Velocity_Vette

I wasn't sure where this thread should go but I figured that the Tech thread would be the best place to ask it.

To make a short story even shorter; tonight a lady in a large F-150 rubbed alongside my C5. She cracked the passenger side front fender in two spots, ran a few large scrapes alongside the front fascia, and a nice piece of the door material about three and a half inches in length is now showing. I'll post some photographs when I've calmed down a bit.

My C5 is Nassau Blue. I have some serious concerns that the ability to match up the paint when the subsequent paint work happens may be a big issue. Can anyone with this sort of experience post up some pointers or suggestions? The paint on the car up to this point was near immaculate; the car had been stored entirely in doors and has just over 40,000 miles.

My obviously concern is that entire panels may have to be repainted, but if those three damaged panels are repainted are they going to match? My other concern is with there being less than 4,000 Nassau Blue C5s made it's not exactly easy pulling OEM painted panels.

Velocity_Vette

And as mentioned, photographs;















It looks like the front fascia did not take as much damage as I thought. The fender is cracked in three places and appears to have damaged the front fender liner also; I feel this is the worst damaged part and will likely require me to source another fender.

The whole situation is rather upsetting. Worked really hard to buy this car, hardly ever drive it, and when I finally do get a chance to drive it something happens.

bad man Barry White

If it has been stored indoors it's whole life, the paint may match pretty well. It's usually when UV rays and weather wear on the paint that it doesn't match quite right. With the size of the damaged area, panel replacement will be warranted. I wouldn't settle for a patch job on the door skin. Just my .02

feeder82

A competent body shop with modern equipment will be able to repair that so you would never know it was hit.

Ray 2000 C5 FRC

No worries, but you need to find in your area a good painter that deals with corvettes body work. I had some touch up work done on my car over the years (Nassau Blue) and you can not tell it was repaired. I went to a local Corvette club to find out who in town these guys use/recommend. I went to this shop and saw nothing but other peoples corvettes getting repaired. That would be my advise. And again, don't worry about, the pro will be able to do the repairs to perfection.
Ray

corvettebob1

This ^^^^

SG Lou

Very True. Now a days a good shop and or painter will "blend" the paint on the panels so it will never be noticeable !