Just had a Mercedes tag me in the rear quarter while I was making a left hand turn. She was obviously going too fast, but a guy stopped and claims he saw me pull out right in front of her, so the officer that responded issued the fault to me. Whatever, I failed to yield in a left turn so legally it's my fault regardless.

So now I'm stuck footing the bill to fix my car, and looking for some input from you guys. It looks like mostly body damage. The body panel just behind the rear wheel took the brunt of the force, and it cracked the bumper and right rear taillight. It crushed the shroud that goes around the muffler (I have a single side exhaust, so thankfully no damage to my exhaust) as well as the liner of the wheel well somewhat. The filler cap still functions, but is pushed in a bit. Thankfully it missed any suspension bits or the wheel, so that's all intact.

And for anyone too lazy to read, here's some pics:





[EDIT] Forgot to mention that it's a 90 GXL that's pretty well stock with a very good condition interior.

 

That is going to be a TON of work to fix properly... but it can be done, I'd go get a new quarter from another car.....

 

time to find a new shell.

 

I hope you can fix it. Whether it's worth it or not probably depends on whether you can do the work yourself and/or know a body guy who will do a good job cheaply.

Too bad. Looks like it was a clean car, and the relatively rare Winning Silver color as well. Good luck.

 

looks pretty minor to me

 

Duct tape fixes all

 

Well, it was a clean car when I got it. It already has a salvage title after a run-in with a deer by the previous owner, and the paint shop did a crap job in a couple spots. But it's almost rust free and the interior just has a couple cracked pieces that need to get replaced.

It's my daily driver, so I'm pretty much forced to keep driving it for now. But I think in the long run it'll be easier for me just to ditch it and buy a TII like I've wanted to do for a while. It'll probably cost about the same to buy a new car than to have a body shop repair the damage.

 

It doesn't look 'fatal' (structural damage, etc) but it'll be expensive as hell to fix.

 

Can you weld or paint?

 

From the pictures, it looks very repairable. If you can't do the work yourself it will be fairly expensive. If you pull the interior panel and the taillight you can get at the 1/4 to bang it out enough to fit a taillight and run it that way until you get your Tll.

 

If you want to pull it out, that area can be down fairly easy to get close to perfect by yourself. Go buy a cheap hammer and dolly set(harbor freight or something). Remove the bumper and tailight. Rent a slide hammer form you autoparts store and pull out all the stuff thats folded under. Once you get it close leave it, you'll get to it. Then stick one of the dolly's that best fits in at the corner of the taillight Beat it out from the inside, and beat it in on the outside from the back of the car until the corner shapes up. beat. Then bang out by the gas cap and beat everything back into shape as best as you can get it. You'll get the hang of beating and banging. Do it until you're satisfied, then sand, bondo and primer. I don't think it's worth painting, but you need to do something because right now it looks like **** ,and it makes YOU look like an *******.

If you do a subpar fix yourself $100-$150. Bodyshop w/ paint $500-$1000 depending on quality.

 

i have similar damage to my fc (bought it that way) had no research on the car and assumed i could just bolt a new rear quater on it

is it possible to cut and weld a new quater on?

 

this...

 

id just make sure nothing underneath looks out of place. ur quarter is creased meaning its bent over 90 degrees so its not repairable. cut out an old rear quarter have someone weld it in and grind all the welds down and finish the body work ur prolly lookin at 400 bucks unless u know someone with a welder. im not sure how much a rear quarter is at the junk yard but good luck

 

Wow, thanks for all the responses guys. I really don't have the experience or the tools to do it myself, so I'm stuck either paying a shop or finding a friend who isn't already swamped with work. I only know a handful of people I trust to work on my car and they're pretty busy.

I think for now I'll just live with it and eventually find a roller to steal a quarter from. The rest of the car is in good enough condition I don't want to scrap it for sure.

I just now got to drive it for the first time, and the steering wheel is now cocked to the right. The wheels all seem to be pointing the correct direction and it will stay straight, it's just the wheel isn't centered. Should I just remove the wheel and turn it a few notches, or should I be worried about damage to the steering linkage?

 

JUNK IT........seriously, any damage to a rear quarter in my book means total loss. youre better off finding a clean shell and swapping everything over, its worth doing considering its a gxl, itd be faster and easier.

Lloyd

 

Just get a shell. You'll spend about the same amount of money and you could come out with a car that's worth more.

 

This is why are cars get more rare. Someone gets alittle damage and just junks it. F### that, repair it and be glad you have the same 7 for so many years.
If you cut about and around the big dent, then you can slap a new piece on. If nothing was tweaked then keep it. Never worth junking if the chassis is straight and has minimal rust.

 

You have some damage or something knocked out of place in the rear suspension. The front wheels are turning to compensate for the travel of the rear wheels and that is why the steering wheel is cocked. Increased tire wear and altered handling could be a concern.

I would probably give up on fixing that car. A little bit of damage always cost a lot. I think some of the prices suggested here are pretty low. You may be able to get a free estimate even though you do not have insurance paying for it. It is free to ask so do that and you will be better prepared to make your decision.

I would suggest to either get an alignment and drive it as a beater or use it for parts and buy yourself the turbo car or another running NA. It seems like a lot of work to move all the parts over to another chassis considering that NA's are already cheap enough that you do not need to do that.

You have a great LeMons car on your hands now. http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/

 

Junk it. Get a shell and swap over everything would probably be your best bet. Either that or buy a new 7. The quotes for body repair in here are a tad low, probably around $1500 to repair, I'm talking a cut and weld job though, no 2" thick bondo mexican repair. I would also inspect a bit further on the whole structural damage thing, remove interior pieces, tailights, etc. By the way, yes it is your fault even if she was speeding or not, you obviously misjudged something and continued anyways. Sorry about the car.

 

new shell time .. more expensive to fix then getting a new one

 

Anytime you see a wreck like this or a car with severe rust on this site, the recommendation is always "just find another clean shell..." But where is everyone finding these clean shells? When my old S5 rusted out two years ago, I looked for a few months with no success on Craigslist, eBay, Autotrader, local papers, etc. I ended up buying a clean, low mileage S4 and parting my old S5, which actually worked out fine.

If you live in the Northeast like the OP (or me), clean FC shells don't exactly grow on trees. Do people get them from the South or the Southwest and ship them?

 

i feel ya man it took me two years do find a decent seven i could afford and the one i bought still need a bunch of work lol there are no clean sevens in our area

i nean how hard could the bodywork be?? i had a couple people look at mine which is almost identical to his and they said it wouldnt be so hard

 

fix wat you can and just go wide body ... lolz ... my hommie did ... good luck

 

see, thats why california cars are always worth more. no rust, no major issues, hell, most of the bolts on the underside of the car still looked that goldish color that new bolts look like.
i love this state for the 1 reason, and no snow where i live, i dont like the cold either, i like texas weather, but its warmer here during the winter........oh well

Lloyd