Crashed my 2016 CX-5

Z

zoomie888

Member

:

2016 Mazda CX-5 GT

• Oct 20, 2015

• #1

My idiot self backed into the garage with the lift gate open! Was doing a head check and totally didn't notice that what I was looking through at night time was NOT the windshield. Ooops. Bang! The lift gate rams into the header of the garage door. I barely see what I think are two dents. After further inspections, I confirmed indeed they're dents. When I take another look in the morning, what do I discover? One more big dent and another medium sized dent. 4 dents total!

After calling a bunch of Paintless Dent Removal places and gotten a quote of $600, then $900 for a mobile auto body shop, then $2,300 for a legit auto body shop, I almost gave up. Then I called another paintless dent removal guy and $325 later, it was almost good as new.

Huge fan of paintless dent removal now. I can't thank the guy enough.

 

M

MikeM.

Member

:

2013 Mazda CX-5 Touring AWD 2.0L

• Oct 20, 2015

• #2

I'm glad it turned out so easy to fix!

Was there any functional damage, ie, bent hinges, latch misalignment, etc?

 

Z

zoomie888

Member

:

2016 Mazda CX-5 GT

• Oct 20, 2015

• #3

Looks like the photos didn't upload. I'll try again later. It was all body damage on the rear lift gate door.

 

G

GP 2004

Member

:

2015 CX-5 GT AWD liquid silver

• Oct 20, 2015

• #4

Looks good considering...

 

W

wlong01

:

2019 CX5 Reserve AWD

• Oct 20, 2015

• #5

I'm surprised Paintless dent removal can handles dents that large. I got sideswiped in the front drivers fender @ 300miles and it left a small crease. Barely noticeable unless you looked on an angle and I took it to a regular body shop. Cost me $800 and they had to fill it then paint it. It does look flawless though.

Glad you were able to get it fixed without going the body shop route.

Another thing I noticed on the rear hatch, it extends higher than our CR-V and if you open it all the way while it's in the garage it will make contact with the open door above where the garage door bends.

 

J

JbCalg

Member

:

2016 CX-5 GS AWD - Lux pkg, white

• Oct 20, 2015

• #6

noodles !

...

 

K

Kedis82ZE8

'15 CX-5 AWD GT w/Tech Pkg

Contributor

• Oct 20, 2015

• #7

Wow! That does look good for $325.

 

S

SayNoToPistons

Wheels, not rims...

:

CX-5 GT AWD w/ Tech, RX-8 GT 6spd w/ 'goodies'

• Oct 20, 2015

• #8

PDR can do wonders. The top notch fixes (even at heavy crease locations) can be flawless. Unfortunately, a good PDR artist is hard to find. PDR techs are common, but most I've come across can't do a perfect job. None the less, can't go wrong for $325.

 

CX5-SO

CX-5 SPOUSE

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2013 CX-5 Touring AWD A-T

• Oct 20, 2015

• #9

That is an amazing repair job!!


This is a great idea!! I think there is a bin of noodles going for cheap at a local store.

JbCalg said:

noodles !

...

Click to expand...

 

B

Benior

:

2008 Mazdaspeed3

• Oct 20, 2015

• #10

I have to say, that is impressive for PDR given the shapes involved.

 

Z

zoomie888

Member

:

2016 Mazda CX-5 GT

• Oct 21, 2015

• #11

I was crazy impressed too and the guy did it in about 1.5 hours. Service was excellent. PM me if you're in Norcal and want the contact. I was showing these photos off to a friend and he said that at the dealership he works at (Scion), they use the same PDR (paintless dent removal) guy! Bingo! Plan B for this repair was that if it ended up not being "good enough," I can always go to a regular autobody shop afterwards to touch it up. Combined it would still be way less than the $2,300 originally quoted for a brand new door and new paint. Of that, almost $100 was in emblems! Seriously? Ugh, I hate how inefficient body shops can be. Car would've been out of commission for at least 2 days on top of the crazy cost of unnecessary work. If anything, they should hire a PDR person, mark it up and then do the finish work and charge me $600-700.

After this experience, I'm definitely a believer in PDR.

HOW DID THEY DO IT?
The guy drills a hole in the side of the lift gate, 1/2". The tool goes through that and pushes the dent out from the back side. The hole is plugged in afterwards. Not sure why he had to drill a hole on one side but removed the liner on the other. But after seeing the results and what could've been, I'm ecstatic.

Benior said:

I have to say, that is impressive for PDR given the shapes involved.

Click to expand...

Yeah, the first guy I called said that he couldn't do it. At least he was honest with me. It was quite discouraging though. Glad I didn't give up and kept calling and calling and calling.

 

Last edited: Oct 21, 2015

Chris_Top_Her

Banned

Moderator

Contributor

:

San Antonio, Texas

:

'15 CX-5 Miata AWD

• Oct 21, 2015

• #12

zoomie888 said:

I was crazy impressed too and the guy did it in about 1.5 hours. Service was excellent. PM me if you're in Norcal and want the contact. I was showing these photos off to a friend and he said that at the dealership he works at (Scion), they use the same PDR (paintless dent removal) guy! Bingo! Plan B for this repair was that if it ended up not being "good enough," I can always go to a regular autobody shop afterwards to touch it up. Combined it would still be way less than the $2,300 originally quoted for a brand new door and new paint. Of that, almost $100 was in emblems!


Yeah, the first guy I called said that he couldn't do it. At least he was honest with me. It was quite discouraging though. Glad I didn't give up and kept calling and calling and calling.

Click to expand...

That's partly because body shops don't necessarily shop around for the cheapest part. They might pay $30 for a mazda trunk emblem from a dealer as list price when you can find them from some dealers on ebay (OEM) for $15. Then they put something like .3 hrs of labour (at like $80 or more and hour) to install one logo which means all they charged you over $50 to install a self adhering logo LOL.
The thing that pissed me off about ym last encounter with a body shop was they wanna charge labour for everything they do, and I find missing screws/fasteners everywhere, broken tabs from incorrect removal/installation, a trim piece for my cowl actually sitting in the bottom of my engine bay... in general even if your insurance is paying for it always check behind. Just like the dudes changing your oil at the dealership, the position itself is usually entry level with no qualifications. Doesn't seem to be your case but just saying.

 

B

Benior

:

2008 Mazdaspeed3

• Oct 21, 2015

• #13

Actually, $2300 doesn't sound that far out of line. When my B15 Sentra needed a new driver's side door, just the door alone (no glass or interior bits) was something like $6-700.

 

T

tdman

Member

:

2014 CX-5 GS AWD

• Oct 21, 2015

• #14

I had a minor dent (shopping parking lot) when my new CX-5 was just 3 months old. Went to this PDR guy and he charged $100 to fix it, he's good. When I called him, he said to come to his home, man I couldn't believe the house when I came, he live in this beautiful $2.3 million dollars house. When I was there, there were couple other people wanted to fix the dent on their cars as well, he could easily pocket $500/day cash doing this, he also work with dealerships in the city. PDR worked great and the good one make lots of $$ doing it.

 

U

Unobtanium

:

RDX Aspec Adv.

• Oct 21, 2015

• #15

Buy that dent-repair guy a 5th of whatever he drinks!

 

C

CX-5um

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13' CX-5 and 16' Mazda6 both Touring w/Tech/Bose

• Oct 21, 2015

• #16

tdman said:

I had a minor dent (shopping parking lot) when my new CX-5 was just 3 months old. Went to this PDR guy and he charged $100 to fix it, he's good. When I called him, he said to come to his home, man I couldn't believe the house when I came, he live in this beautiful $2.3 million dollars house. When I was there, there were couple other people wanted to fix the dent on their cars as well, he could easily pocket $500/day cash doing this, he also work with dealerships in the city. PDR worked great and the good one make lots of $$ doing it.

Click to expand...

You have to be highly skilled in that trade to pull in numbers like that. The market is there.

 

J

jjp735i

Member

:

CX-5

• Oct 21, 2015

• #17

It does look really good, but looks like there is still a few flaws or is that just shadows in the pictures. Being a 2016 I would have turned it into the insurance and had the hatch replaced. But again it does look good. Every ones situation is different.

 

Z

zoomie888

Member

:

2016 Mazda CX-5 GT

• Oct 21, 2015

• #18

jjp735i said:

It does look really good, but looks like there is still a few flaws or is that just shadows in the pictures. Being a 2016 I would have turned it into the insurance and had the hatch replaced. But again it does look good. Every ones situation is different.

Click to expand...

Probably just shadows. But it's not perfect. When he saw the pics and quoted me, he said it would be about 96-97% perfect. So yes, there are imperfections. It's not like it was out of the dealer lot. The only issue is the far right side dent where the paint was chipped and still remains so.

 

J

jjp735i

Member

:

CX-5

• Oct 22, 2015

• #19

Even so, a very nice job. Saved a bundle I'm sure.

 

I

IHeartGroceries

:

Mazdaspeed6

• Oct 22, 2015

• #20

Sorry, folks, but PDR doesn't require high skill level. Autobody does, however, and folks in that trade who can actually make proper, long lasting repairs to autobody, and follow up with a skillfull paint job are talented.

As stated, PDR may be tedious and time consuming, but it isn't nearly at the same level as a good autobody man.

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