Mark Hubley

This morning on the way home from church my wife rear ended me. She was in her '03 Toyota Tacoma, and the front of her truck went right over my rear bumper and nailed where the licence plate is. The area where the plate mounts is not dented in too badly, but it is noticeable if you look. The part that really took a hit is where the PORSCHE decal is located. This part of the metal is dented in and flattened even with the part of the panel for the license plate.

For reasons that I assume are obvious, I don't see myself making an insurance claim. Any repairs will be paid out of pocket. I'll go to a local body shop tomorrow for an estimate. Any ideas on minimizing costs? Can that entire rear panel be removed and replaced without too many headaches? I don't know much about body work, but I think it is beyond a dent puller.

I would post pictures, but the USB ports on my computer crapped out Friday morning. So, both my car and my computer are screwed up. Boy does that combination make for a lot of aggravation!!!

944_S_TYPE

The rear panel will not be too bad to purchase, Look for a thread on here. A guy picked it up for around 10 bucks used...BUT He plans to do all the welding. You may want to contact him.......

Porsche-O-Phile

Rear-end collisions tend to total 944s easily. There is a lot of welded material in the back, particularly in the area right between the taillights. This is one major reason I can't stand SUVs at all - the bumpers are right exactly at "maximum financial damage to 944s" height.

Since you want to keep the car, not reporting it is a very wise idea. Pull the rear hatch carpet up and see if there's any buckling to the pan. If so you'll have to cut that away and re-weld it. Look at the piece betwen the taillights - that will need to be cut out and re-welded in. Bumper needs to come off and a very thorough inspection of all the joints and welds underneath is warranted if you don't want the next rear-end collision to kill you. Sorry to hear it. Rear-end collisions are absolutely a cancer with these cars. Too many inattentive drivers driving too much metal out there!

Anything you can do to minimize rear-end collision possibilities is a good idea. I added (deliberately) the third brake light to my early 944. I also try to stop with enough room ahead of me or on either side of me to make a quick swerve or "jump" forward if I see that person barreling up behind me not going to stop in time. Self-preservation is key in these cars. Maybe in my case it comes from riding motorcycles. . . But the lessons translate nicely. I know of a couple people that were sitting at lights on bikes and had people just barrel right into them. One died, the other was in the hospital for quite some time. Never underestimate the stupidity of other people. It can kill you. In this case it's good that everyone walked away and hopefully you and your wife are still on speaking terms. . . She owes you BIGTIME!!! The car can be fixed but there's a good defensive driving lesson in this. I don't mean to sound preachy (heck, it could happen to me today!) but given how vulnerable our cars are to rear-end damage and the trend towards dumber and dumber people driving bigger and bigger vehicles around us, we really have to be on our guard when stopped or in traffic! Use those mirrors!

IceShark

Sorry to hear about this.

To try and minimize costs you can pull out the rear and sidemarker lenses. And the bumper. Rear carpet, spare tire, ect. Hopefully the body shop will cut down labor a bit for that. Those rear lenses take quite some time to pull out and clean up due to the strip caulk used. It will stick like crazy even after all these years. A heat gun or hair drier helps get it soft.

Then go buy some 35 watt halogen brake light bulbs. Those light up twice a bright as the regular ..... every little bit helps to prevent a rear end.

Granite 944

I'd definately go get at least a few cost estimates from some body shops first. I'd want to know what the costs would be to fix whats there, and also what the cost would be in a repair that would replace that rear panel. I'd also really want to know what they would charge for the rear panel itself, versus me being able to come up with my own replacement panel for them to install. Look at all those options first. Body shop would probably charge a very high cost for a panel, vs what you could really get one for that would work just fine. Still its the labor costs that will determine which method and all. Good luck, sorry to hear about the damage. S**t happens sometimes.

skene

Just as a reference point, I was rear ended by and explorer last winter and had similar damage except both tail lights were taken out too. I think the cost for new lights, welding on a new rear center panel and painting it was around $1200. I can check on the breakdown of the bill if you're currious.

Mark Hubley

Andrew,

It may not be a direct comparison, but any additional information you could provide would be appreciated!

Mark

RedlineMan

FYI -

I'm finishing repairs on such a hit right now. Those are VERY tricky panels to replace if you want to make them look factory, which is the only way I do anything on a P-car. I needed both upper and lower rear panels, as the inner beam (where the jack stows) was squashed and tirewell was pushed in a bit on the edges. They are $900 for the pair new by the way! New lamps are about $300pr. I played some games and saved some of the inner reinforcing pieces, but it was definitely not an easy repair.

The insurance estimate was around $3400!

J Berk

Perfect time to graft in a 968 rear end....if your into the look!

Mark Hubley

I went to a very good body shop near me and told them I would be paying out of pocket (not going after my wife for insurance!). They are going to try to pull it out and do the best they can. They quoted me $1050, and I'm pretty happy with that. If my car were pristine I would go for replacement. However, after 20 years and 217K miles, there's no point for me to spend big bucks for a shiny rear end when the front is loaded with rock chips and there are other blemishes.

That being said, I'm impressed with John's project. You'll definitely have to post pictures of the finished product!

RedlineMan

Saaaay...

Just painted the rear valance and bumper extensions about 15 minutes ago!