Got into an Accident
 

Earlier this week, I was involved in an accident. I am now in the process of getting my car repaired (pictures attached). The car is now at a bodyshop.

Couple questions:

1. The car is a PG color and from what I've heard this color is hard for a body shop to match. If anyone with a PG has ever had bodywork done on their car how did the paint come out?

2. I didn't notice at the time, but turns out from looking at the bodyshop pictures that the passenger side seatbelt pretensioner activated. I was in the car by myself and there was nothing in the passenger seat. How is this possible? After all, only the driver-side airbag deployed. I thought the SRS system was separate for driver and passenger. The driver side pretensioner did explode but that makes sense since I was in that seat with belt fastened.

3. Based on the pictures, if there is anything else I should be aware of please let me know.

thanks

sorry wrong forum - how do i move the post to general?

Moved to the correct section

That sucks about your accident. Hopefully you get it fixed good as new. Contact AK370Z by PM to have this thread moved, or contact one of the admins. Maybe you'll get lucky and one of the admins will read this and move it for you.


...nevermind...Trips already found it and moved it.

It will NOT match. They can do their best to blend it in, but it will never look as good as OEM.

That really sucks OP, best of luck with getting her back on the road ASAP.

wow, sorry to hear. :( hope you weren't hurt.

yah metallics are hard to match (including silver, white pearls) but it really depends on the bodyshop. most will blend and clear the entire side of the car to make it less obvious to the eye. you might want to ask the bodyshop to paint the entire side of the car. at least then it will match front to back.

Just eyeballing off of those pics, it seems like you have high odds of a frame problem there, that was more than just a fender bender. Especially seeing that interior plastic along the bottom of the door sill buckled makes me think that. The outer stuff (the front bumper support, the outer body panels, etc) aren't that hard to fix, but getting the frames/subframes/whatever-they're-called on this car correct could be a bitch, and it's a really important point to worry about. If they can't fix it right, you'll have endless problems getting your alignment correct in the future, etc. Make sure it's a good body shop, and make sure that part of the deal is getting the frame perfect. If the frame cannot be put back exactly the way it should be, I would try to work on the insurance guys to write off the car as a loss rather than try to deal with an imperfect frame, especially on a sportscar.

Thanks - actually the interior plastic is broken because the seatbelt pretensioner triggered.

I spy frame damage, which means an intensive fix. Hopefully the body shop is up to the task otherwise get rid of it asap.

Good luck with it all.

I've had body work done on my PG and it blended just fine. I'd be more worried about the frame damage then the paint matching though.

Sorry about the accident. Judging by the photos you should be looking at close to 10K in damages. To answer your paint match issues, just take the car to a reputable body shop and they should have no problem matching your paint. With all due respect to nissan, there is nothing special about our paint. If anything, 3 stage(pearls) give painters a harder time matching up, but even then its done on a daily basis. The passenger side seat belt can/will pop reguardless if a passenger is seated there. Only the airbag is regulated by the weight sensor. Make sure the shop offers a lifetime warranty on repairs even if you decide your selling the car after this (makes them a little more honest w/repairs)

ur accident looks very similar to mine except mine was on the left side...and did not crack my headlights or my fenders, but my estimate came out to be 6k...im gettin my car back this fri. gluck wit ur repairs

airbag deployment and only $6K fix? I would say closer to 10K

It shouldn't be that difficult for the shop to make the paint match, but some shops are lazy or just bad at what they do : /

How far into the job are they? I wouldn't be surprised if they came back with a higher price than what they originally quoted. That tends to happen w/ collision repairs. Good luck.

A good body shop should be able to match the paint. I'm pretty sure his insurance is going to recommend reputable Shops in the area.

His car should be return to him from the body shop as it was before the accident and should have lifetime warrranty on the work. He should check with his insurance appraisal incharge of your case.

BTW, that damage is around $8K if the headlight didn't get damage.

I got dinged in the parking lot, the body shop was able to match the paint no problem.

Before:
http://www.the370z.com/nissan-370z-g...ml#post1076177

After:
Look at any brand new PG 370Z. :-)

There may be suspension damage too my friend. So sorry for your luck, but glad to hear you weren't hurt! Your ride will hopefully be back on the road before you know it! :)

You might as well install an SC kit on there since you have the whole front end opened up.
:)

good luck with the repairs.

Thanks everyone for the advice. The body shop I took the car to is extremely reputable. I'll post a full review afterwards in case others in the SF Bay Area need a shop later but I've been there before with another car with more damage and they returned the car to new condition so I think I'm in good hands.

That's sucks. I hear that the grey colors cannot be identically matched to factory spec but I may be wrong.

Quick update - the estimate came up to $16.5K. They are starting the work now and I should get the car back in 2-3 weeks, so its something to look forward to. Going to go over every inch of the car before I accept it back.

Yah, that's more like it. GL with the repairs.

Glad you're O.K. and good luck with repairs. As far as the pre-tensioner, some are mechanical and some are electrical. I'm not sure about the Z, but I magine they don't have any communication with the seat sensors, airbags, etc. The deceleration G's will set them off regardless of seatbelt position, etc.

Got my car back today! The final bill came to $18.5K which was covered by insurance. They did an excellent job and the paint matches perfectly. They also showed me the unibody measurements before and after which came out very nicely.

Thanks everyone for the help. I'm glad to have my car back. Glad I took it to a very reputable body shop. My car was probably the lowest end car in their entire shop.

I was gonna say, $6-10k seems much too low. My motorcycle got knocked over and the insurance co. valued it at $3200...

Good to hear you're fine and the car's back to its beautiful self. Always remember... "space is the cheapest insurance."

david- good to hear you're happy with the repairs. :tup:

:iagree:

Sounds like you did well :)