TL;DR

• Bolt EV rear fender dented → panel repair + paint. Uploaded photos to the Kadak app, got 4 quotes, had it repaired at a 270K KRW+@ shop (cavity wax + hand wash included).
• After drop-off, no molding parts available (Chevrolet strike). Removing the old molding damaged 5 of 9 clips → picked up with temporary reattachment.
• Panel work, paint, and cavity wax: done. Molding to be bought separately later (c-mall, ~98K KRW).

How Did This Even Happen

Backing out of a parking spot one day, I felt something scrape from the rear.

“Please no…”

Got out and looked. Rear fender — pushed in. Paint already cracked. My stomach dropped a little, but I decided to deal with it right away.

PDR or Panel Repair? Figuring Out What I Actually Needed

My first thought: maybe paintless dent repair (PDR) would do it. PDR works when the paint is still intact — the technician pushes or pulls the metal back into shape from behind. Relatively fast and cheap.

But the paint was already cracked. PDR can restore the metal, but it can’t bring back broken paint. Leave a crack like that, and moisture gets in. Rust follows. Just a matter of time.

So: panel repair + paint. Reshape the metal (panel work), apply filler, then refinish the area with paint.

Cracked paint over the dent. Leave it alone and rust is inevitable.

Looks small in photos. But the paint was already gone.

[!TIP] PDR vs panel repair + paint — one-line summary Paint intact → PDR. Paint cracked or peeling → panel repair + paint.

	PDR (paintless dent repair)	Panel repair + paint
When to use	Dents only, no paint damage	Cracked/peeling paint, or heavy deformation
What’s done	Push/pull to reshape; no painting	Metal work, filler, refinish
Time / cost	Usually quicker and cheaper	Drop-off +1~2 days, higher cost
Original paint	Preserved	That panel is repainted

Kadak Quotes: 4 Shops, Chose the 270K+@ One

Didn’t feel like going through insurance for this — the repair cost probably wouldn’t justify the premium hike. Uploaded photos to the Kadak app. Got 4 quotes back pretty quickly.

Same photos, four different numbers. Each shop prices it differently.

The cheapest was 270K. What caught my eye was that it was the only shop offering cavity wax as part of the deal. Cavity wax means spraying rust inhibitor into the hollow interior of the fender — after panel work and paint, the outside looks clean, but moisture can still get in through the inside. This prevents that. Not something every shop includes by default.

Cheapest price and the one extra that actually matters. Easy call.

[!NOTE] What is cavity wax? After panel repair, the interior of the fender isn’t visible from outside — but if moisture pools in there, rust starts from the inside. Spraying rust inhibitor into that cavity seals it off. Most shops don’t include this as standard, so when this one offered it, that sealed the decision.

Booking confirmed. At this point, I thought everything would go smoothly.

Drop-off Day: Things Got Complicated

The moment I dropped the car off, the shop told me:

“We looked into the molding parts… they’re out of stock due to the Chevrolet strike.”

Right. That GM strike.

The rear fender has a molding (garnish) that wraps around the wheel arch. To do proper panel work, the molding has to come off first. But if new molding isn’t available, any clips damaged during removal can’t be replaced.

My call: proceed with the fender repair properly — remove the molding, fix the fender, just be as careful as possible with the clips. Then reattach the existing molding temporarily so I could still drive until I sourced a replacement.

The result?

5 of 9 clips were damaged.

Old, hardened plastic clips — they snapped during removal. I asked them to be as careful as possible, but once plastic clips age and harden, there’s only so much you can do. They reattached the molding using the remaining 4 clips and I picked it up.

Photo from the shop mid-repair. WOHLRAUM SPRAY for the cavity treatment. Seeing this made me think “okay, they’re actually doing it.”

[!NOTE] Those molding clips are not cheap The rear fender molding uses 9 clips across 3 part numbers. The prices are a bit of a shock.

Part no.	Qty	Note
P19352782	5	~13,000 KRW each. Ouch.
P23240609	2
P11588818	2

13,000 KRW for a plastic clip. Five of them gone means 60–70K KRW just for clips. Stings.

Repair Done — Molding Still a Loose End

Panel work, paint, and cavity wax all came out well. The fender line looks clean and the paint color matches naturally.

Body lines and paint restored. Barely noticeable from the outside.

The molding is still in temporary state. Checked c-mall for the driver-side rear fender molding — about 98,000 KRW. Part number P42782333.

98,000 KRW on c-mall. More than I’d expect for a piece of trim, but what can you do.

Once the part arrives or I pick it up from c-mall, I’ll swap it in. For now the temporary attachment is holding, so the urgent problem is handled.

Total cost: 270K KRW repair + molding at 98K KRW later = roughly 370K KRW all in. Going through insurance would have bumped up premiums the following year, so out-of-pocket was the right call.

If it weren’t for the strike, this would’ve wrapped up cleanly in one shot. Timing, huh.

References

• c-mall — Chevrolet Bolt EV rear fender molding (P42782333)
• cardoc — Out-of-pocket repair quote app