[shuvd]

Lancer_rit - A very sad incident. Don't take this lying down. I have faced similar incidents a few times. The hotels promptly paid for damages.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by lancer_rit

Yes vid, Southern Motors means follow ups. Thanks for offering the help.

Do you have suraksha motors' Ramamurthy's contact details ? Maybe I can speak to him about the taillight etc ?

Regards,

Just sent you a PM with his number.

[lancer_rit]

Originally Posted by vid6639

Just sent you a PM with his number.

Thanks vid. I will talk to him tomorrow - just didn't get time today.
However, I had enquired from Sai Colorium about Taiwan tail lamps - it seems the Taiwan makes come w/o holders unlike the Stanley original ones. For the older style lights (non-SFXi model), its 1400 bucks, while for the newer one, its ~2200 or something. Since insurance will only pay half, I am thinking getting it done outside HM A.S.S. is making sense.
Regards,
Ritesh

[lancer_rit]

Gave the car in for repair to Suraksha Car care centre as per strong recommendation here :-) Will get it back on Saturday and update with pics.

[abhinav.gupta88]

Are the hotel authorities paying for it?

[lancer_rit]

@abhinav.gupta88 : No buddy, I am claiming it through insurance.

Guys, I got the car back from Suraksha Motors yesterday evening. Since, it was already 6PM, I couldn't have the best lighting conditions to look at the repair which I made today at my home.

Here is the summary:
* Denting job is very good, lines are restored, and finish seems good.
* Paint color matching seems good and paint finish is well done.
* Rama Murthy was very helpful and agreed to put the Taiwanese tail lamp to save me some moolah (insurance pays 50% of it)
==> Quality of work is pretty good.

Nitpicking (or not major issues)
* The sheet folding below the taillamp has a bit of gap (see picture)
* The from wheel underwell has the shield loose at the top (I had showed this to him, but it wasn't clear in the poor light - today, I checked it with the other side wheel well) - need to get it fixed (should be small effort)
* Cleaning left the car with a musty water smell (what's with this cleaning step - even Sai Colorium had messed it up) - saw that there was water accumulated on running board and like today).

Find the pictures attached.

Overall, here's some thoughts on Suraksha vs Sai Colorium
* A.S.S. needs to pay hefty taxes on labor. This is avoided in a non-A.S.S. body shop (Service tax @12.36 %)
* Suraksha denting capability seems better (though this is based on my gut feel).
* Both did a good painting job though I only did a panel painting in Suraksha and not whole car.

Cheers,

[Glass]

@lancer_rit
Sad to see the damage, but the job seems a happy ending

I had the very same experience at a hotel though the damage was lesser -
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/sedans...tml#post909204

But you were lucky you at least do not seem to have got an infraction on TBHP for venting your anger!

[Vid6639]

Hey Ritesh, good to see the car's back.

Whenever your free do go and show him the panel gap. Next time when there's any work on the car he will do this. I'll let him know once I'm back.

The front fender is attached via plastic buttons. Just make sure all the buttons are there. If they are there then they may not have fixed properly. The same thing happened with me. My old plastic fenders were fitting perfectly till they tore. I got them replaced but they had this gap. Later I realised that the gap is there cos the old ones were stuck with the mud and dirt and you could not make out the gap.

[lancer_rit]

Originally Posted by Glass

@lancer_rit
Sad to see the damage, but the job seems a happy ending

I had the very same experience at a hotel though the damage was lesser -
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/sedans...tml#post909204

But you were lucky you at least do not seem to have got an infraction on TBHP for venting your anger!

Thanks man. It does hurt when I had just completed 2 months after painting the whole car. I had to also leave the car for 2days in the workshop and these are other factors which cause effort, expense and/or inconvenience. Hope your Fusion has recovered as well.

The infraction - well let's just say GTO was kind enough to overlook this since I did post with a 'abuse' under some confusion about the board rules - I have to thank him for that, I fully agree with the board rules :-)

[lancer_rit]

Originally Posted by vid6639

Hey Ritesh, good to see the car's back.

Whenever your free do go and show him the panel gap. Next time when there's any work on the car he will do this. I'll let him know once I'm back.

The front fender is attached via plastic buttons. Just make sure all the buttons are there. If they are there then they may not have fixed properly. The same thing happened with me. My old plastic fenders were fitting perfectly till they tore. I got them replaced but they had this gap. Later I realised that the gap is there cos the old ones were stuck with the mud and dirt and you could not make out the gap.

Hi Vidyut,
thanks, overall the job looks pretty good. Yeah, will show him the panel gap when I go to fix the front fender stuff - that part is a bit tough to do I guess since they had to fix the dents on the side, and then fold that part at top and bottom.

What I found is that the front fender upper plastic shield needs to tuck in above the fold of the fender metal into the sidewall, and then its held together by nuts (didn't pay attention if that was a plastic part). In the case of the left side, this sheet has slipped below the fender metal fold, and therefore, sort of, hanging down...

Regards,

[s0uljah]

Good to see her back to normal. If you don't mind me asking what were the rates at Suraksha? Our office car has taken a beating and I need to get the entire front left panel to be tinkered and painted.

[lancer_rit]

Originally Posted by s0uljah

Good to see her back to normal. If you don't mind me asking what were the rates at Suraksha? Our office car has taken a beating and I need to get the entire front left panel to be tinkered and painted.

Well, my bill includes some other work, but approx., the tinkering and painting of Left Rear Quarter Panel + Left Rear bumper (part) + Left Front bumper (part) is about ~Rs. 6000 including service taxes.

For Lancer A.S.S., they estimated about 6.5-7k + taxes (12.36%) for the same job.

I guess the same will cost about ~4-4.5k in Sai Colorium - they are the cheapest among the ones I searched earlier and also due to no service tax.

Hope this helps.

[lancer_rit]

Guys,
egged on earlier by Shuvd and others, I made a final attempt at the Mark Boulevard hotel with my repair bill and made a written application that the hotel has some negligence in the incident, and they reimburse me what insurance did not cover (50% of tail lamp etc).
I was pleasantly surprised that they agreed to cover that and made me the payment of the difference (~2.2k). The amount is small but the principle is lofty :-)
Hope they'll be more careful about these kind of possibilities in the future and prevent damage to guests' property and/or trace it to the culprit. Also improve the CCTV resolution to be able to provide necessary identification.

Thanks for your inputs and support.
Cheers,

[mjothi]

Thats a good news. Yes, once they "compensate" (read - MONEY) next time they make sure that they don't give a chance for that. Hopefully, they take care of the car parking much better from now.