Bullet Hole Repair

[bkkjam]

My car was hit in the gang battle in Ekamai on Friday. Do I need to change the door? I am insured.

[robblok]

Nah now it looks like a real bad ass car a true pussy magnet

Lucky that you did not get hit, and just let the garage sort it out they will know best. Probably the insurance want to do it as cheap as possible.

[submaniac]

They're "speed holes"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVV_COOey0E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAPmqX-FyvU

actually no, you don't need to change the door. A new factory door from Honda is a really pricey item, so I doubt your insurance would cover it.

I think I saw a close up picture of the damage from the news forum thread (I think that was you but it could have been made by someone else that was hit).

It appeared that the bullet did not penetrate the door skin but just left a dent. (It also appears that it was a home made bullet or else it would have pierced the passenger compartment). It can be fixed by removing the inner door panel and pushing out the dent from the inside. Probably a little body filler (not much) and a spot painting and you are done.

Is there any other damage besides a dent (or did the bullet actually penetrate the passenger compartment)?

P.S. Glad you are OK.

[hansnl]

Driving around Thailand with a car having one or more bullet holes might draw rather unhealthy attention from the BIB?

Quite easy to close a hole in a car's carrosery.

The door, or whatever part of the car, needs a respray.

There might be a colour dfifference showing up after some time.

Edited September 23, 2012 by hansnl

[transam]

That would have a piece of metal mig welded in, ground, smoothed and door painted. Silver is a terrible colour to match.

[jbrain]

Driving around Thailand with a car having one or more bullet holes might draw rather unhealthy attention from the BIB?

Quite easy to close a hole in a car's carrosery.

The door, or whatever part of the car, needs a respray.

There might be a colour dfifference showing up after some time.

I see many buy those stickers that look like a bullet hole.

[Ungabunga]

hi Hansnl, have you contacted your insurance guys yet? Did the bullet pass through into the car or is it only panel damafe? Hopefully they'll just be able to replace the door for you,. But...if they can't sort it out then you might as well get a new set of gangsta rapper style rims to complete the look!

let us know what they say if you can, cheers

[bkkjam]

They're "speed holes"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVV_COOey0E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAPmqX-FyvU

actually no, you don't need to change the door. A new factory door from Honda is a really pricey item, so I doubt your insurance would cover it.

I think I saw a close up picture of the damage from the news forum thread (I think that was you but it could have been made by someone else that was hit).

It appeared that the bullet did not penetrate the door skin but just left a dent. (It also appears that it was a home made bullet or else it would have pierced the passenger compartment). It can be fixed by removing the inner door panel and pushing out the dent from the inside. Probably a little body filler (not much) and a spot painting and you are done.

Is there any other damage besides a dent (or did the bullet actually penetrate the passenger compartment)?

P.S. Glad you are OK.

Thanks. That was my car in the news forum. The bullet did not penetrate the passenger compartment.

[arthurwait]

As others have said just fill it or have it welded.

The only problem is getting it done somewhere decent so probably best left to your insurance company. As the majority of welders in Thailand can't weld if you look at anything that's meant to be welded. If you take it somewhere to a local 'expert' they will most likely pull out an arc welder which car panels are too thin for and just keep prodding the metal until they've melted enough rod on the top of the door , then grind it down and then fill it with filler anyway and the filler metal will probably fall out within a year. You're probably have a burnt interior too which of course they probably won't bother to remove as it's inside.

As said get it done on insurance or find a reputable bodyshop who will do a proper job. Probably tig weld a piece in.

It looks better than the the fake bullet hole stickers anyway.

[WarpSpeed]

Very lucky it hit just at the reinforced part of the door near the handle or it would have penetrated, they reinforce that part to keep it from being broken into & stolen too easily. As for the damage the best way to do it though likely here no one will, is to leave the dent drill a small hole in the center to allow the plastic to penetrate and give it grip strength and fill it with plastic (bondo or other) and then smooth and repaint, very unlikely a new door will be provided. Knocking it out from the inside or welding of any kind will surely leave much more distortion due to the size of the dent it will push the surrounding metal outwards and never look right as the metal is now stretched..

My question is though, does the door operate ok? Lock, unlock, open and close as this may have damaged the mechanism or interfere with it now..

Like T/A says though on a flat surface like that it's very hard to match silver.. One thing that will help though is that they don't paint the entire door, have them just paint down to the edge just below the handle and all the way to the door frames and the cars lines will mask the color difference, they can sand with a fine grit emory cloth & buff out the edge so it blends and doesn't show (a good body shop can at least) .. The smaller the surface area painted the less it will catch your eye and painting the whole door it would then be framed in a different color and mostly on a flat surface so it will stand out pretty obviously.

Edited September 23, 2012 by WarpSpeed

[bkkjam]

Very lucky it hit just at the reinforced part of the door near the handle or it would have penetrated, they reinforce that part to keep it from being broken into & stolen too easily. As for the damage the best way to do it though likely here no one will, is to leave the dent drill a small hole in the center to allow the plastic to penetrate and give it grip strength and fill it with plastic (bondo or other) and then smooth and repaint, very unlikely a new door will be provided. Knocking it out from the inside or welding of any kind will surely leave much more distortion due to the size of the dent it will push the surrounding metal outwards and never look right as the metal is now stretched..

My question is though, does the door operate ok? Lock, unlock, open and close as this may have damaged the mechanism or interfere with it now..

Like T/A says though on a flat surface like that it's very hard to match silver.. One thing that will help though is that they don't paint the entire door, have them just paint down to the edge just below the handle and all the way to the door frames and the cars lines will mask the color difference, they can sand with a fine grit emory cloth & buff out the edge so it blends and doesn't show (a good body shop can at least) .. The smaller the surface area painted the less it will catch your eye and painting the whole door it would then be framed in a different color and mostly on a flat surface so it will stand out pretty obviously.

Door operates normally. The car colour is gold. Thanks for all the useful info.

[transam]

Very lucky it hit just at the reinforced part of the door near the handle or it would have penetrated, they reinforce that part to keep it from being broken into & stolen too easily. As for the damage the best way to do it though likely here no one will, is to leave the dent drill a small hole in the center to allow the plastic to penetrate and give it grip strength and fill it with plastic (bondo or other) and then smooth and repaint, very unlikely a new door will be provided. Knocking it out from the inside or welding of any kind will surely leave much more distortion due to the size of the dent it will push the surrounding metal outwards and never look right as the metal is now stretched..

My question is though, does the door operate ok? Lock, unlock, open and close as this may have damaged the mechanism or interfere with it now..

Like T/A says though on a flat surface like that it's very hard to match silver.. One thing that will help though is that they don't paint the entire door, have them just paint down to the edge just below the handle and all the way to the door frames and the cars lines will mask the color difference, they can sand with a fine grit emory cloth & buff out the edge so it blends and doesn't show (a good body shop can at least) .. The smaller the surface area painted the less it will catch your eye and painting the whole door it would then be framed in a different color and mostly on a flat surface so it will stand out pretty obviously.

Door operates normally. The car colour is gold. Thanks for all the useful info.

Same story about paint.

[WarpSpeed]

Very lucky it hit just at the reinforced part of the door near the handle or it would have penetrated, they reinforce that part to keep it from being broken into & stolen too easily. As for the damage the best way to do it though likely here no one will, is to leave the dent drill a small hole in the center to allow the plastic to penetrate and give it grip strength and fill it with plastic (bondo or other) and then smooth and repaint, very unlikely a new door will be provided. Knocking it out from the inside or welding of any kind will surely leave much more distortion due to the size of the dent it will push the surrounding metal outwards and never look right as the metal is now stretched..

My question is though, does the door operate ok? Lock, unlock, open and close as this may have damaged the mechanism or interfere with it now..

Like T/A says though on a flat surface like that it's very hard to match silver.. One thing that will help though is that they don't paint the entire door, have them just paint down to the edge just below the handle and all the way to the door frames and the cars lines will mask the color difference, they can sand with a fine grit emory cloth & buff out the edge so it blends and doesn't show (a good body shop can at least) .. The smaller the surface area painted the less it will catch your eye and painting the whole door it would then be framed in a different color and mostly on a flat surface so it will stand out pretty obviously.

Door operates normally. The car colour is gold. Thanks for all the useful info.

Yes it is and actually I saw it but corrected myself without checking the color again after reading other posts but as T/A says the same still applies.. The contours of the car at that point will pick up more sunlight anyways so it always seems a slightly different shade anyways unless looking at it up close..

[culicine]

If it's an insurance job they might well replace the whole door. When I had insurance work done on my honda - scratches to the front bumper, they replaced the whole lot. Either way, check the paint matches when you get it back. my front bumper is a slightly different colour, though the colour is supposed to be silverstone. You might have seen badly matching paint on some cars, where it is obvious it was painted. Fortunately the rest of my panels matched ok.

[mogandave]

They would not replace the door, at most they would re-skin it, which would be the best way to fix it.

[BSJ]

If you want more attention to give it that gangster look.......my brother-in-law and I could meet with you Friday. We can give you a choice of 5.56mm, 7.62mm, 9mm holes or 4.57mm holes in a cluster formation......or all of them!

[WebBangkok]

The Camry I got had 4 bullet holes in it and insurance fixed it all up no problems.

[Semper]

Where dou you guys park/drive your vehicles? Bullet holes, omigod!

[harrry]

Just remember with a claim the insurance will go up next year. Check how much to get it done without insurance too.

[WebBangkok]

Well I got mine from a family member which had a bit of a story, probably not what really happen, but there was 4 bullet holes in it.

This family member was going to give us the car, but I gave him 400K for it, will sell it soon when I get sick of it, which is starting to happen.

[how241]

That would have a piece of metal mig welded in, ground, smoothed and door painted. Silver is a terrible colour to match.

Matching the paint color is the hard part.

[Murf]

I reckon around 4-5k would get that sorted at a reasonable quality garage.

Is it worth claiming?

[transam]

That would have a piece of metal mig welded in, ground, smoothed and door painted. Silver is a terrible colour to match.

Matching the paint color is the hard part.

Yes, a professional will drift the paint into other panels, you cannot local silver or gold.

[BSJ]

I have yet to see a perfect silver match in any country. But then.....I maybe missing the ones that are perfect!

[transam]

I have yet to see a perfect silver match in any country. But then.....I maybe missing the ones that are perfect!

You did. My chum could do it, called drifting.

[arthurwait]

I have yet to see a perfect silver match in any country. But then.....I maybe missing the ones that are perfect!

You did. My chum could do it, called drifting.

Finally. I understand the point of drifting.

Maybe it's not the same type.

[WarpSpeed]

I have yet to see a perfect silver match in any country. But then.....I maybe missing the ones that are perfect!

You did. My chum could do it, called drifting.

You can drift an area this small rather effectively especially with the surrounding contours and details to break the focus such as the door handles and such, there are a lot of angles happening in that one small space that make it much easier to mask without a lot of extra work, just finding someone here who can do it effectively is the real trick....

[transam]

I have yet to see a perfect silver match in any country. But then.....I maybe missing the ones that are perfect!

You did. My chum could do it, called drifting.

You can drift an area this small rather effectively especially with the surrounding contours and details to break the focus such as the door handles and such, there are a lot of angles happening in that one small space that make it much easier to mask without a lot of extra work, just finding someone here who can do it effectively is the real trick....

No masking in drifting paint.

[mogandave]

I think you're talking about fading.

[transam]

I think you're talking about fading.

perhaps different words but the paint guy understands.