Its going to cost you either way...
If you do it privately get a few quotes.... they will most likely want to spray up to the swage line and blend in across the door. It depends on the paint colour and how the sun has weathered it..... Metallica and perlessent are the hardest.... base colours are easier....... make sure it's done right as the body is galvanized, you dont want any old job done that will start rusting through from the inside....... but it's going to cost you.....
If you go via insurance....... it's going to cost you your excess now and will put up your premium next year as there is no 3rd party to claim against...
So ultimately I would take to a VWCW approved repair centre and pay for it myself...... I'd imagine it to cheaper in the long run than the insurance adding there markup and stinging you next year.
If you do it privately get a few quotes.... they will most likely want to spray up to the swage line and blend in across the door. It depends on the paint colour and how the sun has weathered it..... Metallica and perlessent are the hardest.... base colours are easier....... make sure it's done right as the body is galvanized, you dont want any old job done that will start rusting through from the inside....... but it's going to cost you.....
If you go via insurance....... it's going to cost you your excess now and will put up your premium next year as there is no 3rd party to claim against...
So ultimately I would take to a VWCW approved repair centre and pay for it myself...... I'd imagine it to cheaper in the long run than the insurance adding there markup and stinging you next year.
I've got to say I agree. I paid £350 in excess and a further £400 in increased insurance costs over the last few years for a shoddy repair ( Evans Halshaw Bodyshop, Leeds) for damage that the bill was £400.
As long as everyone is ok then it’s only metal as the end of the day, 2 replacement panels and some paint..... jobs a good’nSo bought my caravelle in March and away on holiday at the moment. wife took it out in the evening to go to an event and came back with the following surprise for me.
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Any help of advise on this greatly received, trying to work out if I have to go the insurance route or if I pay to get it fixed myself.
Thanks
Pete
It's not as bad as it's been made out. If this came into my shop I'd be looking at pulling the majority of that out and a repaint/blend on the rear quarter and door panel. On a bad day you'd be talking £750.00 plus VAT. More than happy to help if you want a ride up to Leeds 
Seen much much worse.
Seen much much worse.
We had an almost identical bump back a while, insurance company were very good. Allowed us to get the quotes and decide where we wanted it to go.
We had a couple of quotes £500-£750.
VW approved body shop around £2000, new door, seals, metallic paint etc, the works basically. We went this route for a number of reasons, some discussed above.
As a precaution the insurance company also replaced all 3 of our kiddy seats and bases (no quibbles) which was worth around £1000. We explained they really didn't need to do this given how it happened but they insisted.
I get what everyone is saying about increased premiums, but your insurance is going up next year claim or no claim (it never goes down and that's why we all have to shop around, right, to get it back down?!) and a claim that size pays back the last 4-5years of insurance when you didn't make a claim. Just my thoughts, but hope you get its sorted as painless and cost effective as possible.
We had a couple of quotes £500-£750.
VW approved body shop around £2000, new door, seals, metallic paint etc, the works basically. We went this route for a number of reasons, some discussed above.
As a precaution the insurance company also replaced all 3 of our kiddy seats and bases (no quibbles) which was worth around £1000. We explained they really didn't need to do this given how it happened but they insisted.
I get what everyone is saying about increased premiums, but your insurance is going up next year claim or no claim (it never goes down and that's why we all have to shop around, right, to get it back down?!) and a claim that size pays back the last 4-5years of insurance when you didn't make a claim. Just my thoughts, but hope you get its sorted as painless and cost effective as possible.
Thanks all for the comments and advise much appreciated, not able to upload the actual quote but fastlane came back to me within a couple of hours yesterday. Looking at just over £7.3K for the repairs. Which looking at the last few posts seems quite high, though it seems to cover everything and is VW approved. I might labour only comes to about £2K everything else seems to be parts (all VW). Lots of food for thought, still on holiday for another week so will think this over and decided when we get back.
I see your in Guildford so not so far away from Southampton.
I would highly recommend Harwoods Accident repair centre in Totton, they are VW, Audi, Bentley etc etc approved and have a great attitude toward quality and doing the job right.
I’m not connected with them other than as a customer who had a 1 year old Audi repaired there after a heavy rear end shunt and more recently an occasional supplier of driver services, the general attitude behind the scenes seems to be “its got to be right and if the customer isn’t happy it will be sorted”
I would highly recommend Harwoods Accident repair centre in Totton, they are VW, Audi, Bentley etc etc approved and have a great attitude toward quality and doing the job right.
I’m not connected with them other than as a customer who had a 1 year old Audi repaired there after a heavy rear end shunt and more recently an occasional supplier of driver services, the general attitude behind the scenes seems to be “its got to be right and if the customer isn’t happy it will be sorted”
As T6caliman says that would pull out, mate of mine makes a good living out of repairing works vans that come in with this sort of dent all the time. They weld eyes along the dent and then pull a bit at a time. Costs in labour against price of new door. Would be a lot of paint and labour to fit new door and swap bits over.
Baz
Baz
Looking forward to contributing to the forum in the near future once I've purchased my T6 and done a conversion. Could anyone give me a finger in the air estimate for fixing this damage. The guy is selling this below market value due to the damage so wanted to see if it's worth the extra effort.
