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33 Posts
So, I had my E for about 2 months and I'm loving it. Then one morning as I'm leaving for work I dented the passenger rear cladding in the garage. Long story short, to much $%^&@ in the garage and not enough room for the cars. Needless to say I was really mad about it, but what can you do about it when you do it yourself?:x
Anyway, I gently banged out the plastic with a 2x4 best I could and added some touch up paint. But, it's always been something there bugging me. I've tried to find a Kiwi colored clading to replace, but everyone's telling me they only come in primer / standard black-gray now and I'd need to paint to match. Not really sure if a match could be found in a junk yard around here either. I had a heck of a time finding the Kiwi AWD here in SoCal when I bought it.
I even tried a 'specialist' in Orange County that deals with plastics on expensive / exotic cars, but they came back with 'you'll need to replace and paint to match'. The quote was about $450
Anyway, I've been driving it for about 1 1/2 years like this and want to get it fixed, but I feel $450's a bit much to fix the unique customization I did. I'd rather spend the $$$ on other cool stuff that I've seen folks do on this site. Been searching for a 'how to', but haven't found one yet. I've been thinking about trying a heat gun to soften up the plastic and remold it a bit, but I'm a bit skittish on how it might effect the cladding. Has anyone tried anything similar to the fix I'm exploring?
(Note: I painted over the dent with touch up paint.)
Anyway, I gently banged out the plastic with a 2x4 best I could and added some touch up paint. But, it's always been something there bugging me. I've tried to find a Kiwi colored clading to replace, but everyone's telling me they only come in primer / standard black-gray now and I'd need to paint to match. Not really sure if a match could be found in a junk yard around here either. I had a heck of a time finding the Kiwi AWD here in SoCal when I bought it.
I even tried a 'specialist' in Orange County that deals with plastics on expensive / exotic cars, but they came back with 'you'll need to replace and paint to match'. The quote was about $450
Anyway, I've been driving it for about 1 1/2 years like this and want to get it fixed, but I feel $450's a bit much to fix the unique customization I did. I'd rather spend the $$$ on other cool stuff that I've seen folks do on this site. Been searching for a 'how to', but haven't found one yet. I've been thinking about trying a heat gun to soften up the plastic and remold it a bit, but I'm a bit skittish on how it might effect the cladding. Has anyone tried anything similar to the fix I'm exploring?
(Note: I painted over the dent with touch up paint.)
