accident.. questions?

[Michael R. Rudel]

yesterday my '93 MTX had an unfourtante run-in with a ditch. i was travelling on a fairly rural road near where i live, going around a corner around 35-40 mph (which is no big deal), when for some reason (my tires are pretty old, new ones were ordered from tire rack and due to be put on tomorrow) i lost control, sliding rear-end first into a ditch. the left rear side of my car hit the 'wall' of the ditch, back-end first (luckily, no engine stuff was damaged). the entire left rear quarter-panel is dented and damaged, the bumper is toast, and the bottom of the trunk is completley dented in and up causing the trunk not to close right (the decklid is fine). i think that was the extent of the damage. i had a police report filed and such, and the cop even agreed that it didn't appear to be my fault judging from what happened. the car drove (out of the ditch into a driveway) somewhat fine, but the left exhaust pipe's tip was gone and the muffler itself was pushed into the left rear tire, making it unable to spin and making it sit a little ****-eyed.

my question is: how possible is it that something is bent back there? i don't know what it could be, and i haven't seen it with the muffler moved yet, but it was sitting a little weird. at least it gives me an excuse to get a new exhaust.

it's at a collision shop now getting an estimate - i can't do that type of body work myself. i just submitted a parts request to al fitz (he has a parts sho with a perfectly fine back end that is same year/color as mine) for everything that i need, and i'm going to see what the body shop says.

i don't really have the money to fix this. i can hardly afford a $500 deductible right now (i do have full coverage) but i CAN'T afford an increase in my rates. :/ i didn't get a ticket but my insurance will surely still go up. chances are i'm going to chop off the muffler with a hacksaw, pull off the bumper, and drive it around like a hooptie until i can come up with the few thousand dollars it will require to fix it (assuming nothing is damaged).

anyways, my other question is, with the exhaust pipe sustaining a hard enough blow to bend it over into the tire, is it possible that anything farther up along the line got damaged? i'm not too excited abbout this and it hasn't been a good last two days.

any help is appreciated.

~mrr~

 

[Mike Spataro]

Hi Mike,
Sorry to read about your trouble. I have repaired numerious SHO wrecks through out the years and they are very fixable. I understand the tight budget restrictions as I have one too.
I suggest that you consider to have the body shop inspect the frame. This car is a unibody construction and can be straightened fairly easily. Many modern shops have frame straightening machines that make the job fast, easy and relatively inexpensive. Once it is straightened you can replace the parts as your budget allows. My latest project SHO needed some frame straightening and a new quarter panel. I found one from a stock taurus very cheap, drilled out the spot welds, had the old dented skin removed and welded back. I replaced the doors and fender myself. The shop aligned the parts and painted the right side of the car and the bill was $ 1,200.- The shop worked with me and perhaps the body shop could work with your budget.
If you need a replacement muffler, do a search ans find the Summit Racing part numbers. They are under $20.- each and most of the responses are good from Forum members.
Good Luck, Mike