A few days ago, when I got to my car to drive home, I noticed this mess, no note or anything.

It looks like somebody hit the front driver's side (bumper, fender), causing a fairly significant dent and damage to the paint. Also, I have a fairly big scratch in my rear quarter panel as well from a hit a run in a shopping mall parking lot last year that I'm looking to fix (same city).

What are the best (and hopefully affordable) options to fix this? I'm hoping somebody here has some experience with repaint and repair costs specifically Infiniti. I've been to 4 local body shops and I've been quoted between $2500 - $4000 to fix, which seems incredulous to me (one shop said they would repaint the entire driver's side, which is overkill in my opinion). I've also considered using touch up paint.

PS I'm from Canada

Thanks!

(can't upload 4th picture for some reason, so here it is http://imgur.com/VtVVi7Q)

 

Just a few ideas:
1) Replace fender (it's a DIY)
2) Repair/replace bumper
3) remove front driver tire and inspect rim and wheel well area
4) rebalance the rim and get a good alignment service

I'm sure there's much better ideas but I hope this gets you and others to chip in with ideas. Good luck.

P.s. If it was me, I'd go back and do a solid 360-degree look for cameras in the area and hunt down those that hit my G.

 

A lot of us here on the board feel your pain. I had my drivers rear quarter dented in my own church parking lot. Repair costs were almost $3,000. Those body curves that make the G so appealing are a body shop nightmare when it comes to dent repair.


I'm not sure how you sit with your insurance company but I went with a claim against my insurance and paid the $500 deductible out of pocket. From my observation on home-repaired G's, they usually look pretty poor unless you have some skill with pulling dents, straightening sheet metal and filling scratches. I'm not a body shop expert but painting the entire side of the car does seem overkill to me especially given the car is white. They only painted my rear quarter to the door pillar. If your not keen on an insurance job, replacing the front fender would be my next recommendation. You can do scratch repair as a DIY if you have the experience. If not, check out bartering with someone who does. It sounds simple but its truly an art to repair deep scratches that require more than just polishing.


Good luck

 

If that had happened to my car, I’d push on that dent until it popped out most of the way. Without professional experience, I know I can’t fix it all the way, but I can minimize the depth. I’ve done this on other cars, and would do what I could on this one. Then, I’d use touch up paint to get rid of the darkness, and prevent rust. Then I’d call it a day.

Or, I’d contact my insurance company and pay my deductible…

I’d surely not pay to repair it out of pocket.

 

A good paintless dent guy could pop that out most of the way. It won't be perfect but hardly noticeable. Looks like your car goes through some mess so I wouldn't spend much to fix things on it now. Wait till summer.

 

Sorry that you have d-bags that park near you. I would be furious.

I would do option 1 and 2. replace the fender and the bumper. MW parts are easy enough to come by. Now would be a good time to do a bumper change if you so feel the need. Both should be DIY jobs with basic hand tools.

If you cannot, you could always claim it through insurance and they will take care of it for you, if you have the coverage.

 

Thank you for the responses guys, I do appreciate your time and helpful advice.

I would prefer to avoid going through insurance ($500 deductible, but unless its guaranteed a $4k job I'd rather not), so I'm considering the different options.

1. Replacing fender/upgrading bumper, and then dealing with everything else. This could work if I could find a replacement fender in IP, as well a bumper upgrade (maybe IPL, already in IP as well?), then repair and sell my old bumper to recoup some costs. Anybody know the approximate going rate for these items (08 g37s bumper, IPL/zele/?? bumper, painted fender) or selling?

2. Local dent repairs. There is a small area of paint damage up front - if this can be reasonably covered by the touch up paint I got from my local Infiniti dealer, then this could be a possibility (but obviously a possibility to be disastrous as well haha). Leaning against this option.

3. Let body shop do their thing, probably ~$3k out of pocket, which absolutely sucks and is a terrible way to start the year. Last resort option.

It's ironic you guys mention checking for cameras, because I installed an Itronics dashcam (http://cdn.mkimg.carview.co.jp/minka...t=4e7b9df3668c) last year as protection, but it's not hardwired, meaning it's only on when the car is on (obviously not helpful in this situation). I did look around for clues (no license plate left behind unfortunately), but to no avail.

I'm not in a huge rush to fix everything (despite going to 9 shops for repair quotes this week), because it looks like the damage is cosmetic and I'm willing to hunt for replacement/upgrade parts. However it hurts me every time I see her

Maybe when this is all over this thread can be a reference to anybody in the future as unlucky as me!

Ps here's a picture of her in better days (sorry for the potato quality instagram crop)
http://photos-h.ak.instagram.com/hph...44870923_n.jpg

Thanks guys!