MikeinBloomfield

The car in front of me stopped short, and I locked the wheels and hit her. I wasn't doing over 25.

The hood is bent. The nose doesn't look like it has any damage, except for the paint shattering.

Is this something a newby on bodywork can fix? I'm imagining the replacement shocks and a new nose and paint. Do I need a new hood? What else would be involved.

Alternatively, I need a reference to a good bodywork guy in North Jersey. Engine seems unaffected. Nothing seems compressed beyond the nose.

Nicole

Can you post a picture with the hood open? It would seem that the sheet metal with the lower lock piece is bent, and most likely the aluminum bumper underneath the bumper cover is damaged as well.

j.kenzie@sbcglobal.net

Hi Mike,
Looks like bumper cover, bumper bar, bumper shocks, hood, prep and paint with removal and reassembly. With salvage parts, I think you are looking at 350 + 250+ 100+ 450+ 1200+ 200 for shipping and misc. = $2500. I just went through something similar and that's what is cost me cash out of pocket, without involving insurance.
Good luck,
Dave

MikeinBloomfield

I'll try and post pictures tomorrow. Car is in the garage, where I don't have any light and I've had a couple. I've attached a picture, but its very dark.

What are the implications if the front end parts are bent as you say? I'm pretty sure they are. The shock absorbers didn't really take all the damage, as evidenced by the hood.

Nicole

The question is - are only parts damaged that are bolted-on, or is part of the body bent that has to be straightened. The area with the lower hood lock is welded to the body, while the rest of the parts that look damaged are not.

Either way, it looks repairable at reasonable cost.

Sorry that you have to go through this experience.

MikeinBloomfield

Nicole, thanks for the optimistic post! Just sick right now, because this being an 82, reasonable cost approaches what the car is worth. Still, I love this car and will get it fixed. I was hoping to fix it myself, but I don't think I've got the equipment to pull out sheetmetal, but I'll check

Lizard928

I just went through this repair on a local fellows car (same damage).
Replacement hood and some muscle was all that was needed.

Remove hood, bumper cover and bumper.
Install new hood so that it lines up and closes.
Then push back into place the front part that the bumper cover has 5 screws holding it to.
Keep lifting bumper cover into place and testing the joining locations.

All in all it took me just a tick over 2 hours to complete.

You will require a good used/new hood though.
Call Benton or 928intl for that.

Adamant1971

At least you did not get into either of the fenders like I did.

It doesn't look bad at all. Just the bumper cover and hood.

MikeinBloomfield

So do you guys that I can just replace parts, and not have anything bent? Do a ceunched bumper work this way? I'd be psyched if that was the case.

G Man

My car was in a low speed incident like yours prior to me getting the car. The insurance considered the damage a total and my car now has a salvage title. Good luck with the repairs.

Kalspeed

This really sucks, a couple of weeks ago I was following a car about 150 feet behind, probably 55 MPH, on my way home.
Road was a bit moist due to an earlier rain shower. I couldn't judge the traffic ahead, due to the low height of the 928.

The car in front hit the brakes hard, I in turn went for the brakes during a slight bend on the road. I saw the car ahead was not paying attention because on the braking, he/she was hard behind a train of cars and Harley's leisurely traveling at I would guess 50 MPH.

I locked my brakes after trying to modulate but to no avail .... one wheel locked up and left a skid mark on the road to this day..still can't get the smell of burnt rubber off my mind.

I gained control after I let up and squirmed two lanes away from those idiots.....

Everyday is a challenge out there, I for sure dread getting hit or hitting someone for their mistakes. and in congested S. Florida, seems I can never find a good time to drive the girl without worrying about a kid, or a tourist, or a drunk causing an accident (even in my DD Ford), and in the 928 I am especially cautious, and on more than one occasion had to use the "go-pedal to accelerate away from a situation.

Good luck and glad the accident wasn't much more serious.

Nicole

If you can find a hood in the same color, you might only have to paint the bumper and save more on the cost. However, that would require the new used hood to have good paint, and no shipping damage.

Just an idea.

Either way, I think you'll have this fixed rather quickly.

PS: Take a look at the picture in this thread - there you can see what's underneath the bumper cover:
https://rennlist.com/forums/9464786-post9.html

bordin34

Might want to check out this thread on some potential body shops on North Jersey.
http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/...c=&Search=true

Mrmerlin

I would consider buying new front tires ,
as if they are locking then they are not what you need up front.

For the fix i would have a PLDR guy look at popping out the hood,
It may be a simple popout,
you also need new front bumper shocks,
simply pushing them out isnt how its done,
you swap in new used bumper shocks,
once they are hit they are toast

Podguy

Bad day - I know the feeling. The hood is a pain to repair. They are aluminum and the frame of the hood gets dents. They can be removed but for the effort you are better with another hood. There are two hoods - early without heaters for the windshield washers and late with the heaters. The holes for the windshield nozzle are different. Other than that the hoods are all the same. When you get the hood be sure to get them to throw in the top latch as well as it is probably bent and hard to straighten. If you look around you should be able to get a used hood for $100.

The bumper does not look bad. If there are tears they can be welded with plastic welding rod. You can use a soldering iron and some fibrated rod from Urethane Supply Company. It is something anyone can do. They also sell a flexible filler.

The shocks on the bumper are done. They are filled with oil and the back piece is designed to break letting the oil out. You can drill in a zert fitting, either weld up the broken welds and refill them with oil or even possibly use some JB Weld. Finding good ones is difficult. The Euro models do not have shocks and can be exchanged.

The bumper bar will probably be fine. They move - not bend. I do not think you hit hard enough to hurt it but you will find out when you get it apart.

Now for structural damage. You do not know this yet. Get the front bumper off and get a new hood and see how things line up. There is a possibility your fenders have been pushed back a little too but they can be adjusted. If the front part of the car is pushed a bit - which having a straight hood will tell you, then a trip to the body shop is in order. They can pull the front part of the car so it is straight - $500 out here in California and that is for a complete frame check. Should not be that much just to set a little bit of stuff right. It does look like the auxiliary fan is not setting quite right.

Now we get to the hard part - paint. it always takes the most amount of time. The bumper looks like it has a number of generous coats of paint. It and the new hood should be stripped. The hood you can use Air Craft Stripper - just be sure to wash it with soap after. The bumper should be blasted with walnut shells (or possibly soda blasted although I have not tried that yet), flexible primer applied and then paint with flex agent. SEM makes a great flex agent that works with any paint. The Urethane Supply Company sells a flexible primer. You will only need to strip the top side of the hood as the underside will take paint fairly well.

Do it yourself and then have a profession do the paint. You will save and learn something. Good luck