2004 Fender Repair

[Roger]

The left front fender of my three-month old 325 got a bit crunched. The area is just ahead of the wheel opening, and I'm wondering if I should let my bodyman try to straighten it, or just get a new fender. The car is a Titanium Silver four door.

The cost is about the same, and the guy doing the work is very good. He does not do much work on BMW's (mine may be his first 3-series), but is pretty confident he can straighten things out, despite the complex stampings in this area of the body.

My question is, should I let him try,, or just get a new fender? A new fender will be perfect, but he has to spray onto the front of the driver's door to insure an even flow of the color (he has a big shop, insists matching the Titanium won't be a problem). Will a new fender mess up the rust protection of the original bodywork? I'm in the rust belt, and this is an issue. Also, the color on the inside of the fender, under the open engine bay looks different than the exterior finish. Will this be a problem to match?

If he hammers it out, the spraying will be limited to only about half of the fender, and the original body part stays attached, with the factory rustproofing and interior finsh.

Has anyone got any experience or recommendations on this? Thanks!

[xspeedy]

How bad is the dent? If you haven't scraped off the original paint, and the dent is fairly clean (no hard creases), you might be able to have it repaired inexpensively via PDR (Paintless Dent Repair). It is worth giving a shot before you try repainting or replacing the fender.

[325SMG]

How bad is the dent? If you haven't scraped off the original paint, and the dent is fairly clean (no hard creases), you might be able to have it repaired inexpensively via PDR (Paintless Dent Repair). It is worth giving a shot before you try repainting or replacing the fender.
I wouldn't trust Paintless Dent Repair to make the fender look brand new. I had a small dent on hood of the car (above the driver side door, but on the hood panel), and the removed the headliner to try to hammer it out from the inside (Paintless Dent Repair), but you can still see a little imperfection where the dent was. Just something to think about.

[Jeff_DML]

my wife did it on our wagon and it doesnt look that IMHO :(

If the cost is the same for a new one then why not? worried about the paint not matching? how much are they charging you? I got a quote of over $2k from 2 places. Not even close to the paintless dent repair cost.

[xspeedy]

I wouldn't trust Paintless Dent Repair to make the fender look brand new. I had a small dent on hood of the car (above the driver side door, but on the hood panel), and the removed the headliner to try to hammer it out from the inside (Paintless Dent Repair), but you can still see a little imperfection where the dent was. Just something to think about.

But when it comes to resale, a repaint will get detected and a crash will be assumed. Better to do PDR, save a bunch of cash and keep the original paint. If all that is left is a slight imperfection, then so be it - it'll just look like a small door ding. Repaint is a hassle because you have to worry about things not being quite right, and then you shell out a lot and lose resale at the same time. Always best to go with what is the simpler repair.

Besides, good PDR should leave a repair that is just about undetectable.

[HW]

a crunch in a complex area such as the near the wheel well i think may not be possible w/ pdr. got pix? i would also think that you should paint the whole fender in either case (hammer out and bondo or new fender). but then again, i don't know how good colour matching and blending is these days.