Door Damage Advice Please

[PianoAl]

This concerns the repair of damage to the rear door and rocker panel (see photo).

The closest certified Tesla repair shop is four hours away. The Tesla SC can't fix it. The Tesla is our only car, so taking it to that shop would be problematic.

Two local shops refused to work on a Tesla.

Another shop said they would fix the dents and paint it (estimate around $3,200).

Another shop said they would NEED to get a replacement door (said that trying to fix the dents could cause the aluminum to break), install that, and fix the dent on the rocker panel (estimate around $3,200). So far, it looks like Tesla is willing to send them a door.

I'll be trying some more shops.

Any advice on how to proceed would be appreciated.

 

[tonyhny]

Oh man... I just join this group to see what people are doing with body work. I hit a small island recently can caused some, I thought, it was minor damage. Tesla authorized shops dont do ANY repairs, they want to replace and they also wanted my insurance info for $8 worth of claims. If you are near a tesla owned show (NOT AUTHORIZED), try that instead. They could at least do repairs versus replacing. Chances are, that panel will need to be replaced. Becuase you also damaged the rocker panel, that's exactly the same area that my authroized shop wanted to replace at 8K.....

At the moment, the car doesn't bother me so I left mine as is... but it irritates me so I am looking for body shops that could do some repair work since they are not able to secured any parts....

 

[tonyhny]

If your estimate from a non-tesla shop is already 3200, you might as well go through insurance and take it to a tesla-approved or owned shops. Since it will be a claim hit against you regardless of 3200 or 9K....

 

[PianoAl]

I found a high-quality local shop that will do the work for $4600, so I'll use it and bill the insurance. They will replace the door and remove large parts of the car and feather the paint, etc. Sheesh.

Like Tony, I'd prefer to have someone just smooth out the dents and match the paint pretty well, but that's not how the world works.

If it's going to be a long time before the new door arrives, I'll be tempted to follow YouTube instructions and paint over the black parts.

 

[tonyhny]

Good luck with this. I feel your pain because this would have cost very little with a regular Honda or something. For me, it was like 8K for a small dent on the rocker panel (the bottom piece)....

 

[PianoAl]

I wanted it to look a little better until the shop is able to repair properly, so I got some white primer (Dupli-Color Automotive Primer) at the hardware store ...

It met my goal of looking better from a distance. I haven't taken it out into the sun yet.

Things I learned:

• Those (including the body shops) who said my temporary fix would make it look worse were wrong. Of course, making it look better than big black marks wasn't a high bar.
• I'd wanted to just paint the marks with a paintbrush, but could only get white primer in a spray.
• I tried spraying into a plastic cup and painting with a brush, but that does not work. The paint separates immediately.
• I'm glad I masked well, because the overspray went farther than expected.
• I started doing a clearcoat layer, but that stuff seemed more temperamental, so I quit while I was ahead.

 

[thai710]

I have similar damage on my car. May I know how you can get Tesla to send parts to non-certified shops? Thank you!

 

[PianoAl]

I just took the car to the local body shop and they did the rest. IIRC, the total was $4500 and I paid only the deductable of $1600. They did a good job.

 

[stopcrazypp]

I have similar damage on my car. May I know how you can get Tesla to send parts to non-certified shops? Thank you!

I don't have experience with shops, but for buying your own parts, you can submit a service request, choose the "other" category and submit a "parts only" request. You may need know the part number however or at least an accurate description.

You can browse the parts catalog to look up parts, but always better to also include a normal description of the part you are looking for just in case the part number may be off.

Parts Catalog

epc.tesla.com