Aaaarggghhhhh - scraped Chim!

[crazylegs]

Just reversing the Chimaera out of the garage looking forward to a weekend of fun in it, and I've gone and scraped the rear wheel arch on the concrete fence post.

I have a driveway where you have to get the angle right and then turn at the right moment to get out because the fence and house aren't parallel, but excuses aside this was such a stupid thing to do.

I think its taken a load of paint of so I'm guessing the whole wing will need respraying. Had a search on some forums, I'm bracing myself for about £3-400 do we reckon? I'll post some pictures tomorrow if somebody would be so kind to offer any advice.

Week before Christmas, what a time to bring an unnecessary stupid expense on myself and make my P&J look shite. What a muppet.

[raceboy]

I had what sounds a very similar type of damage only that was caused by someone driving into me
It was a while ago and as long as it's only paint your guess at a price sounds about right

[chimtvr]

commiserations i scraped my door a few weeks ago reversing looking out the door crack didnt realise how thick they are and crunch it was in the bodyshop inside two hours i felt very stupid

[kenny chim 4]

Hmm, this thread fits my current dilema with the Chim.

Two weeks ago I went out to the work car park for a smoke and noticed a foot long scrape and 3-4 inches of paint (down to the GRP) removed from off side front wing.

Blood runs cold.. was it me? It must've been or the alarm would've triggered.. Angry, I return to the office.

10 minutes later a guy who works at the nearby car bodyshop knocks on the door. He says "you man who drive TVR?" (he's Indian) "I saw truck hit your car!". He then opened his hand and there was the truck's reg number written on his palm.

I then spoke to his boss and found that this flatbed truck was delivering a vehicle to the bodyshop. Within an hour, I had the make, reg and colour of the delivered car; the address and phone number of the flatbed's owner and the delivery document reference showing time of delivery etc.

I called my insurance company (Pearts) for advice and it turns out that I have free legal aid. I duly call the appointed lawyer and he has written to the offender's company- which is better than me just bowling in, which I initially was going to do.

Ok, if they admit liability (doubtful despite the evidence- and ultimately it's one man's word against another's), I'll get the wing re-sprayed. If not, and I claim, I lose nearly 7 years No Claims Bonus and face a £500 excess.

And there lies the dilema.

I guess I should get a quote and then decide...

Still don't know why the Toad alarm didn't go off. A passing train is usually enough!

[chimtvr]

definately not worth claiming even if you had protected no claims they will load your policy even if it isnt your fault sadly unless you do some serious damage insurance is just there to show the police if you get stopped
i have garage insurance covering me my brother and both of our wives on any car fully comp up to the value of £70,000 Two years ago my brothers wife hit another car in the lanes Knock for Knock nobodys fault £3200 damage
at the time our premium was just over £3000 since the accident it jumped to £6100
it was well worth claiming

[MickC]

Someone in a volvo backed into my chims rear wheel arch about a year ago, damage similar to what you've done. Cost 255 to respray the panel at HHCs bodyshop. Fortunalty for me the volvo owner payed up.

BTW, when I read the thread title I thought scraped read scrapped - which would have been much worse!

[victormeldrew]

chimtvr said:

definately not worth claiming even if you had protected no claims they will load your policy even if it isnt your fault sadly unless you do some serious damage insurance is just there to show the police if you get stopped

Sadly true. On this basis I thought "what the hell, why pay for insurance I am NEVER going to claim on?" - lets get TPF&T. No can do, no insurer will issue TPF&T on a vehicle worth over £4000 apparently.
This is actually a disgrace, they force you to take Fully Comp and then make it uneconomic for you to ever claim against it. Insurers are operating a government sanctioned cartel and getting away with it. IMHO.

[JonRB]

crazylegs said:

Just reversing the Chimaera out of the garage looking forward to a weekend of fun in it, and I've gone and scraped the rear wheel arch on the concrete fence post.

I seem to recall the mythical Jon Dokic allegedly doing that to his equally mythical F1.

Anyway, sorry to hear that. It is bad enough when your P&J gets damaged, but I think it must be 10X worse if you do it yourself. At least you have someone else to blame when it isn't you.

Group hug, everyone.

[Nick P]

I did the same sort of thing getting my Chim out of our garage a few months back with the front end.....just total lack of concentration and extreme muppettry caused it....luckily it was only a brushing glance and I managed to polish most of it out...

[crazylegs]

Thank you for all your kind words... time's a great healer and I'm feeling much better about the whole thing already.

I went to Halfords yesterday and got some paint made up, and just got it looking respectable with the help of a neighbour who had clearly done the job many times before! Its not perfect but you wouldn't see it if you weren't looking for it - that'll do until it gets warmer and then I can either have another go at it or get a respray.

I was thinking that maybe somebody like ChipsAway would be able to do the job for cheaper than a complete respray though?

[chimtvr]

dont use chipsaway there repairs really arent that clever they use rubbish single pack laquer that although looks good iniatialy inside a year it tends to craze. at least this is what happened with mine. While it was in having the door repaired i also had the rear wing resprayed to sort out last years chipsaway repair have it done properly or expect to do it again