I didn't need more car work....

[Argabarga]

But I got it anyway when my neighbor, who had 6 points on his license already and shouldn't have even been driving, came flying around the corner into our street too fast and plowed into my parked car.



Fortunately, it only put me into "walking wounded" mode, believe it or not, the car was still driveable, and after a few trips around the block showed it wasn't leaking anything, and that nothing in the suspention was broken, I decided to turn down insurance's offer to total the car out for $1,000 and went directly to the internet with a credit card in one hand and a mouse in the other.

Well, right now I look like I just drove out of The Road Warrior



Here's a new fender, brand-new and fresh outta' that magical land that produces everything, otherwise known as Taiwan



And a not-so-new front end, chopped off a car in a Minnesota junkyard that took two days of sanding to get rid of all the old paint chips and cracks, and a whole bottle of nail polish remover to get rid of the silver pinstripe decal that used to wrap around the bottom 2'' , you'd think after 22 years it would just be ready to fall off, but it was determined to hang on. When I won the part on Ebay, I thought I was only going to get the bumper cover, but in a nice bonus, they gave me everything, the headlights, headlight brace, turn signal lenses, a lot of stuff I thought I"d have to go shopping for separately



I'm going into the paintshop Monday

Oh, and his car? It was a Pontiac Grand AM, and it WAS totaled.

Protip, don't pick on a car old enough that it still had a steel frame

[Exaspera]

You're gonna have it looking good in no time! What is that car, anyway? I can't tell.

[protege]

It's an old Camaro. I'm just surprised that it's not painted flat black and up on blocks Seriously though, at least nobody got hurt, and replacing the parts should be a straightforward job.

[Exaspera]

It's an old Camaro. I'm just surprised that it's not painted flat black and up on blocks Seriously though, at least nobody got hurt, and replacing the parts should be a straightforward job.

A Camaro! Duh me. From the 80s-early 90s, I bet. The wheels look it.

By the way, what happened to the guy?

[Argabarga]

He didn't get cited, he claimed he swerved to miss a cat or some other animal that was crossing the road, I don't believe him, the cops didn't really believe him, but it couldn't be falsified because there weren't any witnesses aside from him.

But, his insurance went up no doubt, and he no longer has a car, and his insurance DID agree to pay me for the parts I had to buy, but painting will be out-of-pocket.

And a 1987 is NOT old for a car!

[Andara Bledin]

Mmmm. I love '80s Camaros.

Be sure to update once you have it all prettied up again.

^-.-^

[Der Cute]

Hey Argy.

I have a door ding on my Camry (I almost typed Camaro..dangit). Looks like someone opened their car door too quick and made a nick on my door (see pic)

On that bump part. Seems like paint is nicked off, down to black plastic, with some red paint remnants from the other car (mine's silver).

What do I have to do to get it back to Normalish? Sand the area and then repaint?
The nickmark is about the size of a pencil eraser, but ther'es the red around it too.

Cutenoob

[Argabarga]

If all it is is a little paint transfer, the first thing I'd try would be some simple scratch remover.

Any place from Wal-Mart to an auto parts store will have it, it's like car wax, but a little more abrasive. Try rubbing that in with a rag and see where that gets you, it may take a couple of applications, but usually, small nicks and paint scrapes either go away or at least become a lot less visible with scratch remover, and it's not so rough that it will mess up any of the surrounding paint that isn't damaged. I use it all the time on my tow truck to get rid of small paint marks from dropped tools, stone chips, and the one time that someone drove it over a freshly-painted road line and got yellow splatter all over the fender wells.

If it's a bit more severe than that, go out and get a lighter grit sandpaper, like 220 grit, and gently work on the scratch until you've feathered down the edges, you'll know you're there when you can run a finger across the scratch and not feel anything. At that point, you can repaint it, and for small nicks, they make paint pens that are available at any decent parts store that are like large magic markers you can use to just dab a little color back into the bald spot.

Once it's dry, work the surface again with some car wax or scratch remover to blend it in and get rid of the brush strokes.

[protege]

And a 1987 is NOT old for a car!

It is if you have a '69 MGB GT in the garage 40 years old, and I can still get most of what I need within 2 days shipping time. Try that with a modern car

Still, at least the Camaro's damage is cosmetic. Straightening a frame is a pain in the ass, and cars sometimes aren't the same after the frame is bent. Some of you know that I once had an '87 Ford Tempo. That thing got T-boned back in 1993--if you weren't careful, the driver's door would fly open if you hit the brakes

[Midorikawa]

Straightening a frame is a pain in the ass, and cars sometimes aren't the same after the frame is bent. Some of you know that I once had an '87 Ford Tempo. That thing got T-boned back in 1993--if you weren't careful, the driver's door would fly open if you hit the brakes

Whoa. That's incentive for wearing a seatbelt right there. :-P I don't have any problems like that with the Duster, thankfully, just a knocked up passenger front quarter panel that rubs against the door in cold wet weather. That car's really been abused in a past life, as we had to reinforce some cracks in the frame from a previous frontal impact, among other things. (I should just make a post detailing all the "Wtf?! why?!" moments from rebuilding it thus far. :-P)

[Becks]

the driver's door would fly open if you hit the brakes

Sounds like a normal Ford to me.

[Sonoma]

Fortunately, it only put me into "walking wounded" mode, believe it or not, the car was still driveable, and after a few trips around the block showed it wasn't leaking anything, and that nothing in the suspention was broken, I decided to turn down insurance's offer to total the car out for $1,000

Takes me back to about 5 years ago when I had similar damage to my '93 GMC Sonoma. I could never get the insurance adjuster out to determine if it was totalled or not, so after driving this crunched truck around for a month, I just traded it in for the $750 they were willing to give for a probably-totalled truck with 130k miles.

[Exaspera]

He didn't get cited, he claimed he swerved to miss a cat or some other animal that was crossing the road, I don't believe him, the cops didn't really believe him, but it couldn't be falsified because there weren't any witnesses aside from him.

But, his insurance went up no doubt, and he no longer has a car, and his insurance DID agree to pay me for the parts I had to buy, but painting will be out-of-pocket.

And a 1987 is NOT old for a car!

That's getting close to a classic, though! I have an '89 Firebird as my daily driver. Bought it from my Mom in 1995 for $1.

[protege]

Whoa. That's incentive for wearing a seatbelt right there. :-P

Yep, my father was pretty damn lucky when that happened. Up until then, he rarely wore his seat belt. Even with it on, he still got fucked up. Not surprising, since the car got tossed about 40 feet. In fact, one of the witnesses said they saw his head flip back, and thought he was dead Instead, he had a serious concussion. Anyway, the reason the door would fly open, is that the shop that "fixed" that heap did a poor job of aligning the door. Didn't really matter much...since I blew up the engine about a year later. Oops

[Shangri-laschild]

You're very lucky. My best friend had a Camaro that I believe was the exact same year. He got similar damage to his but it was just slightly deeper and bent up the frame enough to get into the engine bits. He ended up having to sell it to someone who wanted it for the parts. I think if his had just been the frame he would have tried to hang on to it anyway.