Repaired dent on my Jeep Compass fender: Procedure & costs incurred

I was reversing the vehicle and right fender got damaged by our gate.

BHPian ramnaresh_2000 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Every car enthusiast's worst nightmare occurred to me on Diwali day. My car got damaged. I was at my hometown and we have a very tight parking spot. I was reversing the vehicle and right fender got damaged by our gate.

I accessed the damaged, nothing major. Initially I thought of claiming insurance, but as I use Acko it has 5k+2k standard deductions, plus I will lose NCB worth of 1,600/-. Total damage would be 8,600/-. As it was nothing major, I went to local shed and got it repaired.

They initially quoted 6,500/-, I bargained to 5k. Then I also asked them to paint the front bumper lower lip. We all know Jeep Compass scrapes it's lower lip very easily. Another 1,000/-. Total was 6,000/-, totally worth it. Job finished in 3 hours, almost 3-4 lads worked on it back to back.

As it is done in an outside garage, which doesn't have a paint booth, it is almost evident that some dust particles will settle under the paint, nothing some buffing won't fix.

Some pictures to do the talking.

The damage:

Denting work in progress: Notice all the sound damping material used by Jeep

Final output after denting, I was not fully satisfied, I called the owner and showed him the gaps. Asked them to remove the beading and fill the gap perfectly.

Round 2 of denting, but this time using some hot stamp technique. They used flame to heat fender and gave it a better shape.

Putty work in progress, they used some random brand putty, I hope it doesn't bulge later or deform, fingers crossed.

I think this is primer work (experts can correct me).

Masking in progress:

Painting in progress:

Final Output:

I am 80% satisfied, they gave the fender a good shape, only a keen eye would notice some irregularities. Dust particles under the paint will haunt me going forward. I need to do a thorough inspection in day light once again to catch any minor or odd misses.

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