From the picture of the damage, I don’t see it being that bad at all. This repair should be a 5 day week job at the utmost; a couple of days if someone gets after it.
Unless there’s a problem locating parts, on the surface there doesn’t look like anything there that would constitute hidden damage.
As I said earlier, if your car is driveable, keep it and drive it until the body shop calls you to tell you that they have the parts and can start on the repair. I hope it all works out.
Triedaq: that lady should probably invest in a backup camera for her vehicles if she’s constantly bumping into things
I didn’t know it at the time, but the woman lives the next block over from where we live. The accident happened in the parking lot at a Lowe’s store less than half mile away. She hit the car pulling into a place and didn’t even know that she had done it.
I forgot to mention that I was also bumped a couple of years ago on the left door of my 1978 Oldsmobile. The other driver missed a curve and hit the right door with an old S-10 pickup truck. He was a college student and working a construction job for tuition money. He wanted to pay for the damage out of his pocket rather than report it to his insurance company. I had a better idea. We were cleaning out my wife’s parents’ house as they had gone to a nursing home. He was a muscular fellow with a pickup truck. He helped me and we got the job done in a day that would have taken me at least 3 days. Everybody was happy.
that Olds you can’t seem to get rid of? 
That lady should seriously look into getting better glasses, or just give up driving altogether
Well, the car was almost done, so it seems they have just taken their sweet time. I think they probably didn’t even start until it sat a couple weeks, but whatever, thank god this ordeal is almost over. I am still worried about the additional work – they already did all the work. It sounds like they have some sort of agreement with the adjuster where they send him pictures and her rubberstamps everything. I don’t know. The guy at the body shop makes it sound like it’ll be fine and the adjuster doesn’t need to come out. We will see.
They said my car would be done tomorrow, but I went today and took pictures and I think I need the trim re-painted. I guess the door they bought had a manufacturer paint job on it because the trim underneath doesn’t match. The color seems to, but not the texture. They told me that they used textured settings to match my car, but the paint job on my car is smooth and they clearly added too much texture. If I tell them I want this redone, how long should it take? Here is a pic, note the difference between the trim and the door: Hi-res: http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/4852/trim2.jpg Small/lower res: http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/4852/trim2.jpg They said test alignment, test drive and clean on Thursday and car ready by the afternoon Thursday, so could they fix the trim paint job and still have my car by Friday evening? I have to admit, their shop is full of cars. There were probably 10 in there with mine.
if you aren’t satisfied with the looks of it, tell the to redo it. You had a factory paint job when you got hit, you should get nothing less than that when you get it back.
How long should that piece of trim take? I just want to be able to call bullcrap if they tell me to come back Monday if it should be ready by Friday. I don’t want to pay for a rental over the weekend. 
"that Olds you can’t seem to get rid of? ":
bscar–yes, it is that Oldsmobile. This will be the summer that it goes–one way or another. I retired a month ago and I am in the process of getting rid of useless things. I am still cleaning out my office at work of 44 years of books, papers, etc. When I get the office cleaned out, then I am going to tackle getting rid of things at home including the Oldsmobile. I remember when we were first married and didn’t have very much. I’m ready to go back to that state.
As for the lady that hit me–she needs more than glasses. She uses a GPS to drive 2 blocks so she doesn’t get lost. She does need to give up driving.
OK, thank you for hijacking my thread. ANYWAY: Back to the paint job – anyone have any thoughts on this? Can I expect this not to take longer than an extra day? Will the shop give me problems?
If they give you any problems, remind them that the whole internet is waiting for your response on this issue. If they want to make good, they’ll do it right without any hassle.
This is the lower sill, too. They don’t normally match the doors, so be sure and verify it against the other, non-damaged side lower sill.
If they’re different, you can say you want them to match. If they’re not, they’ve done a good job.
Chase
That does not look like "texture to me, it looks like a condition called orange peel. The easy fix is to sand it down with very fine sandpaper, 400 grit first, then 1600 grit for a final sand and then a polishing compound for finishing. The clearcoat will have to be reapplied, if they put on a clearcoat at all.
Orange peel can be caused by too much paint and/or improper preparation. If its improper preparation, it will show up when its sanded.
This happens a lot in painting. There is a good chance that they will have fixed it by the time you pick it up. I’m kinda shocked that they BS’ed you with the texture story.
No, they told me it would take another few days to fix and that would mean they’d have to keep my car over a weekend. I didn’t think I should have to pay for another week’s worth of car rental so we agreed I would come back later for it to be fixed. They told me something about how the paint/finish should “cure” for 30 days so they can sand it down and redo it. That 30-day thing sounds like bullcrap to me, but the shop manager signed a statement saying I wasn’t satisfied with the paint and I can bring it back to be redone. I also set up an appointment when I paid so she wrote the redo date on my invoice. They have a lifetime warranty on repairs; their paint warranty only says it doesn’t cover rock chips and bird poo. If they try to charge me any money for redoing it, I will raise hell.
I also noticed my one headlight is out, but I don’t think I can blame it on the body shop. My seatbelt is acting weird and tightening when I should be able to move it, but again, I’m not sure if that’s their fault. Oh well. Can’t wait for this to be over. THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR HELP. I was panicking and freaking out and you guys made it better. I appreciate it. 
Your seat belt is mounted in that pillar where I’m sure some of that work was done, or it may have been damaged in the accident. Don’t let this go. It may just be acting weird, but it may also fail when you need it.
It’s also common for bulbs to get damaged in accidents. They can only put up with so much shaking around, just like the lights in your house. You give one a good smack, and it’ll blow.
Chase
I know this thread is old but I am still dealing with the body shop. I had them replace my seatbelt and it works fine now. They also replaced my bulb for me and greased my door or something so it closes more smoothly. But now the warning alarm my car sounds if I leave my lights on isn’t working. I have left my car lights on three times in just a few days and my car needed to be jumpstarted just to get into work one day! I called the body shop and they are acting like it’s ridiculous that the alarm broke when they fixed the headlight and seatbelt, but that’s exactly happened. I’m worried they aren’t going to fix this, or are just going to make things worse. It seems like everytime I take my car back, they create a new problem. The warning sounds for my seatbelt work fine, but warning sounds for the door opening with my lights on or my door opening while the car is in motion do not work. Anyone have any thoughts on this? What could have caused this problem? I’m so annoyed!
Do the interior lights come on when you open the door? If not, all of those things can be linked to the plunger switch that signals the door is open/closed. It’s usually located on the door jamb or at the front pillar.
The interior lights come on when I unlock the door or turn off the ignition. Door opening and closing doesn’t seem to affect the interior lights, but I honestly can’t remember what the normal behavior for my interior lights is, other than they should go on when the car is turned off.
To be clear, when I leave my headlights in, a beeping alarm is supposed to go off when I open the door. It currently doesn’t for ANY of the four doors. There is also supposed to be a solid alarm if I open my door while the car is in motion and I have been unable to replicate that sound as well. My car is a Ford Focus SES 2007.
I will suggest they look at the plunger switch since they did do something to ensure my door closes more smoothly. I thought maybe they greased it, but I don’t know what they did. The door was feeling heavy and making noises so I had them fix that.
Don’t take a car to a bodyshop for an electrical problem even if they caused it.
