Hey ya'll...I don't even know if I should be posting this in here, but I need some info on where to get a couple replacement parts for my MINI.

Long story short...

My neighbor is a drunk idiot and backed into a parking space next to me last night in her big stupid truck and hit me.



That idiot didn't even leave a note and I can assure you that she is not the type to have admitted what she did, so I'm just lucky that my new best friend neighbor was outside smoking at the time. My boyfriend and I went over to her house and he handled everything beautifully, saying that we will handle it outside of insurance (which it turns out can be the only way, since I talked to the neighbor who told me that she doesn't have a driver's license). I let him do the talking since I was about to rip her face off at any moment. Also lucky for me...and for her...you can see how close she came to hitting my hood. It's just the quarter panel that is damaged. I will be pricing out some parts today to give her an estimate.

It's just annoying and ugly looking.

Anyway...the parts I will be needing are as follows...

• sill plate cover
• plastic clips for reinstallation
• plastic mount behind front quarter
• new front quarter (painted...pepper white)

Any suggestions on where to get parts, etc., would be greatly appreciated because I have no idea. This has totally stressed me out today. Thanks.

 

Lauren,

Sorry to hear about the damage to your MINI. Glad Sam was there for you.

I would e-mail the Classic MINI parts department bmwparts@driveclassic.com that photo and then follow it up with a phone call 440.205.6404 and tell them that you e-mailed them a photo of the affected area, so they can be sure to get you the right parts. Tell them you are a NAM member (there is a good discount for NAM members).

You'll still need to find someone local to paint the quarter panel, but at least this way you'll be getting new OEM parts for less than you'd pay at any local dealership.

Dave

 

Classic Mini in Ohio hooked me up on getting a replacement wheel arch clips below list price. For a replacement arch trim piece it's around $15 with clips included, a sill plate cover (the metal logo that's visible when you open your door) is about $40-50 per piece. The other pieces I don't know but I'd imagine maybe $100 for the plastic wheel well piece and maybe $200 for a repair of the dented wing piece.

So sorry that someone besmurched your baby. Good luck with the repairs.

Classic MINI ph 440-266-6700.

 

I think I have a guy that can do the painting for me...
Thank you SO MUCH for the suggestion. You rock, Dave!! And thank you to WeeGas for the suggestion as well. I knew I'd get some good answers over here.

I'm just so thankful that guy was standing outside smoking when he was...I would never have known who did this to me and I'd have to foot the bill myself.

 

If your drunken neighbor is driving around menacing the roads without a license or insurance, she needs to be removed from the streets!
It's people like that who make insurance premiums so high for the rest of us!
My dad used to say "If you can't afford insurance, you can't afford a car!"

 

I know. It's totally true. The thing is...this woman isn't the nicest of people. I've always been a little afraid of her, so I avoid her. I feel like if I got the cops involved in all this that it would anger her and she would do something rash.
I wish she would move.

 

Consider going to a body shop and having them price out the complete repair (parts and labor), if your neighbor would agree to pay the bill.

 

Is going to jail considered moving?
Since this happened in an apt parking lot (private property) I don't know if Le Fuzz would have an interest, but it might be worth checking out. Anyone who drives 1) without a license and 2) drunk, needs to be removed from society.
I have zero tolerance for drunk drivers. If one hits me, it will be the last time they drive.

 

A little more information for you. To get a good match with the paint you should, at the minumum, get the door painted also, if not the whole side of the car.

If you consult a good bodyshop they will tell you the same thing. Reason being, even if they use "factory paint" it isn't factory paint. The factory applies it electrostatically and the local paint shop applies it thru a paint gun using solvents as a carrier. It won't be a perfect match. If you just do one small part of the side it will stand out like a sore thumb.

Someone backed into my door, while was parked. And the body shop painted the whole side.

Also, have them check to be sure that the headlight washer resevoir and associated pump have not been damaged as they are behind that panel.

 

Sorry to hear about your car
*hugs from me and Chad*

 

Sorry to hear, Lauren! I nhope that everything works out for you and Sam. East Coast greets...please send my regards to Sam, too!

 

So sorry to read about this, Lauren! Classic MINI is definitely a great suggestion, as they offer NAM members a very good discount.

BTW, I have several friends who had body work done on their MINIs and they were good as new afterwards. They can match the paint perfectly...don't worry about that too much. Good luck!

 

That is frequently true for metallic paints where it is almost impossible to match up the alignment of the sparkly particles, but Pepper White should be okay. I was rear-ended in my Pepper White MCC and the painted replacement parts came out matching perfectly.

 

What a bummer! It sounds like you and Sam handled it well. While it would be great for your menacing neighbor to get what she deserves, it's more important for you to be safe so don't do anything you're not comfortable with. I hope your MINI is fixed good as new very soon.

 

For your paint job don't paint areas that don't need painting. If you decide to trade in your MINI for something else dealers are now checking to see what has been painted. The more paint the less money for your trade.

2nd tip
Put a pillow on the side that your neighbor parks from now on. Bubble wrapping your MINI will also work. hey......where are my smiley faces?

 

Exactly what I was thinking. She really seems unstable and unfortunately she knows where we live. It might not be worth it to risk damage to our personal property by getting her in trouble with the law. If she refuses to pay for the damage she has already done, however, I will have to take other steps against her. And I will be telling the landlord what happened.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I shot classic an email with the damage pic attached and then called to follow up...and they've already sent me an estimate. We want to take the fender off later to make sure nothing else is damaged, but it should be fine since Sam has removed both his fenders and there didn't seem to be anything there that would have been smashed. Either way, I will be back in touch with the classic folks after the weekend to seal the deal. THANK YOU AGAIN SO MUCH, DAVE!!!!!

 

Again, sorry to hear about the current condition of your MINI, but hopefully it will be back to its red hot pepper white loveliness soon.

 

Hope it all works out for you, Lauren. BTW, if you're in Cali now, are you still the Mid-Atlantic Coordinator?

 

Lauren,
If you are concerned about color match, please do not have the fenderlet painted off the car and then installed. There is a 99.5% chance that it will not match. There is no such thing as "factory" paint. At some point, somewhere, someone will be mixing the color by hand. Even a .01g variation in one of the toners will throw off the mix. This is why pro shops do what is called blending. This involves painting the affected panel and spreading the new color onto each adjacent panel. In your case, that would be the hood, cowl panel and door. Even a color match which appears to be dead-on can hold surprises. I once had a fender replaced on an RX7 and cheaped out and just had the fender painted. Solid bright red. Looked great, until parked under a sodium vapor parking lot lamp, where it jumped out as night/day difference.
Trust a pro shop to do it the right way if you are concerned about resale value.

Good luck,
Gary

ps: I have a little experience in such matters. I managed and worked in autobody repair shops for 12 years. Color match is the single most common complaint on repaired vehicles.

 

We have a guy that does stuff like this for a living. I will definitely bring all this up to him. Thank you so much for the advice though...it was a concern that I have had as well.

Greatgro...yep. I still get over there occasionally.

 

Pepper white is one of the better colors for match. Have a quality auto body repair facility spray a test panel first to check color match & possible tinting before painting a large area like the hood & left door. Pepper white will not change color with a different light sorce like reds, blues & greens do.
If it were my car I would try to keep the repair area as small as possible.

 

Totally.

 

If you see her stagger to her truck for the next outing, a nice, short, discreet phone call to the local police (along with her tag number) would be in order. You don't even have to tell them who you are if you don't want to.

I have used my cell phone a number of times now to call the police on people I thought were drunk and driving. The police WANT you to call them before these idiots kill someone innocent.

And you don't have to apologize to anyone.

 

sorry to hear about your mishap. hang in there!

 

You showed remarkable restraint in that situation. More than I would have. If a drunken POS damaged my car, I'd be well beyond livid.

Thankfully, the damage is not a whole lot worse. Best of luck with getting it fixed. Let us know what you wind up doing and how it comes out. Sorry I don't have anything useful to say. I'm a good mechanic, but I can't do cosmetic repairs for beans.

Rawhyde