Looking for feedback on wrecked JSW

[4ceFed4]

Not to go too far OT but, how do you repair the rear quarter when it can't be replaced? Yours looks uber bent and dented. How do they get it perfectly straight again?

Volkswagen sells the replacement body part as the rear quarter plus all of the sheet metal above the doors up until where the side view mirror is. The shop didn't end up using the whole piece, and cut it so that they were able the weld the smallest seam line possible up by the roof line and not have to respray more than they had to.

[hamfist001]

So, I finally picked my whip up today...only 2 months since the accident. There were quite a few parts on backorder, including the SRS module, the rear lift gate and a couple of other minor items. The only non-VW part is the A/C condenser...not too sure why, though. The only 'major' bodywork necessary was a the front unibody horn that the front bumper support bolts to was slightly bent. This required welding a new front piece to it. Also, there was a tailpiece under the rear bumper that was slightly indented, which required drilling out and a new piece welded on. It also required a new serp belt, intercooler and radiator, A/C condensor, front and rear bumper covers and supports, headlights/tailights, supports and then all the painting, etc. Code clears and alignment cost another $1,100. After all is said and done they probably could have totaled it.

My only minor issues are with the passenger front quarter and hood gap, which is slightly larger than the other side and there's a slightly larger gap between the front bumper cover and the driver quarter panel. I'm not sure how much they could tighten these gaps up, but I'l give it a week or two, see if it still bothers me and, if so, see if they can tighten the gaps a little. The passenger quarter was replaced while the driver quarter was repaired. Overall, I'm happy to have the car back and plan to keep it for a while. I took such a big hit (as all new car owners do) in the first year of ownership that it makes no sense to sell/trade it now. I might as well drive it until the depreciation levels off. Heck, by that time Audi will have a TDI wagon in the states, so I'll probably jsut step into one of those. Now to install my mirrors, lower it, 18s and all the other stuff that I want to do.

[rootrider]

So, I finally picked my whip up today

WIP = work in progress

though.. I guess people are misusing the thing so much these days that "whip" may as well be a word

glad you got it back.. how did clearing codes an alignment cost $1100!?

[hamfist001]

So, I haven't posted in a while on this but I would like some additional advice from the collective. The rear of my car looks great, but it's the front I have issues with. When I picked it up the body shop owner ran through some issues that they couldn't correct, such as a slight gap between the bumper cover and the quarter panels. He mentioned something like the bumper cover not being the same as the original, even though all VW parts were used. When getting the car home, I noticed that the hood/quarter panel gap is larger on one side than the other; the gap between the top of the headlight and hood is larger than stock (though even from side to side) and the quarter/headlight gap is not the same from left and right.

For those of you who have gone through this, is this typical? From my perspective, if there was no structural damage (and even if so, it should have been either fixed or totaled) all the gaps should be to factory spec. Am I crazy?

[HighCompression]

I know that this isn't the answer you were looking for, but in my experience, after any sort of accident, I've always had fit-and-finish issues w.r.t. panels fitting properly or gap tolerances.

[hamfist001]

I know that this isn't the answer you were looking for, but in my experience, after any sort of accident, I've always had fit-and-finish issues w.r.t. panels fitting properly or gap tolerances.

Yeah, I figured. I'm going to swing by there on Friday and see if they can do some 'adjusting.'

[haunted reality]

So, I haven't posted in a while on this but I would like some additional advice from the collective. The rear of my car looks great, but it's the front I have issues with. When I picked it up the body shop owner ran through some issues that they couldn't correct, such as a slight gap between the bumper cover and the quarter panels. He mentioned something like the bumper cover not being the same as the original, even though all VW parts were used. When getting the car home, I noticed that the hood/quarter panel gap is larger on one side than the other; the gap between the top of the headlight and hood is larger than stock (though even from side to side) and the quarter/headlight gap is not the same from left and right.

For those of you who have gone through this, is this typical? From my perspective, if there was no structural damage (and even if so, it should have been either fixed or totaled) all the gaps should be to factory spec. Am I crazy?

When my JSW was rear-ended and fixed, the body shop did a great job, mine is PG too. He did mention that VW's are one of the hardest to get blended right because they do a great job from the factory of getting the paint matched between all of the parts. To solve it, he had to blend the back half of my car, I can't tell a difference, it looks like it did before it got hit. He also used VW parts as well.

[mapleleafpaul]

I have a 2012 JSW tdi hit in the passenger side rear corner. I require a rear clip to include the whole back end including the floor pan but not the driver quarter panel. This is not an insurance repair.The rear on these cars has not changed sinc 2009 any body know where I can find a rear clip from 2009 fwd to present?.. Thanks. Paul

[blacksportwagen]

noticed you have a pano roof?

Have you checked for leaks? I'd think with impacts at front and back that whole roof unit might've shifted a bit...ugly.

as far as fit and finish, yeah, even the best shop here in Nashville had an issue getting my rear bumper cover on right when it was refinished (very minor bump in my case).

They needed to remove the waffle-like supports behind the bumper from the car, reinstall those and then reinstall the bumper cover to get it to look right. Those waffle supports might look right and tight, but good chance they shifted too and the shop overlooked those.