Well, my car is finally back, and I'm just glad it's over.. The car came out pretty fresh, but it wasn't easy. It was insanely disturbing, when you worrying abt your car for months, whether or not it'll be totaled haha. Still wish it didn't happen, but whatever, I shouldn't be complaining too much, after getting a fresh fender + headlights, along with fresh clearcoats on my hood & side door. Poor phone pic quality but here are some comparisons:
The initial quote was an aftermarket fender, so I requested an OEM fender to be paint-matched at its best. Job well done, and I am extremely happy w/ the fender. Plus, they replaced my original worn out fender well as well. The shop were able to buff off those tire marks on the bumper edge and the front lip's clear bra.
They were able to partial-paint my front bumper, masking off my dipped upper grille. I can tell that there is a work applied where it has been touched up on the scratch, but it's hard to tell if you're not told. My front bumper was flawless before this, so I am ok w/ the bumper.
Touched up, and the whole door panel is clear coated to paint-match with the fender. Pretty happy with the door. They also clear coated the hood for the same purpose. Can't be happier.
The shop was originally trying to cut it out and re-weld the brand new piece, and this took some extra 2 wks for them to get the new piece from the east coast + Christmas holiday shop closure. They originally thought that it could simply be done from underneath the car, but Interestingly, it turned out that the whole dash needed to be removed first in order to properly get the job done. I have an aftermarket vehicle security system & some aux LED wirings, etc everywhere inside the dash, so I told them to stop replacing but repair the damaged section. It was cool that the insurance was willing to cover the cost of this work but I figured it could be more hectic, if there was something wrong to my alarm. ($900 alarm vs $300 re-welded piece, I'd take care my alarm.) It was like fixing a scratch underneath a skateboard, so we were both agreed to stop and simply added more under coatings and left it there for good.
Pretty sure it was just buffed off.
Poor pic, but this one has essentially zero evidence. Super happy with the rear lip. The muffler tip still has some scratches on it, but I can simply polish them by myself.
I had this paint chip by a hit 'n run, for almost 9 years. (Pic is from '08 right after the hit. Most of it was buffed off but it left the paint crack.) They fixed it anyways, since my car was sitting at the shop for a long time. That was very nice of them. It's pretty good job, you can't tell it was refinished unless you're told 'n see it in close-up. Very x2 thankful for their kindness, my rear bumper is pretty much flawless once again.
Lastly, it had a wheel alignment service, restored to my original alignment spec. No major work was applied on my front lip besides buffing off the tire mark on the edge. However, it left some minor microscopic paint cracks on the edge, but I guess I'll pretend like those aren't there. More or less, I'm glad that the poly-u front lip w/ clear bra saved itself from the impact.
Over all, the car came out fresh as ever, so I'd like to believe that I got the max benefit out of this. But like I said, it wasn't easy haha.. I will post more pics 'n details abt my new headlights and how I wired the LEDs to my liking. So plz stay tuned!
GLOVEBOX
This is great news, I'm glad your getting her back.
