Buying auto body parts from a boneyard

[Numo]

Recently I put a small but unrepairable dent in the fender of my 5 year old car. For financial reasons, I don’t want to file a claim with my insurance company. All of the body shops I’ve been to have told me that I need to replace the fender. Yesterday I talked to a paintless dent repair repair guy who agreed that the fender needs replacing, but suggested I buy a used fender from a junk yard to save money.

Anybody done this? I am interested in hearing about your experience. Labor-wise it should be easy; but I wonder about the paint match. For me, it doesn’t have to be an exact match, but I wouldn’t want it to be really obvious either.

[John B.]

I've done doors, and once had a bodywork guy do a quarter-panel repair that required cutting & welding.

Seems like several of the "junk yards" in my area have online search engines for their parts now, so when I needed a tailgate, I went online, found a match (same model year, same factory color). Paid with a credit card, they pulled it and delivered it.

[mrbigstuff]

LKQ.com will hook you up. I was hit yesterday, and I already put in my query. Otherwise, you can look on CL or on eBay. I'm doing that in addition, as I want to get my fender replaced asap.

[modelamac]

Finding a paint match is very unlikely, unless you scour several states' junkyards.

[srf1957]

modelamac wrote:
Finding a paint match is very unlikely, unless you scour several states' junkyards.

.

Not as many paint choices old times . Most of the junk yards are connected online to a central database anymore .

[lost in space]

Labor-wise, they can be easy or a PITA, depending on the car. I did a few back in the day, but didn't find any with paint that matched. Most were easy, but one required removing the grill and bumper. A decent body shop can get the paint very close and even spot-on using paint codes.

[cbelt3]

FWIW old school bondo is always a solution.

[JPK]

I have fixed many a car. This website is a huge time saver. I have found the descriptions & quality rating of condition to be good.

The database search is not as easy as it should, but you can find good parts near you and save money. You should be able to even find something that is colormatched.

http://www.car-part.com/

JPK

[macphanatic]

Ammo wrote:
Recently I put a small but unrepairable dent in the fender of my 5 year old car. For financial reasons, I don’t want to file a claim with my insurance company. All of the body shops I’ve been to have told me that I need to replace the fender. Yesterday I talked to a paintless dent repair repair guy who agreed that the fender needs replacing, but suggested I buy a used fender from a junk yard to save money.

Anybody done this? I am interested in hearing about your experience. Labor-wise it should be easy; but I wonder about the paint match. For me, it doesn’t have to be an exact match, but I wouldn’t want it to be really obvious either.

I would talk to at least one more paintless dent removal guy. It's amazing what they can do. In some cases, you can't tell the difference. In others, you can tell but have to look for it.

If you plan on replacing the panel, you might want to try the paintless dent removal yourself first. There's some inexpensive kits.

[Thrift Store Scott]

In my experience, you will be unable to find the used part you want in the color you want until after you have purchased and installed said part in a different color, at which point a glut of the used part you wanted in exactly the color you wanted will flood the market... usually in better overall shape than the one you bought and/or at half the price.

Your mileage may, of course, vary.