Yes, the feathering takes the right equipment and tremendous skill, especially with metallics. *NM*

My '09 base was rear ended during rush hour traffic. I was traveling at about 10 mph and the car behind me must have been at 30 or so. It was a terrific thump but the headrests seem to have done their job. I had a headache that evening and expected to wake up with a stiff neck, but Ibuprofen seemed to work. The other driver got a ticket and appeared to have full coverage so I hope to get back my deductible. The only damage seems to be the bumper cover, bumperettes, and a bent exhaust outleI. I am taking it to the dealer on Monday and have it thoroughly inspected and the alignment checked. If it turns out that there is no other damage, I am considering buying the parts from a dismantler, getting the cover painted by a good shop I have used before. and install everything myself. Any thoughts pro or con?

Why do it yourself? Have a good body shop do it. After all, you are not paying for it. Besides, if there is any hidden damage, you have a better chance of getting it paid for if a reputable, approved shop has done the work.

mike

BTW - I got hit a couple of weeks ago by a crazy lady. I will take my baby to the body shop Monday. Hopefully all will be well when I return from vacation.

mike

The only way it makes sense for you to do as you say is if insurance pays you directly for all damage repairs, allowing for new parts, and you then repair it yourself, and pocket the difference.

An it still only makes sense if you plan to keep the Boxster for a long...long...Pedro like....time.

Good luck and glad you're none the worse for wear.

Thanks for all the input. I took the car to my dealer this morning and they went over it carefully and declared no structural damage. My insurance company has already paid me less my deductible, which will be paid out when the other insurance co. pays mine. My main reason for doing the repair myself, other than saving some money, is that I suffer from tinkeritis. I worked as a mechanic early in my career and have never been able to get it out of my blood.

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Faster Horses (Apollo Beach, FL)
Thanks for all the input. I took the car to my dealer this morning and they went over it carefully and declared no structural damage. My insurance company has already paid me less my deductible, which will be paid out when the other insurance co. pays mine. My main reason for doing the repair myself, other than saving some money, is that I suffer from tinkeritis. I worked as a mechanic early in my career and have never been able to get it out of my blood.

If you need some things to keep busy, how about removing my front bumper to clean out radiators from possible leaves when I lived up north.

driver's insurance company bear this. In two accidents I talked to my insurance agent about what to do but I never submitted a claim in either case even when in the case of the Cayman the other insurance company pushed me to submit the claim to my insurance (which it is not supposed to do) trying to scare me into this because the other driver had insufficient coverage.

Also, I do not think the dealer is the best place to properly evaluate the damage to your car. My 02 Boxster got rear-ended at just 5mph and the damage was over $5K. Rear bumper cover. Rear taillight assembly. Front bumper cover (the impact pushed my car into the rear of the vehicle ahead of mine). Headlight assembly.

But under the rear bumper cover there was some minor sheet metal damage.

If your car got hit at 30 mph or if it was moving forward at 10mph and got hit from behind by a vehicle moving at 30mph that's a 20mph impact and based on my experience with my Boxster with just a 5mph impact I think there is more damage than you are being told about. I do not think the dealer is purposely misleading you. I just don't think the dealer is able to properly evaluate the extent of the car's damage.

I'd have the car taken to a qualified body shop (Porsche approved collision repair center) and have the car properly checked out on a Celette Bench for any chassis damage.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

Many insurance policies have limits for reporting. After that time, your rights change. The same applies to reporting accidents to the police.

The dealer is a fine place to get an evaluation. In cases where they don't have the expertise to do a proper estimate, they will farm it out to a shop that they trust. Porsche also will use only OEM parts without being prodded and they usually have a generous loaner policy (i.e. you get a better car).

And you tell him to take his car to a "Porsche approved collision repair center" but that is exactly the only thing that a Porsche dealer would ever do.

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Boxsterra
Many insurance policies have limits for reporting. After that time, your rights change. The same applies to reporting accidents to the police.

The dealer is a fine place to get an evaluation. In cases where they don't have the expertise to do a proper estimate, they will farm it out to a shop that they trust. Porsche also will use only OEM parts without being prodded and they usually have a generous loaner policy (i.e. you get a better car).

And you tell him to take his car to a "Porsche approved collision repair center" but that is exactly the only thing that a Porsche dealer would ever do.

report. Here in CA one has IIRC 10 days to get the report in.

As for the insurance claim, I would -- though I didn't make this clear and you were right to bring this up -- I would and have laid the groundwork with my insurance company to avoid any expiration of the window to report a claim. In the case of the Boxster I felt really no need to do so but probably did. I can't recall now, but I did contact my insurance agent and she probably advised me to submit a claim, at least the paperwork just in case. I vaguely recall her saying something to the effect I had some time to cancel the claim if I wanted to.

I'm sure in the case of the Cayman since the damage was so extensive, the potential loss to me so high, I started the ball rolling with my insurance company just in case the other driver's insurance company balked. It didn't give me the warm fuzzies that the Monday after the accident when I visited my insurance agent and we started going over the info I had received from the other driver that it was very thin info. My agent having worked for the other driver's insurance company in the past knew a lot of the agents for that company and called on in the area the accident happened and happened to get the other driver's insurance agent. From this contact we learned what I should have learned at the accident scene.

I can't be sure now but my agent may have advised me to at get the claim process rolling. Some time afterwards, I was contacted by my insurance agent or company about filing the claim, that is making the claim official, and at that time I cancled the process, but by this time I had what I needed from the other driver's insurance company so I felt no risk in aborting the claim process with my insurance company. Even at this point I may not have slammed the door completely closed.

Do not know where this fits but my info is that in filing a claim the not at fault driver's insurance company pays the claim and will make no attempt to collect from the other driver's insurance company. Claims below a certain dollar amount are handled this way.

I wanted to avoid having my insurance company pay out any money on my behalf even though the other driver was at fault and I had a letter from her insurance company stating this.

Anyhow, I did let the settlement process run its course. In both cases the other driver's insurance company paid for everything save a few hundred dollars for the Boxster's front bumper cover. It was clearly damaged a bit from an early (long time ago actually) encounter with some tire carcass and even though it was cracked it was quite servicable. But the other driver's insurance company balked at footing the full cost of a new bumper cover and told the shop owner this and the shop owner talked to me and I agreed to pay about half the cost of a new front bumper cover.

I have to stress this and that is the dealer is not the best place to do a complete evaluation of the car after an accident. Having the dealer alone do the evaluation of the car's damage extent is contrary to the collision repair guidelines Porsche publishes and which should be followed to ensure the car is properly evaluated and ultimately properly repaired, dare I say must be followed to ensure the car retains any new car (or CPO) warranty on any and all undamaged and repaired systems.

Now I admit I had the Cayman towed to the local Porsche dealer's lot -- mainly at that time I was too still in shock of some kind to think of any other place to have it towed -- but I think I had the idea in the back of my head I wanted the techs to be available to assess the damage to the car's mechanicals and to make themselves available to the other driver's insurance company adjusters (more than one showed up) to explain/point out the extensive damage the car's 'hidden' parts sustained. IIRC at one point the techs actually pushed the car into the shop and on one of the lifts to show the adjuster the extent of the damage to the front end of the car. (Large heavy cast iron/steel parts were fractured.)

But I have to also point out that the body shop owner from the shop I selected to fix the car noted this damage in his estimate even before the car had been put on the lift, even before I or he had had a chance to talk to the techs at he dealership. He clearly had considerable experience in this area, in seeing fixing Porsches and knew as much (if not more and I think this is only time I think I have had to say this) than the Porsche techs in this regard.

Even so the car was removed to the body shop and a partial teardown was done -- the front bumper cover and driver's side fender were removed -- and the full extent of the damage was noted. It was more than the body shop owner initially estimated but this is quite common and why a reputable repair shop will want to do a partial tear down before committing to a first official estimate of the extent of the damage.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

Your car will be made 'right' again, I'm sure. Glad to hear it's nothing too serious.

By the way, it was great chatting with you at BRBS this year. Hope you enjoyed the event.

Best regards,

Rick

is making sure the car is put back to its pre-collision condition.

The way to do this is to select the best shop in your area that works in partnership with a Porsche dealer and have the car's full damage determined -- a partial 'teardown' (which at least requires a rear bumper cover removal) will (had better) be done -- then the shop can better determine the full extent. I can assure you the damage will be more extensive than you think it is.

If the shop is the right shop it will arrange to remove the car's running gear and place the car on a Celette Bench and with the proper jigs/fixtures verify all hard points of the body/chassis are in their correct location and if they aren't to pull the body/chassis to where they are. This Celette Bench procedure is the foundation for a proper repair.

Then the more obvious repairs can begin.

In order to keep any remaining factory or CPO warranty in effect -- and to possibly even allow the car to be CPO'd if you trade it in -- replacement parts must be bought from PCNA through an authorized Porsche dealer and all mechanical work must be done by a Porsche certified tech. Porsche does not consider a repaired car complete until it has passed an inspection by a Porsche tech.

All you would succeed in doing were you to proceed with your plan is to make the damage the car suffered even worse through a sloppy and cheap repair, a repair for which there is no reason.

Have the car repaired right.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

Sorry to hear about our car, Don. Main thing is that you're OK.

As for the car. I agree with what others have said. The accident wasn't your fault. The other driver's insurance will (or should) pay for it. Why repair your car with used parts? You look after your car and you deserve to have it back in as good a condition as it was before the accident. I don't think you can do that with used parts.

I'm sure that warranty on some thing could be affected if the work isn't done up to Porsche specs. I would insist that it be done properly for this reason. Another would be resale value if work isn't done up to spec.

Hope to see your car back like new.

Guenter

We as a group are likely always striving for perfection, both within ourselves, and without. A collision isn't damaging only physically.

Minus 40 degrees... Is that Fahrenheit or Celsius?

I have babied this car for three years like no other. Not a dent on it and even a couple of rock chips were repaired immediately. Even though I am hopeful it will be as good as new, I will know that the right front fender has required "plastic surgery". Probably a personality fault that it bothers me so much! OTOH, you should see my fishing truck - I'm afraid to wash it for fear something will fall off! Go figure!
mike

Minus 40 degrees... Is that Fahrenheit or Celsius?

...glad you are OK Don!

Turns out there was a good bit more damage that I spotted on my own. The body shop (hopefully the one Lawdevil is going to use) found damage to heat shields besides the bumper cover and the bumperettes. There was also some damage to the exhaust which I used as my opportunity to upgrade to a Porsche Sport Exhaust. From the final bill by the body shop, I will also say that there is a substantial number of new fasteners that had to be used too. The final reason to have the body shop do the repair is that a good body shop will want to blend the paint of the new bumper cover into the fender - it isn't just a matter of painting the bumper cover.

Good luck with the repair and let us know how it goes!

Minus 40 degrees... Is that Fahrenheit or Celsius?

Had a rear ender with zero sheet metal or electrical damage. Buy you should have seen her car! Required replacement bumperettes, redo of bumper cover, new crossbar, new bumper support shocks, new fasteners, straighten muffler, painting of bumper cover, etc. Her Insurance co (GEICO) fought over the new bolts the shop wanted to use...the old ones were rusted and 7-8 years old.

You don't have to save, she hit you so concentrate on getting everything as right as it was before.

To protect yourself and your car the next time you get hit, have it all redone right and have the frame measured before any work is done. Those bumper supports are only good for absorbing so much force and after that it gets transferred to the body. Sounds like your forward speed saved a lot of damage and your car will probably be OK.

My baby was stolen by bank robbers and hit by the mechanic at the shop they stole it from. They made everything right and I just passed 102,000 miles. Cars are fixable if you find the right "doctor". This picture was taken at the Police impound lot Not one of the better days of ownership.

the robbers could have driven it over the 100k barrier.

Well, that would have bothered, me at least.

Fortunately this happened back in '04, so I have put all the fun miles on it and yes... I do drive it like I stole it!

All better now...





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/30/2011 12:02AM by BoxsterBob - San Carlos. (view changes)

Generally, I have experienced fairly grubby operations at body shops - at least the customer input areas. Here, they were polite - the place was clean and comfortable. They offered bottled water, coffee, soft drinks, candy and even fresh cookies. The service writer was polite, knowledgeable and efficient. More importantly, I noticed a number of Porsches out front coming in for work. I noticed one 986 that had been hit pretty badly and the service writer told me it had been totalled. I was comforted by the fact that they obviously do a lot of work on Porsches.
Also, reassuring was a yellow Yugo out front with a sign on it which said: "Unless you drive one of these, we don't use aftermarket parts."
Hopefully, I will have my baby back soon!

Lawdevil
2013 Boxster S - Agate Grey,
2016 Macan Turbo - jet black
Cashiers, NC & Atlanta

Minus 40 degrees... Is that Fahrenheit or Celsius?

The rest should go just as smoothly.

specifying the level of amenities like waiting area layout, comfort, refreshments, etc.

Under section Facility,

14) The customer reception area must include a comfortable waiting area, a telephone for appropriate customer use and suitable reading material.

15) Amenities such as refreshments (Coffee, bottled water, etc.) must be available to all Porsche vehicle owenrs and guests. Wireless internet access for Porsche customers is recommended.

There are items 16 through 31 that cover even more like the above, like cleanliness, restroom facilities, and so on.

Sincerely,

MarcW.