Bad day. Moron crashed into my car. Repair advice needed

[Rrobson]

He clearly wasn’t paying attention, probably didn’t help it is similar to the colour of the back drop too. At least no one was seriously injured.
Good luck getting it sorted, my sister had a very minor bump a couple of weeks ago, someone drove into the back of her. Seemed like superficial damage to the rear but ended up being wrote off… seems they’ll write anything off these days!

 

[MetalMonkey]

Thanks. Its defo not mild steel, like a classic car. Its super springy. Ive tinkered with these before. Absolute pain to weld too. I dont confess to reallky understand the different steels used on newer cars, but mild steel its not.

If it was, id have a go myself.

Ive no doubt it will be expensive to do well.

You get boron steel which is very difficult to straighten once dented, incredibly hard and requires tungsten tooling to cut and can't be mig welded - but I think that is usually reserved for structural members.
It might be one of those advanced plasticy steels which harden on impact and have superior crash safety.

Probably going to be a right **** of a job to straighten it without cutting or massive amounts of filler, especially with that pressed body line - you could try a good dent guy and see if he can improve it, and then it would be down to filling unfortunately.
Can you get access to the rear of the panel to dolly it, or is it double skinned?

 

[Tangledfeet]

Gutted for you @Roger440 - what a unique vehicle. Quite potent, something meaty under the bonnet IIRC.

Sadly they don't make them any more in their country of origin, Australia. I missed seeing them last time I was there four years ago - I'd seen loads of them first time I visited twenty years ago.

 

[Roger440]

You get boron steel which is very difficult to straighten once dented, incredibly hard and requires tungsten tooling to cut and can't be mig welded - but I think that is usually reserved for structural members.
It might be one of those advanced plasticy steels which harden on impact and have superior crash safety.

Probably going to be a right **** of a job to straighten it without cutting or massive amounts of filler, especially with that pressed body line - you could try a good dent guy and see if he can improve it, and then it would be down to filling unfortunately.
Can you get access to the rear of the panel to dolly it, or is it double skinned?

Its is double skinned, but it does have removable sections so there is some access. Just not great.

Its the deformation to the inner wheelhouse thats holding it "in". Given the strength in this area, im guessing its going to need that part pulling out using something substantial. And the car bolted to something immovable, like a jig?

How do you weld it? Ive done it with tig, but it was really hard, partly i guess as its so thin. But should i be using a different material rod?

 

[Roger440]

Gutted for you @Roger440 - what a unique vehicle. Quite potent, something meaty under the bonnet IIRC.

Sadly they don't make them any more in their country of origin, Australia. I missed seeing them last time I was there four years ago - I'd seen loads of them first time I visited twenty years ago.

Indeed. Amazing how fast they have declined on ozzie roads, given how many there were.

Ive owned loads of them, but keep returning to my first one, this one

 

[Smallfry]

Legally, you do not have to accept it being written off. In a no fault situation you can insist it is repaired, no matter what it costs.

You will have a bunfight though.

 

[Roger440]

Legally, you do not have to accept it being written off. In a no fault situation you can insist it is repaired, no matter what it costs.

You will have a bunfight though.

Good news is that the insurance company have agreed they are liable. They also no it isnt straight forward and are happy for me to manage the repair. So i get to be in control.

Still need someone who can do it though.

 

[Bullet2012]

I found where they learnt to drive

Watch: Driving test ends with crash into lamp-post

CCTV has captured a driving test gone wrong in the Argentinian city of Lanus.

www.bbc.co.uk