Hey there,

last night one of my neighbours reversed his SUV and rammed into the driver side door of my S40 year 2004. The problem is that he doesnt have insurance so i need to get it done out of my pocket and bill him or sue him later...

My question to all you guys with eagle eyes is this.

- Can a simple Dent/Paint/Rebuff job bring back the glory or Should i change the pannel or the whole door has to be changed and how much it will cost me ... i know it can vary so a ball park number of the cost will help me haggle with the car man !!!

This is my first Volvo.. so i am unsure of the rigidity of the door pannel .. but my initial guess is that a Dent/Paint/Rebuff job will do the trick.

Please help me out with answeres here.. i am attaching the pictures for your better view..

Your help will be greatly appreciated.

[IMG]local://upfiles/14577/A3B0591D359E42F4B68F10B4577B4C24.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/14577/D164716F3A4540539FCE557089258958.jpg[/IMG]

 

Wow, lucky it missed the bottom sill. From the looks of it you could replace the whole door with a junkyard one for less than a body shop would charge to pull the dent and repaint. I'm am not an expert though, by any means. Time to get an estimate...

 

I'm not an expert, but that looks like a bad location for an easy repair. Reaching-in going to be hard.

I would think replacing the door from a junk yard is going to be easier and cheaper.

I hope you involved the police to have evidence/witness/report to use against him wheen sueing.

People without insurance have to be the dumbest, most selfish aholes.

 

I doubt that would pull out given how deep that dent is. I would get a junk yard door and just swap all the inner parts of the door. Well a quick look at car-part.com shows only a few newer model S40's and the prices are rather high. Is this the same door as the early S40? It looks like if you have five cylider instead of a four it would be more expensive. Earlier cars are very reasonable $250-400.

 

That door is creased so the best of shops is not going to be able to bring it back to 100%. My wife is a claims adjuster and when she looked at the pictures she immediately said it would be cheaper to just replace the door, plus you would be happier with the result.

 

Thanks JKS2....

do uknow how much a door will cost me ?

i am trying to find it but cant find it

 

You might find one online from a wrecking yard, but most likely your best bet will be to go to a trusted body shop. They have many more contacts to find parts and they will usually get them at a better price. As yours is an 04 model finding a used part will be much more difficult than something older, e.g. 850 or S70.

 

that breaks my heart just lookin at it...the poor thing!

 

Out of curiosity where do you live that does not require insurance? At least liability anyway.

 

I'm sure that where he lives requires insurance. The idiot who hit him just didn't happen to have any.

 

Then he should fix it the correct way and sue. If he has a truck then he has an asset that can be sold to pay for the damage to the S40, but I guess I would accept payment from a neighbor without involving insurance if that is the case

 

I'd file the claim with my own insurance company and let them work it out with the neighbor. You do have collision (or in some states, Uninsured Motorist Property Damage) coverage, right?

As far as the repairs, it might be cheaper to have a body shop re-skin the door than to buy a whole door (if you can even find one).