Hey everyone, I recently had the misfortune of a fender bender while driving in the bay area. My car was cut off somewhat aggressively in traffic and ended up rear ending the car in front of me [...] when I got home, it looks like the hood has been bent and the frunk black plastic trim inside unclipped/popped up a bit. The front bumper looks scratched but bent back into its original shape, I think.
What do you guys think? Can the hood be bent back into normal shape? Is this a DIY thing? Any experience with something similar here? Would hate to have to replace multiple parts and spend thousands of dollars...
Hard to tell from the pics, but it could be either a bent funk lid, or the bumper trim that now sticks a bit higher than it used to.
This is unlikely to be a DIY repair.
If the aluminum frunk is bent, you can try googling for local PDR (paintless dent repair) Pros and ask them for a quote to bend it back into shape. Expect a quote around $250-500.
Alternatively, replacing the lid will include repainting the entire front end. Tesla doesn't sell pre-painted body panels, only plastic bumper pieces. So you will be looking at a 1-2 month wait time at a Tesla-certified body shop, then an over-charged labor & parts estimate that is likely to add-up to $3-5K (all bodyshop work on Tesla is over-charged). Basically, it will be an insurance claim, where you loose the comprehensive deductible and insurance pays the rest.
If the vehicle you rear-ended is making this an insurance claim against you anyway, you might as well FWD to the insurance approach. Otherwise, you have options.
My Caveat here is that it may have damaged the underlying structure of the Frunk. If you look underneath, I looked at mine, there are some structural things that may have been either misaligned or damaged in some way. You should take it to Tesla for their thoughts AND a PDR shop and get quotes from both.
If of the sensors (radar, bumper ultrasonic parking sensors) are damaged, you will get errors right away.
A valet had nudged the nose of our Model 3 before returning it to my wife during a rain storm. There was hardly any visible damage to the bumper and nothing on the frunk, but the radar bracket broke and AP stopped working on the drive home. Long story short, we only pieced this together after taking the car to a Tesla SC.
Electronics in Tesla are very fragile. Keep an eye on the error codes for the next few days.
If nothing lights up, you should be in the clear.
HTH,
a
