Dent! What to do?

[elemenohpee]

So I am looking at a e30 to buy, but there is a small, but deep dent underneath the tailights. It is about 2"x2" and 1" deep. The paint has flaked away in the dented part and there is verry light rust. The car is in good shape other than that.

I am having a hard time deciding whether I should get it. How big of a deal do you think it is? Is there anything I could do to fix it that doesn't cost too much?

[Mike325]

Hey, welcome to the forum. If that dent is the only thing that concerns you with this car, I would go ahead and buy it. You could go to a local autobody shop with the car to get an estimate, but that should not be a hard dent to fix. Is it on a flat or curved part of the car?

[elemenohpee]

Thanks. After I posted I realized I should have put this in apearance section, sorry.

Yeah, it's only the dent that makes me hesitant about the car. It is on the curved part a little, but mainly on the flat part. It just concerned me because it's on a pretty big panel.

What's the best way to go about reapiring it, or just stoping the rust from growing? I don't really need it completely fixed, just wan't it to blend in a little better. I'll try to see if I can get some pictures.

[netcsk]

Sounds like it'd be best to sand it up, fill it in, and repaint the section. A body shop probably wouldn't charge much for it, and you could try to get some of the price of the car cut because of the dent.

[mtechnik]

welcome

[elemenohpee]

Thanks for the help. I made an offer on it, hope he accepts it. It's a diamond schwartz 318iS too. The heater was by passed, but i think the core is still in it. Whats the reasoning to by pass the heater? I assume the heater core went out and he didn't want to replace it.

[ddavidv]

Without a pic of the dent I really can't advise you. With a photo and a couple of body shop estimates I can give you a decent idea if they are charging fairly or not. If you've never done bodywork, DON'T try to fix it yourself. You will just make it worse.

Bad heater core likely, from your last question. Not a fun job, mostly because it's messy and hard to do without getting coolant spilled on your carpet.