Is my car's body damage fixable? (Pics)

[40BelowSummer]

Ok, as most of you may or may not know, I got in a wreck last week. I dont get any insurance money or anything so Im on my own with my car.

My mind has been going 100mph lately, so I need to hear some thoughts and opinions regarding my cars body.

I really want to fix it. I just had it painted two weeks ago and I can't part it out.......I just dont want to. Everything on the car is good except where it got hit.

The rear passenger door and rear passenger fender is where it got hit (right where they meet is where it got hit)

Here are some pictures of the damage my car sustained:

 

[40BelowSummer]

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This is an inside view of the rear passenger strut tower in the trunk.

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Here is a view of the inside of the passenger door, you can see where it is crinkled.

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Here is a few pictures that kind of raised my hope. This is a 91' getting a rear fender replaced. It looks like the old fender was cut off a donor car and welded in place on the damaged car.

Some of the welds:

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Heres another plus.....I happen to have an 89' at home with the required panel and door.

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Thoughts? I really need some input.

How much do you think a shop would charge considering I cut the panel and remove the door off the donor car. Already stripped the backseat and trunk and maybe even a few more things like remove the rear bumper etc, so they just do the hard work and not the easy time consuming stuff?

Or should I attempt it myself? I took some welding classes and my step-dad can do some okay welding.

Please give me input, I have been losing sleep thinking about this.

As always, thank you.

 

[black93sho]

I think that could be fixed, Im sure worse has been fixed before. I really hoped that you would get it fixed and not part it. I remember the week before seeing the pics of your car after it was painted and was very impressed by the way it turned out. Did you get the suspension work done yet?

 

[greenbeanmtx]

If it were up to the insurance company on whether to repair it or not they would probably total it, but they seem to total shos for everything now. I was thinking of all the time constraints and work involved finding a donor car and what not but it sounds like youve got that covered! I think it can be done, the crinkling under the seat could he hammered out( doesnt have to be perfect cosmetically if you cant see it right! As long as your frame and suspension and all was able to be brought back into specs i think you could do this. I thought ur car looked great fresh out of maaco so i say cut and swap the parts out and get it re sprayed on that side and your car will be back to its pretty appeal. As far as repairing whats there thats pretty far out of reach, but if you can cut it out and replace it with ur parts car..... sounds great to me

 

[40BelowSummer]

I think that could be fixed, Im sure worse has been fixed before. I really hoped that you would get it fixed and not part it. I remember the week before seeing the pics of your car after it was painted and was very impressed by the way it turned out. Did you get the suspension work done yet?

Thanks, I have all the suspension components that need to be replaced off, just need to get the parts from the junkyard Saturday and install them, and hope my car will be able to carry an allignment.

The hard part is where the door closes, there was alot of metal there and it got scrunched up. I dont know if that would be part of the fender that gets cutt off the other car. Im just worried about the door shutting correctly should I attempt this.

 

[SuperchargedSHOguy]

Coming from someone that does body work on my personal cars...yes it is fixable. I have seen lots worse.

 

[Shoaz]

I'm definitely not an expert on body or metalwork, but I think if the main suspension and door fitments are restorable the rest is cosmetic.

If you find another SHO in the junkyard (or even just another Taurus, that shouldn't be hard), take some measurements that will allow you to determine whether the strut rod attachment point or torque box got tweaked. Also measure around the strut towers to see how badly yours is damaged.

Fitting the door and jambs would be the other challenge.

The rest is cosmetic as far as I can tell and can be pounded back or replaced with sheetmetal from your donor car. Since you have the appropriate donor car available this sound like a real possibility.

It's certainly going to be a fair amount of work, but it all seems doable to me. It would be good to hear from folks who've done this sort of thing, though.

 

[Dan Werling]

Keep hope!

Take a look at my car domain page of my ******, i think its page 4. Did all that myself...


http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/641294/1

 

[rangerj]

Your rear fender and rear door can be replaced, just like the pictures of the other car. However, keep in mind that the car is unit body construction. You may be able to find out if the body is knocked out of alignment when you go for a four wheel alignment. Otherwise, the only way to tell is to have the body mounted on a "dedicated bench". This can be expensive.

Talk to a professional body shop that has a dedicated bench, and/or go for an estimate on the repairs, and see if they mention aligning the body. You do not want to be one of those cars you see coming down the road sideways! rangerj

 

[AREA 91]

FIX IT, FIX IT, FIX IT! Keep the SHO's on the road at all costs!
:wave:

 

[40BelowSummer]

You sure? Today I was looking thinking of parting it and buying a cheap sho to transfer all the good parts and hard work ive done to.

BTW I got the car rolling last night: pulled an strut/spring/spindle/control arms/tension strut/etc all in one piece off of a 92' at a junkyard. Tire looks a tiny bit crooked but I drove the car a bit today and it rides ok, no vibration @55mph (didnt go faster), so it looks like i should be able to drive my 600 mile trip back home and part it.

Thanks guys

 

[40BelowSummer]

Heres some pics I just snapper of it about 5 minutes ago (nice day today too!)

:cry: :cry: :cry: I dont know if I could mentally part her out.

 

[40BelowSummer]

:cry:

A pic of me workin on it, for kicks:

 

[2 4shofast]

I agree it can be fixed. Good luck on it, I would like to see it back on the road in the near future!

 

[Shoaz]

Well, glad to see you got it rolling again. If the rear is tweaked you may **** the tire that's on that corner on the road trip. if you want to save the tire for another car you might see about putting something crappy on there for a while. Even a steel rim off a SLO with a random tire on it should get you 600 miles.

The rear toe is adjustable a little bit via those big nut-looking things on the inside of the rear control arms (the eccentric bushings). Just running a string down the side of the car may help to see whether it's really off badly or not. A string along the car measured the same distance from dead center of the front and rear works well as a reference (I do four-wheel alignments this way).

And you'll probably want to do something to pin the rear bumper cover against the body. Otherwise it'll be flapping in the breeze and break off or something. All you need at this point is for that thing to fly off and hit somebody's grandma in the head or worse...

 

[back2SHO]

man, that looks familiar...just inversed. i bought a '93 for a replacement and am going to swap the powertrain in a bit further down the road...

ftp://drop.midknightrider.com/SHO1.jpg
ftp://drop.midknightrider.com/SHO2.jpg
ftp://drop.midknightrider.com/SHO3.jpg
ftp://drop.midknightrider.com/SHO4.jpg

good luck!
-t.

 

[40BelowSummer]

I put a somewhat worn tire on that corner the other 3 are new. I just took the car on the freeway and no bad vibrations up through 75mph (didnt go much faster) so I should make it. Good idea on pinning the bumper. Ill just keep an eye on the tires on the way and hope I dont run into bad weather (lots o snow at home).

 

[matty]

Hey This Is A Serous Bummer I Love My 1991 Sho And I Dread The Day,especially Living Where I Do,but Anyways I Work At A Body Shop In S Cali So Yes It Can Be Fixed It Comes Down To The Quality Of The Used Parts You Get,and How Well They Will Be Taken Of,good Luck If I Dont Hear From You Or If I Do Maybe Ill Chat Over The Phone When I Get A Chance Matty

 

[40BelowSummer]

How much do you think a shop would charge if I had the parts from my parts car? Ballpark?

BTW Where in cali are you?

 

[Mr Anonymous]

How much do you think a shop would charge if I had the parts from my parts car? Ballpark?

BTW Where in cali are you?

Best bet is to simply go to a body shop and ask them. On customer-paid jobs (no insurance) they are generally pretty good.