It's hard to show these details on a picture. If it's 90-95%, it is worth living with. You know its there but no one else will notice. I don't recommend repainting as that too can turn into a 90-95% match in hue and finish.

 

Essentially the big dent is gone, but there's a deformation along the crease line that he couldn't fully access because of the inner fender, and couldn't resolve without risk of damaging the paint.

So yeah... 90% is my estimate of the repair. It could cost huge money to chase that last 10%, so I live with it.

Like I said, I've got other flaws in the car that I'm "living with". God forbid I discuss them with the wife, or her eyes will permanently get stuck towards the back of her head.

 

Preach, brother!

I told my wife when I met her that I was a rotorhead, which is like a gearhead but far, far crazier. She still married me, so at this point I think it's all her fault.

 

Mines is completely checked out with car stuff. It's a bittersweet liberty.

 

Mine only wants to maintain budgetary control (since she does all of our budgeting, so that's fair). She gets a little ticked when parts show up unannounced... so sometimes I get stuff delivered to work LOL.

 

Ha, my cats were a 'repair' purchase because my stock ones rusted through. In reality, just the heat shield was rusted, but she doesn't need to know that.

 

I put a spreadsheet showing my clutch/flywheel upgrade costs vs oem repair costs on my build page...

At least I have her on board with the idea that a car isn't just a transportation appliance, and that safe road manners also translate into good handling, IE hazard avoidance. That's why she went with the CX5 for a CUV rather than some of the others we test drove - best handling for the class in our price. Her eyes are now on a BMW X3 though...

 

Honestly, I had to go back to the page with the original damage just to know where to focus; couldn't tell by the pics after the repair.

 

We have many accounts so one of those is the car/cars account.
I get liberty to buy whatever I want however it has to come out of that account. I'm the main contributor so...
Just sucks when her car breaks unexpectedly.

Not gonna lie these responses made me laugh😂

 

I guess the one benefit of my wife spending money like crazy is that she doesn't care when I get lots of parts or a new car. The downside is that I have to handle all of our finances since she is incapable of saving a dime.

 

We have separate spending-only accounts that is our fun money- mine goes to car stuff and occasionally shooting stuff (I compete). Hers I can't get her to spend AT ALL. Honestly, what do you do with/for a woman that doesn't like jewelry, clothes, makeup, art, or have many hobbies besides international travel and being a mom?

 

Just get creative with new experiences. That's what you remember in life, not possessions. Who knows? You might find something new that she likes and if it sucks you might both end up with a funny story later.

 

We try, but sometimes hard to do with a 9-year-old in tow. Babysitters aren't a thing anymore, at least not around here, for many reasons.

 

The wife is always telling me to get out of the house, meet people, make friends, blah blah blah... And she's not wrong.

Today on the way into the hardware store, I parked the car deep into the lot at Lowes. As I was walking in, a few rows over was a brand new Stingray. The owner was approaching it as I was walking by, so on whim I called out to him and asked him if I could look at his car. Wasn't like I had to twist his arm, LOL. Turned out we talked for quite a while. Eventually he started asking me about my G, and I told him how it was set up. At that point he got really animated to get me to participate in one of the last two Auto-X events coming up next month. Apparantly it's a big hobby interest for him, recently with his Stingray, but mostly with a modified Mazda RX8.

We exchanged contact info, and now here I am thinking... why not? Although I've done this before, it's been a long long time. And not for nothing, but my G is set up nearly as perfect as can be for Auto-X.

I should probably do this.

https://www.flr-scca.com/autocross

 

Sounds fun. Just prepare for it to take the whole day, take plenty of water and lunch in a cooler. If you take family with you, take something like an easy up and chairs.

With my RX8 I taped up the edges of the front bumper that would get marked up by hitting cones with the green or blue frog tape masking tape (that car was pearl white). I'd suggest the same.

The only thing I *wouldn't* do in this day and age is use a club helmet.

If you don't have an old motorcycle helmet you'll need to drop some coin, but not too bad. I''ve always been a fan of the Bell M3, which you could get with a hose connector to plumb into an A/C duct. Looks like that is now the M8. Their K1 is similar for about $100 less, and the Mag is even less (but open-faced - some folks like those better for autox; I'd rather just have one helmet for track and autox).