Hi. I'm not a car expert, but I had an accident recently where someone smashed their car into my parked Honda Civic while making a wide turn. They put some two sets of vertical dents on my driver's side. One set on the door and the framing underneath the door, the other set on the rear quarter panel.
Took the car to a pretty good body shop. They've replaced the door and were going to replace the rear quarter panel, but called me up late last week to let me know that they managed to straighten the dent out on the quarter panel and got it back to the way it originally was. I took a look at it and it did look nice and smooth. They then told me they would need to put a thin layer of bonding material where the dents had been straightened.
Now I've been told replacing the part is better than bonding, because the bonding can crack or wear down, thus messing with the shape of the body of the car, but was told that's when they really try to fill in the dents with them, not just touch the car up with it. The owner of the body shop mentioned to me he felt that it is much better to repair than replace in this case, even though he'd make more money from my insurance agency by replacing the panel.
Anyone have any info on the pros and cons of repairing vs. replacing in the case outlined above? Thanks in advance.
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