Just received my first dent (or dents rather) this afternoon to the rear quarter panel of my '10 GT. Rubbed against the gate of my apt complex, and ended up with a couple of decent sized dents and marring of the finish close to the wheel well. The photos below capture the damage fairly decently, my main concern is restoring the crease in the body panel that runs over the wheel well. My first thought was to just have the entire panel replaced but upon closer inspection the damaged panel also serves as the door frame and continues into the engine bay. I can only imagine the cost of replacing it.

Is it possible to have the damage repaired back to as close to new, or is it something that's pretty much irreparable?

 

Yeah, i had something similar last year happen to mine.. A dude hit me on the highway switching lanes. Mine was about the same area, a little higher up but same panel and same deal. It is perfect, cant even tell it ever happened. Just takes the right body shop, so make sure you find a decent one in your area.

 

I guess I am not the only one with bad luck this week. Not sure why I happened to look out the kitchen window at the exact same time a squirrel with a huge branch attached to his claws smacked the hood of my new 2010 GT. Knocked a nice dent in the top of my hood.

 

PasCal?
Chime in?
I have heard its better to replace than fix.
The back is a strange place to replace panels.

 

Drove over to Northside Ford (in San Antonio) this morning and got an estimate.

~$900 OTD to repair the dents and basically repaint the entire panel instead of blending the paint. Seemed pretty reasonable, I was expecting $1500-2000.

My only concern is whether or not the panel will look like new after the repair. I have no issue spending the money so long as it's fixed and not a half-assed job.

What do ya'll think?

 

Look at some of their work that they are OTDing right now.
See the damaged vehicles in the lot?
Pick one thats destined to be repaired and follow it
thru the entire process to see how they fix things.
Then if the job looks up to your par, maybe, maybe
they can fix your stang to your liking.
Some are hacks except PasCal.
They have you by the shorties.
Look at some of the befores and the afters before
committing yourself to NorthSide Ford.
Most dealership body shops sork badly.
They are a $$ maker and nothing else.
The work is poor and shoddy at best.
A keen eye can pick up on all sorts of
carp they are trying to pass on to you.
I got shafted cus my intermediate pipe
on the exhaust system was bent out of
shape with a simple rear end collision.
They CUT the muffler pipe until it could
be bent so the muffler tip looked good
where it exited under the rear bumper
and filled the 1/4" gap with a MIG welder.
I got under there and sheit my pants.
I got a replacement intermediate pipe
AND a new M/T GT pass side muff.
They had to repaint the 'new' bumper,
yea right, junkyard take-off, maybe,
three times until the paint matched enough
to not have it jump out and slap you in
the face with a "hey I am a completely
different color here". Then the resulting
green overspray on the whole vehicle cus
it was sitting in the fricken body shop uncovered
for weeks until the fork-ups could be properly fixed.
Boss just got his newly painted 65 Ford pick-up done
and guess what, its the exact same color as the fricken
overspray on my stang. Then there is the Valet Mode
on my MSD DashHawk that recorded red line RPMs and
67MPH top speed (kinda high for only being in the paking
lot and the bodyshop garage)... The boys had a sweet
time in my stang at my expense. You could see the blood
draining from their faces when shows the DashHawk readings.
And the 8 miles someone put on the odometer (got before
and after pics) is a fricken mystery. They claimed it was from
moving the stang around but I went up there later and drove
around their parking lot for an hour at parking lot speeds and
could only rack up nearly 1 mile. Go figure. They musta moved
it to KFC cus there was a KFC drink straw paper protector inbetween
the seat and the console (I DONT EAT KFC IN MY STANG, HECK
I DONT EVEN EAT KFC). Rant.
So the answer is 50% are crooks and of that 50%, 49% are the stealerships.

 

Thank you for chiming in 157, I appreciate it, I am planning on shopping around for a week or so and seeing what other estimates I receive. Anyone know of a good body shop in San Antonio?

Had it out in the sunlight today and after a couple coats of swirl-x and Meguiar's Gold Class it isn't that noticeable, well, it is to me, but it's tolerable for now.

 

I would be straight up with them and tell em that
you aint no soccor mom and will be fully inspecting the job
after completion and BEFORE payment. Maybe that will
put them on their toes. Most can do good work but dont
cus most owners dont inspect the work, just pick it up and
pay just to drive away and never to be heard from again.
Why do good work when sloppy gets the job done most
of the time?

 

I would not replace the quarter panel unless it was completely destroyed. It needs to be cut off and then welded back on. It's not a pretty sight and it will make the value of your car plummet. I doubt you really want that. Try dent repair first.