You're not serious,I hope. Metal working is an art. That dent has crowns 2 foot away from the dent. And I guess to paint sunburst is a piece of cake, what about the blends on the quarters? LOL!

 

The part number for the lift gate is 15819004. That is just the metal piece, no latch, handle, trim,no interior - nothing - just the lift gate. and, the cost in '06 was $400.00 Personally, I'd be checking out junk yards, and I wouldn't even mention it to my insurance company.

 

i was one class short of my Icar cert. its not that i cannot do it, its that i work 30 hours a week, have 4 college courses, have multiple meetings, and work for 2 other volunteer organizations.

 

truly is an art

i am not too worried about insurance going up, i just need it fixed asap and refuse to drive an 07 with dents

 

I do alot of fabricating, fiberglass work and custom body kits. The art of getting that is pulling that dent out and making sure there is no high spots after filling it with filler. As far as blending the car is rather new so the paint should not be faded that bad if at all, you have the tail lights right next to the gate. With this I would not blend the fenders to try to avoid painting the whole rear of the car doing a blend. If you know what your doing painting it can be done. I would also match clear coat texture. I don't see any costly material in this repair. Bodyshops will want to do the blend for insurance money. I would not paint that much of the car. You'll be able to get that fixed w/o noticing anything happened.

 

sounds to me like you would assume to "cave and pave" said dent and not bother to actually work the metal. therefore the majority of that gate would be covered in filler ... with that much filler you would be lucky if the shocks kept that gate up. that mentality is another reason we (bodymen) have to work so hard to get passed the hack/butcher stereotype.

I can see possibly not blending would have to do a spray out and tint the color to acheive a match before blending but SOM is not an easy color to match so it would be a judgment call at the time of painting.

just my 2cents

 

I would try to work as much of that metal to avoid filler but I'm also not afraid of using the fillers they make today. In this case I was trying to give him advice on saving money on the repair. If that is not an option he would like to take, I would suggest a new gate then. Me personally would not let anyone try to blend that gate. I really don't think there will be a color problem.

 

I would rather drive a car with a dent than have bad body work.

 

body filler=bad...i will get it replaced completely and get it done right. if it was an oldie, my father in law could work his magic with lead. but we have affordable pieces and insurance. i would rather pay more cash than have body filler.

tis is true

 

I would rather have straight bodywork than work that you can surf across! People act like filler is a bad thing. If this was my car since it's new I'd replace the gate. I'm just not against using any fillers. I've done amazing things with todays fillers and they actually with stand more abuse than what factory metal panel will take. A friend of mine opinion is that try breaking a thin piece of filler then try breaking a thick piece of filler. It's alot harder to break that thick piece. So is thicker better when it comes to bodywork. We usually try to do it that we use the least amount.

Anyways replacing the gate is the best option but I still would not blend the quarters.