Hello,

My xj8 was recently a victim of a hit and run while it was street parked in NYC. Based on the yellow paint, I suspect it was a crazy taxi driver. Without any evidence I am out of luck with any insurance.

I’m looking to see my cheapest option for repairing the damage. eBay has plenty of fenders for sale, and even eyeing one up in the same color for around $250.

Now, I’ve been told it’s not as simple as taking the old fender off and putting the new one on if the fender was hit and the bolts/placement may have shifted. I am pretty capable of doing mechanical work on my car, but would you recommend having a body shop install the new fender?

Any other options are greatly appreciated.

Dan

 

I have done a fender replacement for similar damage and it turned out well. The date code (same paint number) on the paint/fenders were about 14 months apart but the color still matched perfectly.
If I recall, you will need to remove a lot of stuff like bumper, headlight, rocker covers. But totally doable if you are handy.
Is the inner fender under the hood bent at all? How about all the gaps? If they are good now, it shouldn't give you problems . Sorry about the hit and run. I would be pissed.

 

You need to get another insurance company.
Maybe a lawyer if you have full coverage.
Collision insurance, covers your car

 

Hey, sorry this happened to you but that's life in the city. I've had my car in NY, Philly, DC, Hartford, and Boston among others and I'm always kind of nervous -- but lucky so far. I always use a garage but one time the attendant was so drunk he could barely walk and it was not a self park set up! We were about to miss our reservations so I swallowed hard and didn't look back...it was all fine except we had a hell of a time waking him up when we got back!

Anyway, at least your damage is very isolated and in my experience if you can find a matching paint code fender it will look fine. Forget insurance for that, even if you have "collision" coverage (which IMO is nuts for a car that age), the deductible will wipe out most of your pay-out and then they will raise your rates.

BTW, isn't your car an X-308? You posted on the forum for the later X-350 cars.

Good Luck
Jeff

 

Yes if you can get a fender in the original color ? Any amount of work it is to change it, will be worth it, and $250.00 Bucks is cheap nowadays, and you won't need paint work! Which could really cost you. Just my thoughts.

Jack

Looks like the scrape on the bumper will likely buff out. Good Luck!

 

Thanks for the opinions. Yes, I did post this in the wrong section (should be x308).

the matching fender I see on eBay is from an XJ8L. Does anyone know if the fenders on the L models are the same as standard? My xj8 is a 1999.

 

The front fenders are all the same. The difference doesn't happen until you get to the rear doors.