Likely Cost Of A Front Wing Replacement

[TrentSC]

Typical - I drive 2000 miles across England, Denmark, Sweden and Finland without any problems, and 1 mile from home and I ding my front wing. Cue much cursing!

I was reversing out of a car parking bay and as I turned the wheel I couldn't see a low metal bar which connected with the passenger side wing, delivering a nice dent. Thankfully it doesn't look as though anything other than the wing itself is damaged (there's a paint smudge on the headlamp, but it held) so I guess I'm looking at getting the wing replaced.

This is a 2001 3-door 2-litre 4.2 model, colour code 3P1.

First up, is this do'able at home? I'm reasonably good with a spanner, but beyond the basics I don't have specialist tools. If not, would anyone like to hazard a guess as to the likely cost, either in terms of probably hours labour or £?

My next step before I give myself a heart attack and call Toyota for a quote is to hit the breakers, but I don't think my colour code was particularly popular, so it might be a challenge...

Cheers.

Trent SC

Rav4 4.2 since December '08

[three5]

Typical - I drive 2000 miles across England, Denmark, Sweden and Finland without any problems, and 1 mile from home and I ding my front wing. Cue much cursing!

I was reversing out of a car parking bay and as I turned the wheel I couldn't see a low metal bar which connected with the passenger side wing, delivering a nice dent. Thankfully it doesn't look as though anything other than the wing itself is damaged (there's a paint smudge on the headlamp, but it held) so I guess I'm looking at getting the wing replaced.

This is a 2001 3-door 2-litre 4.2 model, colour code 3P1.

First up, is this do'able at home? I'm reasonably good with a spanner, but beyond the basics I don't have specialist tools. If not, would anyone like to hazard a guess as to the likely cost, either in terms of probably hours labour or £?

My next step before I give myself a heart attack and call Toyota for a quote is to hit the breakers, but I don't think my colour code was particularly popular, so it might be a challenge...

Cheers.

Trent SC

Rav4 4.2 since December '08

Sympathy from me - my daughter did the same thing to mine on a wooden post! Would it be possible to post a photo or two? The reason I ask is that the "paintless dent removal" guys are getting VERY good at their calling. It might be that it would still need painting ( maybe £120 for a single panel? ) as well as straightening, but it could still be cheaper than a replacement wing.

[three5]

Typical - I drive 2000 miles across England, Denmark, Sweden and Finland without any problems, and 1 mile from home and I ding my front wing. Cue much cursing!

I was reversing out of a car parking bay and as I turned the wheel I couldn't see a low metal bar which connected with the passenger side wing, delivering a nice dent. Thankfully it doesn't look as though anything other than the wing itself is damaged (there's a paint smudge on the headlamp, but it held) so I guess I'm looking at getting the wing replaced.

This is a 2001 3-door 2-litre 4.2 model, colour code 3P1.

First up, is this do'able at home? I'm reasonably good with a spanner, but beyond the basics I don't have specialist tools. If not, would anyone like to hazard a guess as to the likely cost, either in terms of probably hours labour or £?

My next step before I give myself a heart attack and call Toyota for a quote is to hit the breakers, but I don't think my colour code was particularly popular, so it might be a challenge...

Cheers.

Trent SC

Rav4 4.2 since December '08

Sorry - how remiss of me. Welcome to TOC UK.

[TrentSC]

Sympathy from me - my daughter did the same thing to mine on a wooden post! Would it be possible to post a photo or two? The reason I ask is that the "paintless dent removal" guys are getting VERY good at their calling. It might be that it would still need painting ( maybe £120 for a single panel? ) as well as straightening, but it could still be cheaper than a replacement wing.

I'll take the camera phone down later on this morning and grab a few snaps. I think dent removal is a bit optimistic, but I'd be very happy to be proved wrong!

[TrentSC]

Sympathy from me - my daughter did the same thing to mine on a wooden post! Would it be possible to post a photo or two? The reason I ask is that the "paintless dent removal" guys are getting VERY good at their calling. It might be that it would still need painting ( maybe £120 for a single panel? ) as well as straightening, but it could still be cheaper than a replacement wing.

I'll take the camera phone down later on this morning and grab a few snaps. I think dent removal is a bit optimistic, but I'd be very happy to be proved wrong!

Here's the pic of the ding. Personally I think a dent remover is going to struggle, but I'd be very happy to be proved wrong!

[Davrav]

Sympathy from me - my daughter did the same thing to mine on a wooden post! Would it be possible to post a photo or two? The reason I ask is that the "paintless dent removal" guys are getting VERY good at their calling. It might be that it would still need painting ( maybe £120 for a single panel? ) as well as straightening, but it could still be cheaper than a replacement wing.

I'll take the camera phone down later on this morning and grab a few snaps. I think dent removal is a bit optimistic, but I'd be very happy to be proved wrong!

Here's the pic of the ding. Personally I think a dent remover is going to struggle, but I'd be very happy to be proved wrong!

Ouch! A bit more than a mobile outfit could cope with I suspect as it is creased. A good panel shop should be able to sort it though . Why not drive it around a few for some quotes and then you can ask them the difference in cost between repair and replacement. There are several, presumably aftermarket, wings on eBay around the £30 mark. You could go for one of these and have it sprayed up but accurate fit could be an issue - depends how good they are.

For comparison, I had 'Chips Away' recently fill and respray two dents the size of 5 pence pieces adjacent to each other and that took three hours on my drive for £138.

Good luck

[TrentSC]

Sympathy from me - my daughter did the same thing to mine on a wooden post! Would it be possible to post a photo or two? The reason I ask is that the "paintless dent removal" guys are getting VERY good at their calling. It might be that it would still need painting ( maybe £120 for a single panel? ) as well as straightening, but it could still be cheaper than a replacement wing.

I'll take the camera phone down later on this morning and grab a few snaps. I think dent removal is a bit optimistic, but I'd be very happy to be proved wrong!

Here's the pic of the ding. Personally I think a dent remover is going to struggle, but I'd be very happy to be proved wrong!

Ouch! A bit more than a mobile outfit could cope with I suspect as it is creased. A good panel shop should be able to sort it though . Why not drive it around a few for some quotes and then you can ask them the difference in cost between repair and replacement. There are several, presumably aftermarket, wings on eBay around the £30 mark. You could go for one of these and have it sprayed up but accurate fit could be an issue - depends how good they are.

For comparison, I had 'Chips Away' recently fill and respray two dents the size of 5 pence pieces adjacent to each other and that took three hours on my drive for £138.

Good luck

Thanks, I'll give them a call and see how they get on. I found a few aftermarket wings as you mentioned, and a few breakers have some genuine second-hand wings, but it would be great if I could actually fix this well without having to replace it.

I'll report back!

[TrentSC]

Update...

Chips Away passed on the repair (no surprise, but it was worth a try) and I'm waiting to hear from a local dent puller, but again I'm not optimistic, especially as the whole panel has warped slightly and is interfering with the passenger door.

I dropped in to see a couple of local panel beaters and the better of the two suggested that I spend less money and buy a new wing, which he can paint and fit for around £170, which seems fairly reasonable to me. He also recommended that I try to get an original part wherever possible.

Here's what I've found so far:

Toyota: £160.88

Breaker 1: £73.25

Breaker 2: £64.40

eBay 1: £45.00 but possibly not an original part and it has a few scratches

eBay 2: £95.00 for an original panel

eBay 3: £32.00 but possibly not an original part

They're all going to have to be painted and the panel beater/bodyshop chappie is available in a couple of weeks.

[Davrav]

Update...

Chips Away passed on the repair (no surprise, but it was worth a try) and I'm waiting to hear from a local dent puller, but again I'm not optimistic, especially as the whole panel has warped slightly and is interfering with the passenger door.

I dropped in to see a couple of local panel beaters and the better of the two suggested that I spend less money and buy a new wing, which he can paint and fit for around £170, which seems fairly reasonable to me. He also recommended that I try to get an original part wherever possible.

Here's what I've found so far:

Toyota: £160.88

Breaker 1: £73.25

Breaker 2: £64.40

eBay 1: £45.00 but possibly not an original part and it has a few scratches

eBay 2: £95.00 for an original panel

eBay 3: £32.00 but possibly not an original part

They're all going to have to be painted and the panel beater/bodyshop chappie is available in a couple of weeks.

eBay 2 and local tin basher seems like a reasonable arrangement

[TrentSC]

Update...

Chips Away passed on the repair (no surprise, but it was worth a try) and I'm waiting to hear from a local dent puller, but again I'm not optimistic, especially as the whole panel has warped slightly and is interfering with the passenger door.

I dropped in to see a couple of local panel beaters and the better of the two suggested that I spend less money and buy a new wing, which he can paint and fit for around £170, which seems fairly reasonable to me. He also recommended that I try to get an original part wherever possible.

Here's what I've found so far:

Toyota: £160.88

Breaker 1: £73.25

Breaker 2: £64.40

eBay 1: £45.00 but possibly not an original part and it has a few scratches

eBay 2: £95.00 for an original panel

eBay 3: £32.00 but possibly not an original part

They're all going to have to be painted and the panel beater/bodyshop chappie is available in a couple of weeks.

eBay 2 and local tin basher seems like a reasonable arrangement

I agree, although I had a call from Midland 4X4 Breakers in Telford to say that they had a red wing in good nick. I've emailed them with a pic for a rough comparison, so keep your fingers crossed!

Out of interest, does anyone know whether the 3P1 red was the only red that was available from 2001 to 2002?

Cheers.

[MarsKy]

Update...

Chips Away passed on the repair (no surprise, but it was worth a try) and I'm waiting to hear from a local dent puller, but again I'm not optimistic, especially as the whole panel has warped slightly and is interfering with the passenger door.

I dropped in to see a couple of local panel beaters and the better of the two suggested that I spend less money and buy a new wing, which he can paint and fit for around £170, which seems fairly reasonable to me. He also recommended that I try to get an original part wherever possible.

Here's what I've found so far:

Toyota: £160.88

Breaker 1: £73.25

Breaker 2: £64.40

eBay 1: £45.00 but possibly not an original part and it has a few scratches

eBay 2: £95.00 for an original panel

eBay 3: £32.00 but possibly not an original part

They're all going to have to be painted and the panel beater/bodyshop chappie is available in a couple of weeks.

eBay 2 and local tin basher seems like a reasonable arrangement

I agree, although I had a call from Midland 4X4 Breakers in Telford to say that they had a red wing in good nick. I've emailed them with a pic for a rough comparison, so keep your fingers crossed!

Out of interest, does anyone know whether the 3P1 red was the only red that was available from 2001 to 2002?

Cheers.

You need to be careful with "red". For my first RAV, I got a phone call from the Toyota Dealer saying he had a stock of new red RAV STAXs in. When I went to see it, it was verging on purple. "Morello red", he said... Still, I bought it. 11 years on, my wee brother now drives it, and it has been faultless.

[TrentSC]

You need to be careful with "red". For my first RAV, I got a phone call from the Toyota Dealer saying he had a stock of new red RAV STAXs in. When I went to see it, it was verging on purple. "Morello red", he said... Still, I bought it. 11 years on, my wee brother now drives it, and it has been faultless.

The red wing turned out to have holes punched in the metal for the wheel arch, which my model doesn't have; so I've ordered another from one of the breakers and it's on its way to my mechanic, who'll paint & fit it in a week or so.

Many thanks to all for the helpful advice and warm welcome.