Gouge to Mini roof - what the bloody hell has caused this?

[All that jazz]

Blaster72 said:

All that jazz said:

As a truck driver of a wide range of vehicles myself I can't see it being a truck/trailer given the height it's happened. If it was tail swing from a truck the damage would be at bonnet/wing/mid door height, not 5ft off the ground on the roof. I really can't think what else it could possibly be at that height though.

Front of the trailer sticking out on a turn would be the right height wouldn't it?

Car park spot too far back from junction looking on map link provided. If it was parked closer to corner then an artic turning right into the road could well cause front n/s corner of trailer to hit it, yes, but where car was parked the trailer would be not far off being straight with tractor unit by that point.

Furthermore, looking at the map it's a standard residential road which looks to be very tight for a truck to get between the cars a bit further down and there's nothing down there that would warrant a truck needing to go down there.

Edited by All that jazz on Sunday 29th May 19:20

[Blaster72]

It is a bit of a mystery then! I hope the OP has some luck with the security cameras

[s55shh]

One of my ops did similar damage to a fiesta ST150 a couple of years back with the front bucket of a JCB.

[Mr2Mike]

Blaster72 said:

I'm not sure what structural damage you mean, I can only see panel damage on the photo. A straightforward job to fix.

Replacing a roof skin on a modern car is anything but straightforward.

[Blaster72]

It is on the Mini for any decent panel beater. Not sure about other modern cars.

As I said before, it can be done - the price will determine if it is done.

Is there something special about the Mini roof that you're aware of?

[Winky151]

Maybe a take-away van serving hatch not battoned down.

[ThunderGuts]

Blaster72 said:

ThunderGuts said:

Blaster72 said:

ThunderGuts said:

As I said further up, mine had similar (but a bit less severe) damage.

They didn't entertain it.

Plus, with damage to a corner (structural?), You'd have query impact on rollover strength etc.

It's a job that can done without too much bother, the price will be the only sticking point.

The roof skin or the investigation and repair of any structural damage?

I'm not sure what structural damage you mean, I can only see panel damage on the photo. A straightforward job to fix.

Rollover (and other) protection comes from round the screen, plus it's where the A pillar meets.

As that had been damaged on mine, the insurer wouldn't consider repair (sadly).

Plus, as mentioned by another poster - £4.5k for a skin replacement, not an easy job.


ETA - not being able to see under the skin is an issue. Would you sign off on a +£4.5k repair, with the chance it'll cost a lot more / not be viable when you look under?

Will be interesting to see what happens, cars get written off for bugger all nowadays

Edited by ThunderGuts on Sunday 29th May 23:29

[Blaster72]

I know what you mean, so many cars are tossed aside by insurers that could be fixed.

As I've already said this one will go down to cost, from the one photo I've seen I can only see damage to the skin, A-post cover trim and roof gutter trim. All fixable at a price.

Can't see any structure damage in that photo but who knows what they'll find when they trim back the damaged skin,

How much is the car worth OP?

[jamiebae]

That's really strange to be at that height, and to do that kind of damage to a fairly strong part of the car. Good luck with the CCTV, fingers crossed it shows something.

[Mr2Mike]

Blaster72 said:

It is on the Mini for any decent panel beater.

A panel beater is someone who repairs panels; that roof is beyond reasonable repair. The roof skin would need to be removed and a new one fitted which is far from the trivial job. If you'd ever actually done this kind of work you wouldn't be saying this.

[Mercky]

All this talk of write offs and replacement roof panels? I'd have that knocked out welded filled and painted in no time

[essayer]

I know of someone with a horse box who didn't realise the side tack door was unlatched.. It was swinging open as they drove along. Similar sort of height. Caused loads of damage.

[red_slr]

Could be anything - wont even need to be that heavy if it was travelling at speed.
My guess is something sticking off a skip or van or perhaps a tail lift has been left up and folded down.
Defo nothing falling off though as you would find the part...

[AC43]

Well if the assessor thinks it's a £4500 job then surely the car would be saved.

Assuming the car's in good nick trade-in would surely be £5.5+k. Late MCS's (assuming sensible miles, etc) retail for up to £7k. Split the difference and you're still north of £6k.

That's how the assessor worked out the value of my car a couple of years ago when someone rear ended it.

[Blaster72]

Mr2Mike said:

Blaster72 said:

It is on the Mini for any decent panel beater.

A panel beater is someone who repairs panels; that roof is beyond reasonable repair. The roof skin would need to be removed and a new one fitted which is far from the trivial job. If you'd ever actually done this kind of work you wouldn't be saying this.

Ok. Seems we differ in what we think can and can't be achieved. Panel beaters don't just repair panels BTW.

I'll leave it there.

[AC43]

Mr2Mike said:

The roof skin would need to be removed and a new one fitted which is far from the trivial job.

When I took my rusty C43 Estate on for (yet more) paint I casually asked the extremely-capable body shop guy that I'd used for years if he could tackle the rust that was appearing around the roof rails. He said "don't bother" as the time and effort that he'd need to strip down and replace the roof lining and interior trim would dwarf the cost of actually painting the roof.

In the end I had the arches done, ran around in it for a while then traded it in.

With insurers it get worse, of course, as they use repairers with high hourly rates and insist on replacing everything with the slightest mark with new parts from the manufacturer etc etc,

[jamiebae]

AC43 said:

Well if the assessor thinks it's a £4500 job then surely the car would be saved.

Assuming the car's in good nick trade-in would surely be £5.5+k. Late MCS's (assuming sensible miles, etc) retail for up to £7k. Split the difference and you're still north of £6k.

That's how the assessor worked out the value of my car a couple of years ago when someone rear ended it.

If repair cost is £4.5k, retail is £7k and salvage value is £2.5k it's going to get written off as a write off is much cheaper to process than dealing with a repair, the cost of which could go up if other damage is found later on.

[V8RX7]

Mercky said:

All this talk of write offs and replacement roof panels? I'd have that knocked out welded filled and painted in no time

Agreed.

[PAUL500]

Mercky said:

All this talk of write offs and replacement roof panels? I'd have that knocked out welded filled and painted in no time

Exactly, I doubt due to the cars age that the insurance company will do it, but you can guarantee if it ends up on the copart website that is exactly what will happen to this car and it be out on the forecourt a few weeks later with any potential buyers none the wiser, other than the car being on the register.

[Jonno02]

jamiebae said:

If repair cost is £4.5k, retail is £7k and salvage value is £2.5k it's going to get written off as a write off is much cheaper to process than dealing with a repair, the cost of which could go up if other damage is found later on.

So true. My current car was rear ended last year by a transit. Retail for the car was about £12,500. Insurer estimated a repair bill of 5k, so repair was green lit. Final bill came to just shy of £10,000 with every eternal panel replaced and everything shy of the engine bay and interior changed.

It really didn't look that bad from the damage.