The bad news is, it’s really long and goes all the way down the bare metal. It’s on a rear door.
The good news is, the girl who did it left a note on my windshield. I don’t know what she was doing in the middle of a parking lot on her bike. Or rather, why she didn’t use common sense and the large empty spaces available, instead of trying to squeeze past my car.
So how hard is this to fix? And by how hard I mean how expensive. Is it worth calling this girl up and getting her insurance information (if she has any–let’s hope nobody’s letting her drive, if she can’t control a goddamn bike) or maybe I should just yell at her a lot.
I just have to say that I misread the thread title and thought your cat had a deep scratch. I was more than a little baffled when the mouseover preview said it had gone all the way down to the metal. Thought maybe you had a robokitty or something.
However, try to refrain from yelling at the girl; especially since she did the exact right thing and left a note. If it’s a young girl, especially, all it will do is teach her that leaving a note is a bad idea and likely to bring more trouble than good. I can’t see what kind of insurance she’d have that would cover damage done to a car on her bike, but I would imagine that your insurance would pay for it, especially given they can verify your story with the girl.
The entire rear door surface has to be resurfaced/repainted. Not cheap.
If you have full comprehensive insurance i’ts ok except for the deductible(?).
Expect a bill of approx. $500 more or less.
Agreed. You can have it “touched up” for much less, basically using a thin brush to fill in the scratch with paint. It will protect against rust, but you’ll still see the damage The bigger job spingears mentioned should bring the door back to like new condition.
Your dealer probably has little bottles of touch-up paint available; they have a convenient little brush built into the cap. Like previous posters have said, the scratch won’t be invisible, but it’ll be less glaring, and the car won’t rust.
The first thing you must do is tell your insurers. Tell them what has happenned and that you reserve the right to make a claim. If the girl’s insurance will cover it, let the insurance companies have at it. Failing that, it may be cheaper to go to a scrapyard and find a replacement door in sufficiently good condition than claim on your own insurance and lose your No Claims Bonus.