Recently my g/f backed into the passenger side door of a dark blue Honda Civic. There was paint transferred between her rear bumper (white)and the door. Looking at the three pictures taken of the door, it appears the area of of paint deposited on the door is about 2 x 4 inches and is exactly in the middle. There is a finger line where my girlfriend wiped the scuff off.
The estimate the other party sent was for $823. My question is, assuming there was a scratch that wasn’t apparent in the pictures, what would be a reasonable amount to re-paint a scratch? I know the paint has to be blended, but how far out does it have to go? The estimate includes the following: Rpr LT outer panel, R&I belt w/strip, Repl LT body side mldg, R&I LT handle, R&I LT trim panel, blend outer panel, R&I LT belt w/strip, Repl LT Body side mdlg,R&I LT mirror assy, R&I LT handle, R&I LT trim panel. Parts= $117, body labor= 7.7 hrs. @ $46, paint labor= 5 hrs @ $46/h, paint supplies= $125 @ $25/hr. for a total of $826.23.
That seems a excessive, but I’m not an expert. Any thoughts?
If you damaged the paint on my car to the point that a repaint was needed, you would be paying for a repaint of the entire body panel. Paint blending, especially on pearl or metallic coats (which Honda tends to use) is imperfect, and there will always be a line of demarcation. Better that the line is at an actual body line than in the middle of a panel. From what you posted, it looks like the body shop is doing that.
That labor, btw, is astonishingly cheap, at least where I live. Most here would charge nearly double that.
Also sounds like she damaged some body molding.
For the paint job to look right, yes, they need to do the whole door.
Thanks for the response. There wasn’t any damage to body molding, the door didn’t have any on it aside from the very bottom of the car. The only place the car was impacted was the very middle of the pass. side front door. I’m just not sure based on the photos that anything had to be repainted. I’ll try to post a picture later tonight. Thanks again. Backing into a parked car is obviously her fault, but I just want to make sure she’s not getting taken for a ride.
Without seeing the damage the price seems fair. All of the R&I is correct, it needs to be done. If the scratch is deep enough then painting is in order, after all, you cannot buff off what is not there.
Why are the door mouldings being replaced? You state there was no damage. Normally the molding would be r&i’d also, but there are some mouldings (new taurus, 500, silverado,tahoe,avalanche for example)that cannot be reused. Ask the shop why the need to replace them. If they do not need replacing then it is simple r&i but if replacing then they get extra money for painting them.
The labor rate is fair. Here in the midwest the norm is $50 for body and paint and $30 for paint and materials. I have not seen 46/25 for several years.
If the shop has a good painter/tech team then you will never see the blend line no matter if you have a single stage/ pearl or tri coat.
Normally the damaged area is painted and the entire panel is cleared. The entire panel would not be painted since then the adjoining panel would need to be blended. It appears the damage was to the rear of the front door.
If her paint got on the blue Civic, how would the Civic door look if they took off the white paint? Maybe the door doesn’t even need painting?
Maybe a good detailer can take care of this instead of a body shop.
Are you paying, or your insurance company?
There’s a lot more to painting than what meets the eye and this is especially true in the age of clear coat paint jobs.
Almost any kind of scrape is going to run a grand anymore and even the small jobs are labor intensive.
They will likely have to shoot the entire door and blending paint in can be an aggravation all by itself. Sounds like a fair price to me.
I agree with the others that this quote is extremely reasonable. I’ve had bodywork quoted, and it ain’t cheap. I’ve also done bodywork on my own vehicles and it ain’t as easy as the pros make it look.
My thoughts? Pay up and be grateful for their honesty. Your GF bumped someone’s car, she needs to pay the pros to make it look like it had never happened.