Accident Crash Repair - Thoughts?

[jrm]

My car was in a small accident on Fullarton Rd yesterday morning when an elderly lady driving an automatic Toyota Seca Hatchback pulled into oncoming traffic leaving little room for me to come to a complete halt before hitting her in the front quarter panel. This has left the front bumper in poor condition and the bonnet is bent, so I'm guessing both will need to be replaced.

Now obviously the accident is her fault, and my insurance company (Shannons) has been really good when I lodged the claim with them yesterday afternoon.

I asked the insurance company regarding different repairers, and they (of course) recommended I go with the one they suggest, as (in their words) would have 'dealt with a lot of nissan skylines, we insure a lot of those'.

Anyways, I got a call from 'Port Adelaide Smash Repair' this morning, asking me to book in for a quote on repairs - so I'm guessing that's the company that'll be doing the repairs. I'm guessing I can't exactly ask in public for opinions surrounding a particular repairer, but as this is my first time having a car I own repaired under insurance, I'm a bit hesitant about how to approach any of this - and the last thing I want is for my pride and joy to be repaired in a sub-standard manner.

As Shannons do give me the option to use my own repairer as well, does anyone have any recommendations for someone else I might take my car to for a quote / repair or could message me war stories around 'Port Adelaide Smash Repair' if they've heard of or dealt with them?

As a complete aside - I have no idea how crash repair companies go about sourcing for replacement or repairing parts. Are they more likely to repair the bonnet/bumper? I also can't imagine they're going to source brand new parts from Nissan - so am I going to end up with a wreckers second-hand parts on my car, re-sprayed to match my vehicle?

I know I sound pretty noob about all of this - and with regards to smash repair I am - so any information / thoughts you have about how I should approach any of this - feel free to share

[Luke_ENR34]

Doesnt look like to much damage. I use and Recommend Edwardstown Custom Body repairs. Bennet ave, Melrose park.

[ISC-Performance]

All Type Crash-North

Doyles crash-South

Have used both and was happy with there work.

Ryan

[kb-r33]

I just got my 33 repaired cause some lady smack into the corner of my front bumper. Got it done at Silvers motor body repair just of north east road, they did a pretty siick job. As i got my car back it was full waxed and looking shiny =]

[Nightcrawler]

Maybe use this as an opportunity to get a nice aftermarket front bar and a vented or carbon fibre bonnet. What you do is get the crash repairer to cost up to do the whole job with new parts - they will cost a bucketload from Nissan. The insurer will then approve the cost to fix. Then you tell the crash repairer you will buy an aftermaket front bar and bonnet, and use the cost of repair from the insurer 'credit' to paint ansd fit the aftermarket parts, and respray the whole car That is pretty much what I did when I crashed my old S15

[heslo]

That's shifty Andrew... I like it!

[gtrkiet]

east bear front conversion ^_^

[Murry33]

Looks like minimal damage in the photos, will probably just get away with panel beating the bonnet straight again, doubtful it would need replacing...

Front bar looks to be an easy repair too, shouldn't be a hard job for them to do imo

[Inline 6]

usually insurance companys do it on the cheap when its your fault and charge it up when its not. either way shannons are fairly good cause they give you a choice of repairer.

id take it where you wanna go, also consider did the person that smashed into you have insurance. and are they nice ppl that made a mistake or assholes you want to make pay

Edited June 11, 2009 by Inline 6

[CRoNic...]

Bump - sorry JRM, but I'm now in the same sort of situation.

Had some mole reverse into my GTR last night... she decided she didn't need to look behind her when she was reversing and lodged her towbar nicely into my front bar, tore a chunk out of it and scratched it up pretty badly. The bar itself has also come loose on one side.

I've reported it all and stuff, so now it's quote time! I needed a new front bar anyway, as my current one had fibreglass repairs on it from it's Japan-life. It's also been dented on the front quater guard, too... so I need a new aluminium one. Blah.

Can anyone recommend a decent crash repairer these days?

Since I'm with Just Cars, I have to take it to 2 places... one of their recommended places and one of mine. So I have to take it to either Quality Crash Repairs or MEC Crash Repairs down Lonsdale (shudder) but I need one of my own for a quote.

[jrm]

I had mine insured through Shannons and had their recommended repairer fix it - I wish I hadn't. I'm pretty much going to have to have the front bar and bumper resprayed at my own cost (bumper and bonnet are slightly the wrong color, and the paint just chips off if something as light as insects on the highway hit it). I complained to Shannons, they sent a guy out to check it out - he said the color match was fine and that you can barely notice it (my arse, I've had friends comment on it...), and that the damage to the front bar was caused by stone chips (normal wear) - yes, the previous front bar I'd had with no stone chips that was 10+ years old and had travelled numerous highway kms was just 'lucky'.

Happy to pass on their details to avoid them if anyone PMs me (They're in Port Adelaide, tho thankfully neither of the ones you listed).

[Dohmar]

I had mine insured through Shannons and had their recommended repairer fix it - I wish I hadn't. I'm pretty much going to have to have the front bar and bumper resprayed at my own cost (bumper and bonnet are slightly the wrong color, and the paint just chips off if something as light as insects on the highway hit it). I complained to Shannons, they sent a guy out to check it out - he said the color match was fine and that you can barely notice it (my arse, I've had friends comment on it...), and that the damage to the front bar was caused by stone chips (normal wear) - yes, the previous front bar I'd had with no stone chips that was 10+ years old and had travelled numerous highway kms was just 'lucky'.

Happy to pass on their details to avoid them if anyone PMs me (They're in Port Adelaide, tho thankfully neither of the ones you listed).

I'd speak with writeoff on the matter of getting a skyline fixed. He had a saga where one company had his car for over a year and didnt even fix it properly. He's taken it somewhere else and theyve sorted it out but I'm not sure what theyre called. He can warn you about the dodgy ones at the very least

-D

[jrm]

Given I wasn't even at fault for the accident, I'm pretty frustrated and disappointed that I've ended up with a car that's been repaired in a sub-standard way to be honest.

Hopefully I can find a reasonably priced painter who can take on repainting the bumper/bonnet and then parts of the factory R34 bodykit that I've managed to source over the last few months (and maybe also the infamous R34 trait of rust around the brake light in the boot)

[SLED]

Looks like I'm in the market for a crash repairer too

You reckon Doyles are the go Ryan?

[Tangles]

Looks like I'm in the market for a crash repairer too

You reckon Doyles are the go Ryan?

nasty

my old man has got that car; bought mr.pickles (auctions) personal car only 4000kms on the clock

pristine condition, had it over a yr now. TT powah!

nice car thats for sure, his retirement dream

[NISSAN GTR]

Edwardstown motor bodies ! if you want the best job in Adelaide.

[Luke_ENR34]

Edwardstown motor bodies ! if you want the best job in Adelaide.

U mean Edwardstown Custom body Repairs?

Thats the only place i go. Speak to Mel tell him I sent you.

[SLED]

yeah thanks guys, Edwardstown is close too.

[Matty 31]

ouch pete, so THATs what the missus did eh?

[SLED]

yeah if you see her, don't rub it in, lol..........she feels pretty bad about it.

No one was hurt so that's all that matters I suppose.