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Questions on repairs after accident plz!

1221 Views 8 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Adrenaline Rush, 7 mo ago

19scatty

Discussion Starter · 7 mo ago

Hi, in January I posted on here after I got TBoned looking for some help with issues I was having. Back again after I got my car back from repair shop after 8 months. Anyone know why when I close my door that got hit would sound hollow ? And loud as heck driving at highway speeds? I have so many issues with the car besides this it’s unreal. There was structural damage done to car as well. The list goes on but I brought car back up to body shop three times now since getting it back and yet nothing gets fixed. I don’t think the car will ever be the same, had it looked at by another shop that said my cars body line is not lining up right which is causing a big dip in my hood, door not shutting right, widebody fender has big gap on one side, sunroof doesn’t work properly and many more things. So I’m just asking for advice on what would cause door noise and is that correct about my cars body line not being right? Thanks In advance !

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troyus

· #5 · 7 mo ago

You can run tape along one side vs the other to help get an idea on your bodyline situation. Look at some videos on youtube about doing bodywork for custom cars etc. Doesn't sound good but this needs to be diagnosed in person. Since this is a unibody damage to the 'frame' is often not 100% correctable. It can be done but involves pulling and stretching the body.

To give you an idea, last weekend I was going through a rear-ended 392 - the damage went all the way up to the end of the spare tire wheel well - visually. We ended up having to use a cutoff wheel to get the passenger side front seat track out... that's how hard it ended up tweaking the body.

I think if it were me I would pull the front clip and fenders and run measurements from boltholes/mounting points on both sides to determine if the issues were the body panels or the unibody itself, and go from there.

It may make more sense to find a donor shell and start over with your mechanicals... Sorry man.

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troyus

· #8 · 7 mo ago

You also want to measure across body points diagonally and make sure things are square (like in carpentry). People have been making cars since old times now - and a lot of what goes on in the bodywork world is old school. Tape measures, body hammers, bodytape, bodyfiller...

Of course, this is a complex 3 dimensional object so you will need to take all kinds of measurements from different points. The big problem you have is it's a unibody construction - you can't easily replace 'part of' the frame. Because the body is the frame. You are looking at an art and a science with this repair. And the art portion could be excruciatingly time consuming. If you go to a shop, they will do what they can in the time they have budgeted, and no more.

Honestly the first thing that popped into my mind when I read this was 'this person should find a flood car and just swap all their stuff over from one body to the other' - but that takes a lot of time to do and is not for the faint hearted.

You may just want to sell it and find a new one - because if it doesn't feel right, it isn't.

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