Watched my brother do almost the same thing back in 2019, took the smaller check at a machine shop over a better paying delivery job and everyone told him he was nuts. Fast forward and he's the guy they call when a machine goes down, making way more than that delivery money ever would have paid. Used to be I would have told you to grab the cash and run, that loyalty to a shop gets you nothing. Seeing him learn a real trade changed my mind on that. Skills stack up over time, a paycheck just stays the same size (or gets smaller once you factor in inflation, which nobody ever wants to talk about).

Pulled the same move on my old Corolla after a parking lot hit and run. Bumper was pushed in pretty bad so I popped the clips off, reached behind it, and it pushed right back out with my palm. Ordered a bag of new clips on Amazon for like 8 bucks because half the old ones snapped coming off. Took me maybe half an hour and you cant even tell anything happened. Shops love quoting full replacement because its fast money for them.