side of the car. We have a $250 deductible for collision but I am worried our rates will go up after this. We pay close to $1,000/yr to insure the car. Wow.

Another thought. Kinda depends on how reasonable your neighbor is, but he/she should take responsibility for a dog running loose and doing that. His/her homeowner’s or umbrella policy might cover it. In fact, if you tell your insurance company the story they may subrogate and try to get the other person’s insurance to cover it (in which case it shouldn’t be counted against you). If so, they may decide to keep their dog on a leash in the future!

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marschja

Discussion Starter · #4 · Nov 19, 2020

Thanks for this good suggestion, Clarity Dave.

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MPG+

· #5 · Nov 19, 2020

My experience with Clarity dents. I was adjusting kayak racks on my Clarity's roof and put weight on a knee resting on top. Well, soon enough I had a couple of good sized dimples in that area from where my knee was (I heard it when it happened). Safety wise, the passengers are probably protected if a roll over occurred, but a concentrated force in one spot is going to do some damage. Anyway, my local Honda dealer arranged for a private contractor to fix it (Dent Dr.); I think they use some kind of suction but it came out great, albeit for $350 and no painting required; lesson learned.

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DucRider

· #6 · Nov 19, 2020

Several years ago, we were hauling a largish (14') Christmas Tree home on the roof of our Fit EV. As we were driving, could hear popping metal sounds from the roof. After we got home and took the tree off, there were about half a dozen dented spots in the roof. "Punched" up from inside the car and they popped right back and were virtually undetectable. Same thing happened the following year. I learned to use a thick pad when hauling trees to spread the load. I was never going to be able to buy the Fit EV, so not as concerned about it as a car I would actually own.

Metal, including aluminum, has a memory and will want to go back to the original shape. The paint free dent services have a very good chance of a satisfactory fix at a fraction of the cost quoted by the body shop.

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ClarityDave

· #7 · Nov 20, 2020

MPG+ said:
My experience with Clarity dents. I was adjusting kayak racks on my Clarity's roof and put weight on a knee resting on top. Well, soon enough I had a couple of good sized dimples in that area from where my knee was (I heard it when it happened). Safety wise, the passengers are probably protected if a roll over occurred, but a concentrated force in one spot is going to do some damage. Anyway, my local Honda dealer arranged for a private contractor to fix it (Dent Dr.); I think they use some kind of suction but it came out great, albeit for $350 and no painting required; lesson learned.

That reminds me, I think Harbor Freight has various sized suction cups that are specifically made for that purpose. I suppose that could be particularly useful on a large dent that needs to be pulled out (if you have a hankering to try it yourself).

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[email protected]

· #8 · Nov 26, 2020

Yes, by all means check out for your own satisfaction "paint-less dent repair" on youtube...It's AMAZING what can be done with suction cups and special tools, almost unbelievable what can be done with the most smashed up auto panels...if the paint hasn't been peeled or cracked then it probably can be fixed without any painting...from the damage you described, you are a "dead wringer" for getting that fixed with the "paint-less dent repair" process...save yourself several thousand from that body shop estimate...they probably haven't been trained on paintless dent repair.

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lefty

· #9 · Nov 26, 2020

At a minimum

I would ask to see an itemized billing estimate from the dealer/body shop. I had to replace the driver's side door on my 2018 Clarity Touring when I was in the process of opening it and somebody pulled in to the parking spot next to me and practically tore it off. The other guys' insurance ended up paying for it, but it was also white and I'm pretty sure the bill didn't come to $4,000. Definitely let your insurance company know and see what they can do on their end with the other person's home insurance.

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