Took my Honda to Maaco after a car accident...

[6thgenius]

The front of my car was damaged in a car accident. Insurance company credited me a certain amount of $ and I had two options:

1. Take it to a decent body shop where they would pull the frame and paint the front bumper.

2. Go with Maaco where they would pull the frame, fix my old dents and paint the whole car for the same price.

I chose Maaco, cause everything looked good on paper, but when I saw the car today, it looked like they did everything except pooling the frame... Gonna pick it up tomorrow morning, but not sure if I should.

Here's how it looked before:







I'll post "after" pics tomorrow - new paint, no dents, the hood sits straight... But this is where it looks the same:



Am I right? They decided not to pull the frame?

 

[xci.ed6]

It looks like the gap is wider on the passenger side than it is on driver side? Might be able to fix it by bumping (loose-ish bolts) or bending (tight) hinges.

mess w/ the latch after if it has problems.

 

[6thgenius]

Are you talking about the left and right side of the hood? There's no gap there now. But the passenger's side looks like it's coming out, the hood doesn't cover the headlight completely... If it makes sense

 

[6thgenius]

The other car hit me right under the headlight on the driver side, I guess that's why the passenger side is sticking out. I should've taken a couple of pics. It would be easier to see the problem... I'm just trynna decide whether I should make them fix it completely, or just deal with it later. I'm tired of rental cars...
P.S. Maaco will charge me almost 2k for their work...

 

[xci.ed6]

$2k seems reasonable for labor hours

most of their 'fixes' are half-assed....usually their goal is to paint them so you can sell them asap, nothing about 'real' fix...

Some of your stuff may need a few bolt holes enlarged to get it all lined up correctly, you may also need a 'shim' or two

harbor-freight...

 

[CokeZero]

If that bottom pic is the car after they 'fixed' it, don't accept it. You said the gap in the hood on the passenger side isn't there now, well thats 1 problem fixed. but your shelling out 2 grand and you can still tell its obviously still pushed to the right.

Fix it while it's still their problem, they agreed to it make them do it. Once you take the car back there is only so much you can do if it isn't right.

 

[xci.ed6]

yeah, that's true, you complain until it gets right...sometimes, you just give up...

Been fixing foolish shop repairs myself...

I would limit complaints to ~2 so times they can/will re-do, 3+ times means you should have done more research.

 

[6thgenius]

Alright, thank you guys for your time.

 

[Brad2274]

i had a similar accident, damage below the headlight, its where the metal bumper is which is meant to squish in an accident. and behind that are the frame horns, they tried pulling the horns on mine but we had to get a donor car and cut horns and weld good ones in.

they probably skipped the frame completely on your car or didnt align the front bumper brackets, not safe to drive a car with crushed frame.

i wouldve removed the bumper to take pictures and then expect after pictures of it.

 

[6thgenius]

They told me that the part I need to replace costs $50 and it'll take a couple of days. The total estimate's around $400. I'll just deal with it later.
Here are the pics: