Hello Guys,
Someone drove into my rear wheel arch yesterday. Pics to come.
I have have had an accident repair place look at it and they said the
whole panel will need to be replaced and welded in. (£1800 odd)
roof out, fuel filler pipe moved etc.
Is this rear panel ok to be replaced by a normal repair centre or
should I go to specialist MX5 centre?
Any advice would be most welcome.
Thanks,
Golders
I would alwasy make shore who ever is working on my car is good. With body work its more about quality than knowing the car IMHO.
I assume you don’t know who did the damage, otherwise your Insurance should cover you.
The price quoted seems to be quite a lot but with some garages charging £75.00 plus per hour, I can see why the price is so high.
Looking at your picture, the damage looks to be two large dents,(is this the case) and if this is the case it should be able to be knocked out and a small amount of filler used to get looking as new again.
What colour car is it, Classic Red?
Sorry guys that pic is just to show which panel needs replacing, my car is silver. the dent is quite a hefty one.
The person who did the dent works in my office, so no worries about claiming/fault etc.
The quote has just arrived and its £1985 all in, this is to spray the door and boot etc to blend it all in,
the rear bumper and hood need to come off too.
I assume it’s not as easy as replacing a front wing then? just some bolts etc, granted there’s the welding at the sill but i wouldn’t of thought it’d be £1985.00 worth of work.
You can buy a l/h rear wing from autolink for £165.00, spraying it will cost a small sum and the welding will be specialist but £1985 still seems an awful lot of money for the work in my opinion.
Have a look at the rear of your car, its all monocoque there!
That seems quite expensive. I have been quoted £1,500 to completely respray my car in Silver Stone metallic (primer + base + clear coat). This includes removing all bolt on panels and stripping back the existing Champagne Mica finish to primer or bare metal as appropriate.
Its a fair bit of work to remove the rear wing; as said, a lot of bits need to come off before you’ve even touched the wing (rear bumper, rear plate finisher, hood, rear deck carpet, rear lights, filler pipe). Air chisel to get the old wing off, fit new wing.
I wouldn’t let a Mazda specialist anywhere near it; a member got a Mazda dealer to replace the rear wing of his car, and it was a terrible job. As a result his hood forever leaked, because they didn’t fit the apron trim correctly, the rear deck plate was raised, because of the huge amount of panel sealant they used etc.
Hello Golders,sorry to here about your “bump” your insurance could pay for it but claiming it yourself means you would loose your NCB. The quote for fixing is ridiculous to say the least.I have had both my sills done,both the wheel arches,n/s front wing and a full respray done on my Mk1 and the Total cost was £1240 !! dead chuffed ,fantastic work carried out by great paint shop.
My advice would be shop around and get a decent reasonable quote from several paintshops and check out the finished article before you decide which one,it’s easy to do go and have a look most are very helpfull if they think you will be taking your car there.
cheers,
Tom
Sounds like a good deal you got there Tom, I was just about to ask where you had it done, but just spotted you’re in Dundee… doh!!
Russell.
That is a worry about the hood leaking because they had not put it back properly. I wonder if it would be
easier to get the repair shop to fill it and spray it, would save a lot of the worry of having the roof removed etc.
The repair place did say it would never look right if they filled it (hence the new bodywork).
The ladies insurance (AA insurance) will be getting an estimate for the work too, hopefully they will be able to
fill and spray it.
Hi Russell,dont be put off by a short trip for quality work.Paul has just started this week on a red Mk1 and about to start on a red Mk2 next week, my neice is taking her Mk2 in September too.
Both the Mk2’s are for resprays and neither require welding at this time but will be completey checked for rust during the preperation stage.
Come up for the weekend ,drop of the car,get work done .pick up two weeks later,job done,happy chappie/chapess !!
I have just managed to get the picture off my Phone, see below:
I would be surprised if a good panel beater could not pull and reshape that panel in-situ, maybe removing the sill end closing panel to gain access to the back of the rear quarter panel. Welding in a new sill end closing panel would be a lot easier than replacing the whole wing and arch panel.
hello Niggle, Yes thats what I hope too. I would rather they hammered it out into shape and just filled over and sprayed it.
Would save putting a new panel on and removing roof, carpet, back bumper etc.
My insurer Elephant have booked it in for an estimate on Monday with their guys so the job might be much cheaper/simpler.
Fingers crossed. 
Another pic below:
As the owner of a car where the paint is currently peeling badly around the beltline I would prefer the beltline to be removed or lifted before painting, rather than just masking it off with tape.
From what I understand from a painter who did a lot of work for a Roadster importer, the risk of removing the plastic beltline part from a 15-20 year old car is that it becomes quite brittle, and easily cracks. he thought it preferable to mask it off, as its a fairly expensive part. On the other hand, if you budget the £150 or so to replace it during the paint job, fine. It will make the painter’s job even easier, as he can just smash the old one off, without having to fiddle round with pesky clips.
2 cars painted with the beltline masked; overspray no problem. What little there was present was easily removed by my jumbo Halfords claybar (I have a lifetimes supply).
hi i can recommend some very good , they are in peterborough , cambridgeshire they are called g-motorsports there tel no is 01733687101
http://www.g-motorsports.co.uk
they prob will be able to sort it for half the price you have been quoted.
just give them a ring.richy r
Hi Tom
I need the same work done to my S-Limited, who did the work for you in Dundee as I am in Aberdeen and struggling to get a good recommendation up here?
Steve