Wondering if anyone's gone this route...
Have an '04 with Silver Birch Metallic and rust on the front and rear LEFT side wheel wells edges, and moving fairly quickly up the fender.... I dropped by my local paint shop and got a quote for $800 to do a 'quickie' repair of the front/rear areas, no guarantee....or $1000 to cut it out with new metal and repair the front/rear, with a minimal guarantee (it was months...nothing extended). They say what happens is the rust doesn't come back where they repair it, but you'll see it later, higher up on the fender. That may be BS and just a way to give them an out when they do a minimal repair...but that's another conversation. I'm sort assuming they're going to do a quicky job regardless. However, I don't want to spend $3k on fixing paintwork, either... as it's not the only thing on this car with rust consideration. The right side is showing a couple bubbles, so if it's like the left side, I'll be dealing with this same issue next year...and then I'll be back at the shop for the $1k repair on the right side.
Has anyone simply replaced their front fender with a freshly painted one, or taken it off and had it repaired completely? I'm curious if that was a viable option...the fender go for around $340 unpainted, and it shouldn't cost too much to get it painted up. But it seems like a more thorough way to go on the front fenders... Was it a big job to swap the panels, if you went this route?
The rear is a different story, but I wouldn't mind spending more to get both rear's cut out and repaired (perhaps by a bit more trusted shop)...
Thanks!
Pete
...in Michigan, in case anyone has a good shop in the Detroit area
Have an '04 with Silver Birch Metallic and rust on the front and rear LEFT side wheel wells edges, and moving fairly quickly up the fender.... I dropped by my local paint shop and got a quote for $800 to do a 'quickie' repair of the front/rear areas, no guarantee....or $1000 to cut it out with new metal and repair the front/rear, with a minimal guarantee (it was months...nothing extended). They say what happens is the rust doesn't come back where they repair it, but you'll see it later, higher up on the fender. That may be BS and just a way to give them an out when they do a minimal repair...but that's another conversation. I'm sort assuming they're going to do a quicky job regardless. However, I don't want to spend $3k on fixing paintwork, either... as it's not the only thing on this car with rust consideration. The right side is showing a couple bubbles, so if it's like the left side, I'll be dealing with this same issue next year...and then I'll be back at the shop for the $1k repair on the right side.
Has anyone simply replaced their front fender with a freshly painted one, or taken it off and had it repaired completely? I'm curious if that was a viable option...the fender go for around $340 unpainted, and it shouldn't cost too much to get it painted up. But it seems like a more thorough way to go on the front fenders... Was it a big job to swap the panels, if you went this route?
The rear is a different story, but I wouldn't mind spending more to get both rear's cut out and repaired (perhaps by a bit more trusted shop)...
Thanks!
Pete
...in Michigan, in case anyone has a good shop in the Detroit area