My garage attacked my shiny new Prius!

That sucks! I am really paranoid about things like that happening in my garage...

 

Pictures???

 

A good body shop should make it like it never happened. It's nothing that will affect the Prius long term so don't let it get you down.

Life has a way of doing these things. I once took my new Jeep Grand Cherokee in to have a new windshield because a gravel trucks debris path caught me. While there the girl from the office, was asked to move my Jeep into the shop by her boss. She backed it into a pole, caved in the entire tailgate while he and I were yelling for her to stop because we could see what she could not. I would have LOVED to have the damge your Prius has instead. All things in perspective my friend. Best of Luck.

 

Less than 24 hours for me... I whacked one of my doors with a jack handle and peeled about an inch worth of clear coat off. It happens. Welcome to the club!

 

Thats not so bad. The dent can be removed with PDR (Paintless Dent Removal) and then the scuffing can be polished out. The little scuff on the hatch will require that entire section be repainted for it to look 100% right. On that pearl white...I might try to live with that. You can ask a detailer if they can touch up and wetsand that area. Pearl whites are hard for a body shop to match correctly...

 

Sorry to hear (see) that.

Living in earthquake country, I'm particularly paranoid about my garage configuration.

 

Ouch, I am sorry to see that. But as others said, good body shop should handle it like it never happened. Wish you all the best with the repair and please let us know how it went.

 

You would think that but i have had dings right on character lines and felt the same way, but people who are good at PDR can get them out and you'll never know. Its incredible how well it turns out. That panel is actually part of the unibody structure of the car, it cannot be removed. Even if you were to have a traditional body repair done they would reshape that area with body filler and then repaint. PDR is a much better route to take if its doable.

 

Don't you just hate that?

My story: Last fall/early winter....my son feeds our dogs from food in a storage container in the garage. He was a little lax and leaving the cover unlocked. A couple times I went in the garage and had the distinct feeling I was being watched and/or I was not alone. One morning I heard a loud noise and went in garage to find a hoe had been knocked off the peg board and damaged the top of the fender of our Mini - the one in my avatar.

That started a search in the garage and we found the offending raccoon hiding behind the fridge. I chased him out and thought that was the end of it except for the $680 (another repair shop wanted over $900) to get it fixed. To add insult to injury we brough the repaired Mini home and heard another large bang in the garage as the racoon fell of the top of the garage door track.

Obviously injured, he went to try and get behind the fridge again. I held a shovel whilst we did the this way/that way dance as he tried to head for the fridge again!

Then he decided, what the hell and went for me instead! I'm a two handicap golfer and he was the Titleist. Dead racoon went into a garbage bag and the trash track took him to his final resting place!

 

Paintless dent removal is the way to go...a lot of guys will come to your house...I might try that first and buff the scuffs...you would be suprised how much will come out if it is only the clear coat that is affected.

 

The body shop may or may not be well versed in PDR. My shop I use is an excellent shop, but they aren't in the PDR business and thus don't really incorporate it into their business model. You should talk to a good body shop and a good PDR specialist.

Get some Meguiars Scratch-X and see how much of the paint stuff you can remove. I am 99% sure that will come out with PDR.

 

PDR will probably fix it. My previous car was a Mercedes and it got nailed in a Texas hail storm. It looked like a golf ball all over. They pulled every dent with PDR and you could not tell at all. It was amazing.

 

I had a 2000 BMW 328i get vandalized in my garage (dont ask left door open). I was very impressed. Only in the trunk area where the sheet metal was somehow doubled did they have trouble...Car looked perfect when done...those little mirrors...Majic.

 

I feel your pain.

 

How did the raccoons get in? Do you have an open-ended garage or a pet door into the garage?