[rtpoe]

So I'm backing out of a parking space the other day, and I turn a little to hard and scrunch up against a low barrier that I had forgotten was there. This (see attachment) is the first noticeable damage to my 2012 Ford Fiesta SE. There's a lot of scratching and scraping, down to the bare metal in spots. And if you look closely at where the two panels meet over the tire, they don't line up right anymore.

I'm kind of on the fence as to what, if anything, I should do about this. So I'm going to ask you guys.

1. Leave it. It's not that bad, and it was inevitable that the car would take some damage over the course of its lifetime. You've had three damage-free years; you've done good. It's not worth the cost of fixing it.

2. Fix it yourself. The scrapes aren't bad. There are paint repair kits that you can get that aren't expensive and are made for this sort of thing. It can't be that hard to do, right?

3. Given that the panel's bent, and that the damage (although each individual mark is small) is over a large area, it's best to let a professional handle it. You don't want to be messing about with all that icky, smelly, nasty paint and other chemicals!

What do you think?

[Palomine]

I vote DIY!

For the first ten years I had my current car, the ONLY damage to it was like yours: from me pulling out of a tight parking spot and somehow forgetting the column next to me as I cut the wheel. Since you asked, if money's tight, I'd just:

Use factory-correct touch-up paint (from the dealer) to cover where the primer and bare metal show through. If you want to get fancy and fill the depressions a bit with sanded bondo (or JB Weld) that's up to you. Even if you're going to do nothing else, spend $12. on the little jar of paint and cover the bare metal so it doesn't rust.

The front and back caps (I can't tell which that is from your pic) of most late-model cars are often not metal... they're usually semi/flexible plastic. If that's the front cap where the damage is, you should pop the hood (or hatch/trunk, if that's the rump) and look for the bolts that attach it to the unibody. Or if it's the front fender that's moved a tiny bit, making the panels no longer line up... some of those bolts are under the hood too (at least the upper ones). You MIGHT be able to actually SEE how the panel has moved from the impact, because there will be a tiny crescent of clean paint around one edge of the washer under the bolt (in the case of a front fender). You can, if you wish, loosen those bolts a bit with a socket wrench and gently nudge the panel back into place (til the seam looks better to you) and then re-tighten them. NOTE: the bolts for any particular panel (fender, end-cap, etc...) aren't always in the same place on every car, so you'll have to look around to find them for whichever panel on your car you wish to nudge. Under the hood and hatch as well as in the wheel wells (sometimes under the plastic wheel well liner, which must be removed first) are the obvious places... don't take everything apart, you just want to loosen the bolts that attach the damaged panel so you can move it a tiny bit.

If the panel's actually bent instead of moved, it doesn't look by much... you could try gently bending it back til that seam looks as much like the one on the undamaged side as possible. If re-bending, I'd try (again: GENTLY) with gloved hands... no hammers. If you must use more force, I'd remove the wheel and use some scrap wood and rags to distribute the force of a jack (to avoid further damage) IF you can orient it so that you can safely use the jack to push the (part of the) panel in the direction you want it to go.

On further thought, that looks like the rump (I assume the lamp would be orange if in front) so ignore the bit about hood/front fenders. Still, the lower tail-caps (aka bumpers) are bolted on too, no matter what they're made of... so the move or bend advice above applies. The rear fender on some cars aren't "hung" like the fronts... they can be part of the unibody itself... if that's been moved/bent then it's beyond DIY.

Of course, you can always take it to a shop... that's a few hundred $ minimum (since paint and clearcoat are needed, and possibly two or three times that much) and that's assuming they just do the "nudge" thing I described above instead of the whole frame rack measuring/straightening thing (which IMO would be overkill since it seems unlikely that you hit it hard enough to cause any structural distortion).

JMHO. Best of luck rt!

PS: I don't know where you are, but if SoCal, PM me and I could have a look at it if you like. I'm not an autobody guy nor do I play one on TV... I'm just sorta handy in the DIY area.

[Sawyer90]

I'm with Pal: Don't take it into the shop. They'll charge you an arm and a leg for the job that you can do yourself.

[solvegas]

If you are going to keep the car for a while longer, just touch it up yourself and do it yourself. A repair like that can cost $2500 or more because they like to replace parts and r8pe you if they can. And insurance won't be easy either in the respect that your rates might go up. The less involved, the better.