Leftover Damage From Drunk Driver circa 1976

[TorRed]

Hi All,

So I was T-boned in an intersection while driving the Roadrunner. I was stopped waiting for traffic in front of me to move and a drunk driving a large Pontiac ran the red light on his side and ran straight into my passenger door. A buddy was sitting on that side and got knocked into me. The window glass shattered into a thousand pieces and I'm pretty sure I was outside the car running around the back to get at the driver before all the glass landed, seriously. His window was open and I jumped right through it to get both hands on him. He started blubbering incoherently so I knew I was wasting my time, but I was still furious when the cops showed up. The bird was hurt but still drivable. The big nose of the Pontiac hit the center of the passenger door bending it in at a sharp angle. The door was still locked and actually opened and closed afterwards. He also hit the passenger front fender before he was done.

The Body shop found a second hand door and fender to put on, repainted the whole car in the wrong color, supposed to be Torred, think they went with Vitamin C orange or something similar and the car has stayed that way until I pulled it apart years later and discovered the body shop filled in a roughly .5 - .75" gap on the back top of the fender where it met the cowling and door. The door gap is fine, the only issue is up top. The patch was Bondo so I wire brushed it away and tried to see if the fender could be re-aligned but nope, now there was a fender/cowl gap mostly on the outer edge before it turns down and meets the door. The part of the fender I'm talking about is crescent shaped and the fender/cowl gap is close at the engine bay side but widens further out. I wish I could show it to you but since I was doing things on the cheap back then I just used fiberglass in the same spot and that's how its been for probably 35 years now. Any idea what fixing this correctly is going to take? Without looking at the car one shop said the frame could be bent, but somehow I don't think so since everything else lines up. I'm thinking it was either a bad replacement fender or the cowl was 'tweaked' and may need to be pulled out. Looking at the cowl everything looks good so I don't know how to go about fixing this? I've traced the curve of the good side of the cowl and flipped it over onto the passenger side and it seems to match. The 'curves' on the fender and the cowl both look right, they just move apart towards the outer edge. Any assistance will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Jim

 

[Charles Cook]

 

[eldubb440]

 

[RemCharger]

 

[MarPar]

 

[davek]

Well sorry to hear that but Im glad your buddy and you are ok.

 

[WileERobby]

Sorry to say, the butcher work was more common than not back in the 70's. And why I was successful doing work correctly for my customers. As much as I avoid doing so, off the top, I'd say your unibody is mis-aligned. That encompasses the structure from the hinge pillar to rocker panel to lock pillar, etc, etc. You can "look" all you want... "measure" is your answer.

 

[sam dupont]

A buddy runs a frame rack in an alignment shop. He does a lot of work for repairable operations, so I've seen cars that were smashed in front an pushed to the side. I asked once of a car that looked very bad. $300 to pull it back to factory specs. I asked how close it was and he said they are usually right on. I guess they would have to be to avoid issues like what you describe. So, go to frame shop. It can't be too expensive if hard wrecks are $300. There must be a couple little wrinkles that you can't see, but add up to being a little bit off.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

Sorry to say, the butcher work was more common than not back in the 70's. And why I was successful doing work correctly for my customers. As much as I avoid doing so, off the top, I'd say your unibody is mis-aligned. That encompasses the structure from the hinge pillar to rocker panel to lock pillar, etc, etc. You can "look" all you want... "measure" is your answer.

Exactly... Know someone with a similar car.... Fifteen minutes with a tape measure should answer your questions..

 

[1 Wild R/T]

A buddy runs a frame rack in an alignment shop. He does a lot of work for repairable operations, so I've seen cars that were smashed in front an pushed to the side. I asked once of a car that looked very bad. $300 to pull it back to factory specs. I asked how close it was and he said they are usually right on. I guess they would have to be to avoid issues like what you describe. So, go to frame shop. It can't be too expensive if hard wrecks are $300. There must be a couple little wrinkles that you can't see, but add up to being a little bit off.

Measure first.. Know what needs to move before finding a frame rack...

 

[Bighouse]

$300 to do a set-up and pull????

 

[eldubb440]

$300 to do a set-up and pull????

"all ya gotta do is......."


they may have used a pos used fender with some damage ........ we really need pics

 

[sam dupont]

$300 to do a set-up and pull????

I would have guessed more, and some probably were, but I asked more than once and some were cheaper. To me, some of those cars looked too far gone to repair. They recently had a very nice 68 Charger that was wrecked hard in the front. Old time shop, just closed. Took my latest daily driver in when I got it because it pulled to the left. "nothing wrong, get out of here"
Still pulled, until I rotated tires, now it pulls to the right. They were the only shop that straightened big trucks.
There are now no good alignment shops in town and I need a 4 wheel on a race car.

 

[maxwedgechar]

Last year I wrecked my '01 Forester. Put her sideways in the wet and bounced off the concrete barrier. The nose was out about a half an inch or so. I took it to my friend's body shop. The estimate was $2700 plus frame rack time. He has the latest in high tech racks. Frame rack charge was about $650 and that included a 4 wheel alignment.