I took the car to two Lexus dealerships and one quoted me: $1400 and other $1200.

$1400 quote was that their Body and Paint Labor is $74/hour.
$1200 quote was that their Body and Paint Labor is $40/hour.

I don't understand how they calculated them.

 

In New York the going rate is over $100 per hour

 

Don't worry too much about the blending. Good body shops do that very well where you can't even tell. Especially since your car is so new that the original paint had little to no time to fade. My guess is they will paint the whole 1/4 panel and up to the rear door and blend at the top. Anyway, it is all in the body shops skills. It could turn out to be an obvious paint job, or it could turn out to be unnoticeable. The shop I went to when my wife damaged the rear 1/4 panel and door was a shop many of the local car show participants go to for show quality work and paint. It was a more expensive than your typical body shop, but I didn't mind paying extra since I wanted it done as perfect as can be since my car was also going into a car show.

 

Couple of things:
There is no such thing as a Lexus paint job vs any other make out there.
A dealer will neither provide a better or worse paint job vs an independent. it is all up to the shop, the painter, the paint used, prep guy, equipment, venting, etc.... Many dealers just send the cars out for body repair.

I know of one person with 2 incidents in his RX330. Took it to the dealer. Horrible paint job. I went over the thing afterwards and pointed out all of the areas on the poor paint job received. Basically, stripped down again and repainted.

Many posts on painting in this forum-do a search. Seems many RX owners ding their SUV's. Personally I know of 4 such occasions-not me. Gotta get that back up camera folks.

That said, dent repair is out on that unless you want to keep the chipped paint which I am sure you do not. They can make it look much better, but not perfect on that damage. They do excellent work otherwise.

Best advice, check out several body shops, look at finished vehicles as well as those getting worked on. If you have no clue what to look for, get some recommendations in the Regional forum here or take a seasoned paint pro with you.
I would say up to 90% of paint jobs out there are not perfect. To me at least. Most people are not as picky as I am and care less if the paint job is good as long as the paint sort of matches.

Just don't get caught up in the whole dealer paint job is better.

On the blending, if memory serves, I do not believe the RX has a definite body panel break between the 1/4 panel and the roof. This being the case they will blend up into the beginning of the roof and clear over it. If done properly most people will not be able to tell. For me, that is the first place I look when assisting friends purchase used cars.

Expect to pay from $1500-$2750 for a quality repair on that dent as the panel can be saved and that color paint is generally easy to match up. Now if it was pearl

 

There is; however, a roof channel covered with a rubber weather strip under the roof rack. The painter could paint all the way up to that point, and the blend would only be on that 2" or so area between that rubber covered channel and door jam area.

 

I've had a pretty good experience with PDR - type repairs, but only in limited situations. The best one was when a secretary drove my Suburban and got out with an armload of winter coat, purse, and office supplies. She threw a rather ample hip into the door to latch it, and oilcanned the door panel. It looked like it had been hit by a medicine ball!

Not wanting to remove the interior panel I first tried working a pry bar through a small gap in the interior panel and pushing against it. Unfortunately, the dent was in a spot that was almost impossible to reach this way, thanks to the window mechanism. I finally got one of those little kits and popped the dent out easily with no damage. This is probably an ideal application for these little suction cup dent-pullers; big, shallow dents with no obvious cracking of the paint (meaning the metal had not been stretched).

I eventually eliminated the problem by getting a more careful assistant - with a smaller keester. Had to marry her though . . . not sure I saved any money.

 

My uncle would charge you about $250 USD (that's if you wanted it painted right, too), but you'd have to make long trip to Mexico City. I have had a sizeable ding on the front passenger side of my RX and my uncle and I literally took the piece off, bended it back into shape and painted. It ain't rocket science, just hard work and patience.

 

Does that iclude replacing 1/4 panel or just dent fix + paint?

What did the PDR shops tell you? And what sort of expectation level they convay? You can have touch up done at the dealership ( I have seen good work for plastic (bumper) repair).

The dent is the major eyesore. If paying out of your own pocket, you may choose to live with the paint scratch ... I would for one grand. You never know if a shopping cart is looking for your vehicle.

Salim

 

It doesn't include replacing the Quarter Panel.. Just repairing + paint.. man, it sure sucks..

Many body shops I took it to said that it can't be PDR.. Is there just PDR shops that I can take it to?
And I will be paying out of pocket..

 

I am also thinking of PDR after seeing all these big $$$$ quotes.

I wish, but it's a long drive for me man. But thanks.

 

Anyone thinks that it's possible to do a PDR on my RX330 dent (see photo on post 1). Yesterday, I also went to Lexus dealership and bought touch-up paint and I was able to clean most of the paint that came out with the touch-up paint. Now, we can only see the bent and crease.

I tried to open the headlight panel to get into the metal (bend) and see if I can push it out with my hands, but unfortunately, it's little hard to reachable. Plus, there’s also an extra metal piece that needs to be removed to get into, which I think that’s where the back headlight is mounted to. Any ideas how I can remove that and get it done? Any advise is greatly appreciated.

 

PDR will get most of that dent out for sure. Like I mentioned before though, the area of concern that a PDR can't fix is definitely the creased metal at the very back end of the dent. The paint at that point is also cracked, so once pulled back you will have he cracked paint in that area and also if you look right under the tail light the gap is larger. After the PDR it may return back into position, but it may not. If you have touch up paint you can at least seal off the cracked paint. That area of the paint may also be prone to chipping. I and peeling. For the $100 I guess it is worth the try as you many decide you can live with whatever flaws are left. If you decide you don't like it you can always take it to a body shop later.

 

Google found this:

http://www.usadentguys.com/contact.html

Salim

 

EXACTLY!!!

that's why i voted for PDR the second i saw your photo. if you can live with a touchup of the creased paint area, then PDR is good enough. i realize your car is pretty new so it's probably hard to look at and you prob want it perfect, but honestly, the next time you get some sort of damage you might be sorry that you spent $1000+ to fix it.

there are TONS of PDR guys in Calif. just google it or open your yellow pages. i think they all do free estimates, and it's mobile service so you can have it looked at while at work. i would go with a company that has done big time dent work, like the one that i posted earlier. i would steer clear of people who haven't done much more than door dings...

based on my own experience w/ PDR, i believe that dent should be virtually invisible once they are done with it.

p.s. don't forget to take before-after photos for us! i wish i had good luck!

 

74/hr for body and paint labor? Even the most expensive shops here in CA doesn't charge that much.

PDR will suffice if you don't mind seeing warped sheet metal and the blemish in the paint. And since there is a body line right below the taillamp, it will be almost impossible to replicate that with a PDR.

I do this for a living, write estimates for a large insurance company here in SoCal. Looking at the damages that you have...that's a minimum 8 hour repair to the right quarter panel. That's not including the time to R&I the rear bumper, taillamps, 1/4 glass...blend into the adjacent panels and etc. When refinishing of a panel is done, it requires to paint the whole quarter up to the next nearest break. Unfortunately, because the quarter has no physical stops, a good body shop will paint up the quarter, to the sail panel (outer roof rail) into the winshield pillar). MSM (millenium silver met.) is not an easy color to match. That also goes with biege, pearl white and etc.

Most Lexus dealers sublet their body work to a local body shop. I would go with a reputable body shop in your area. You can even ask around to see which body shops are Certified Lexus/Toyota Collision Repair Shops. Also a shop with a good experience painter is key.