Accident/collision

[the_professional]

Let the Pictures Talk.






I was going approximatly 40 MPH, I lost traction in the rear, it was weird I was on asphalt but it felt like I slid across dirt into my friend's 2006 Ford Focus ZX3. My car rebounded against a steel curb on the side of the road, and hit him a second time on the front door. My rear right wheel hit the curb hard and I have some rash on the rear steelie. So my front bumper hit his car twice, really hard in the rear, and grazing the front door. His rear bumper covering fell off & the rear panel got dented in below the gas tank cover.

I jacked the car up & checked the rear, the suspension & the wheel in general seem pretty snug, and all suspension componants seem intact.

Now, how much should I be looking at?
- How should the front fender be fixed? Replaced?
- The bumper is not cracked & is still mounted fine, but it seems the bent fender is putting a lot of stress on the bumper. What should I do with the bumper?
- My fog lights were mangeled from the force.
-My corner/parking lamp plastic mount tab is broken, and the front directional is busted.

What price should I be looking at to fix this?

[EEngineer]

dude, that sucks!

now now, the damage doesn't look that bad on your car. a bumper cover and fender would do the trick...and it's a mighty good time to get some depo headlights and clear bumper light lenses.

now for the ford...i think that would be a write-off simply because it's a ford.

cheer up, cuz at least you are not hurt right?

[Chris Crash]

Damn, that sucks dude.
Glad you're alright.

Car doesn't look too bad. Shouldn't be too expensive to fix it yourself. If your front bumper isn't cracked, you don't need a new one.

You coulddddddd probably beat those dents out of your fender. None of your lenses look busted, either. You should be able to actually fix all that in your driveway with basic tools....like a block of wood and some glue!

[LynchburgCSI]

Damn. 40mph.... you saw what happened to mine hitting at 40mph. At least your okay and your cam is CONSIDERABLY in better shape than mine was. Good luck man.

[the_professional]

Originally Posted by EEngineer

dude, that sucks!

now now, the damage doesn't look that bad on your car. a bumper cover and fender would do the trick...and it's a mighty good time to get some depo headlights and clear bumper light lenses.

now for the ford...i think that would be a write-off simply because it's a ford.

cheer up, cuz at least you are not hurt right?

Yeah, in the second collision my car has been involved in while I was operating the vehicle, the opposing car always ended up worse, I was rear ended by an '02 Accord, the Accord's light & bumper were cracked and fell out. I only lost some paint on my rear bumper. This time around, the damage was bad but, the Camry brunted a large part of the collision, and despite this, the Focus lost it's bumper and had a large crease in it's rear fender. I was just happy that this happened on my front fender, which is much easier to replace/repair than the rear.

& Nope I am not hurt. I wanna see if I can salvage the bumper cover, as for the fender, I am thinking it needs to be replaced. Hopefully the color match is decent as my paint is 18 years old, and not a common color. & I wanted to get DEPOs but I didnt want to invest anything in this Camry since I was looking to get a new car. Now my plans may be dashed after this.

Thanks Again EEngineer.

Originally Posted by Chris Crash

Damn, that sucks dude.
Glad you're alright.

Car doesn't look too bad. Shouldn't be too expensive to fix it yourself. If your front bumper isn't cracked, you don't need a new one.

You coulddddddd probably beat those dents out of your fender. None of your lenses look busted, either. You should be able to actually fix all that in your driveway with basic tools....like a block of wood and some glue!

In Brooklyn we don't have driveways.
But I think the bumper isn't cracked, but it may be cracked/strained @ the mount by the fender. I really hope it's salvageable, so that way I'll have a repainted bumper!

Like you said it isn't too bad, but I guess the fender would need to be replaced. The front left directional is cracked & the bulb is broken, but all the lights work elsewise. But the Parking/Corner Light mount tab is broken.

Thanks Chris!

Originally Posted by LynchburgCSI

Damn. 40mph.... you saw what happened to mine hitting at 40mph. At least your okay and your cam is CONSIDERABLY in better shape than mine was. Good luck man.

Thanks Lynch!

Yeah it was about 40-50 MPH. But you hit that guard rail head on, luckily although the crash was rough, it wasnt bad. & I was so happy to see that the Air Bag did not deploy, the same with my friend's car.
& I really hope you get a car soon, your Camry modding presence is missed.

[IronNam]

owch, at least a minivan didnt come flying into yours!

[Gothmog3VZ]

damn that sucks. If the structural parts of the car are alright, then you should be able to fix her up yourself. Don't worry about a new fender, you should be able to push out the dents (that's what I did when my mom backed the Explorer into my car ). and what's with the hating on ford, hm? I know they castrated the new explorer and that the new stuff is fugly, but still... lol

Important thing is that you guys are alright though.



LYNCH, BUY A COUPE!!!!!!!

[ricamryman]

Does not look too bad for the speed of 40 MPH!

[4Cyl'erThriller]

Ouch!! What a shame for a car with so low miles. Hopefully its only cosmetic damages. I cant really see how bad the fender is but I might just throw some bondo in it if its not too bad, but either way a fander is an easy fix. You could probably get away with spending less than $50 if you go the cheap route. Thats not including paint but a can of bondo might cost $20 and you can probably get the lights that are damaged for a very reasonable price on TN. Good luck Sorry for the unfortunate accident.

[fenixus]

the_professional, what can i say ... life is a bitch

glad you and friends are OK, that's most important. don't worry you will get her fixed eventually, just need to put some money on it.

i had a similar collision damage on my '00 Solara a year ago when i lost traction on icy snow road when going down hill and hit (front to front) another car which was blocking my lane (dude was at wrong place in wrong time i guess).
i did it at around 25mph ... similar damage in front driver side, except for the foglight. paid $1,100 to local body shop (not best quality) and got it fixed out of pocket.
had to fix bent hood, replace fender, repair front bumper, paint them all and replace the driver side head lamp assembly.

[the_professional]

Originally Posted by DubVipers

owch, at least a minivan didnt come flying into yours!

Thanks Nam!
Yeah, its a shame what happened to your Camry.

Originally Posted by Gothmog3VZ

damn that sucks. If the structural parts of the car are alright, then you should be able to fix her up yourself. Don't worry about a new fender, you should be able to push out the dents (that's what I did when my mom backed the Explorer into my car ). and what's with the hating on ford, hm? I know they castrated the new explorer and that the new stuff is fugly, but still... lol

Important thing is that you guys are alright though.



LYNCH, BUY A COUPE!!!!!!!

Thanks!
Yeah, I checked & there really seems to be no frame/structural parts that seem to be damaged. Just a banged up fender. My bumper is mis-aligned but, I am pretty sure thats only because of that fender pushing the bumper in about inch.

& I agree Lynch get a Coupe!

Originally Posted by ricamryman

Does not look too bad for the speed of 40 MPH!

Yeah, I was fortunate enough.

Originally Posted by CleanWhiteCamry

Ouch!! What a shame for a car with so low miles. Hopefully its only cosmetic damages. I cant really see how bad the fender is but I might just throw some bondo in it if its not too bad, but either way a fander is an easy fix. You could probably get away with spending less than $50 if you go the cheap route. Thats not including paint but a can of bondo might cost $20 and you can probably get the lights that are damaged for a very reasonable price on TN. Good luck Sorry for the unfortunate accident.

Well I don't mind putting some $ into her. So I am not looking to go to cheap. But I really dont have a ton of money to dish out. But I do plan to go the cheap route for the most part.

Originally Posted by fenixus

the_professional, what can i say ... life is a bitch

glad you and friends are OK, that's most important. don't worry you will get her fixed eventually, just need to put some money on it.

i had a similar collision damage on my '00 Solara a year ago when i lost traction on icy snow road when going down hill and hit (front to front) another car which was blocking my lane (dude was at wrong place in wrong time i guess).
i did it at around 25mph ... similar damage in front driver side, except for the foglight. paid $1,100 to local body shop (not best quality) and got it fixed out of pocket.
had to fix bent hood, replace fender, repair front bumper, paint them all and replace the driver side head lamp assembly.

Thanks!
Yeah I am not too worried, the car is true & drives straight. No real issues there. No mechanical issues. Just the fender seems to be mashed in. I am really going to go looking around for a cheap body shop.


So heres the plan fellas (critique welcomed!)
- buy new L Corner/Parking Lamp
- buy new L directional, both pieces
- New fender Painted.
- I hope the bumper is salvagable, & I want that repainted.

& the car should be fine.

Sound Good?

EDIT: & also should I just buy a fender online & can I just bring it to a shop, have them paint & mount?

[4Cyl'erThriller]

Sounds good. Although it will start to get a lil pricey once you get a new fender and have everything installed and painted. Personally Id get the fender repaired. It really dosnt look so bad, and then just have the bumper and fender painted. Thats just me. Id try to salvage anything possible. I once had someone side swipe my blazer. That thing had at least a whole can of bondo in the pass side rear door. But with a flat black stripe around the entire truck. You would have never known. Hope everything turns out.

[bigbird]

sorry to see man. but i think it looks worse then it is.

[Novice_cardude]

I had a fender bender a couple years ago. It was my fault, but i literally ended up with a bent fender (I still have the old part). The headlight and side marker tabs were snapped and the housings pushed over. I had to replace the headlight, the side marker, and the fender. The bumper cover took almost no damage ... just a tiny scuff.

Total repair cost? About $250.

www.certifit.com - look at their catalog. I got the fender with a coat of primer on it for $28. Got some paint matched to the original pain code from English color, and had a friend spray the fender for me.

Putting all the parts on took about 30 minutes. The only tricky part is aligning the fender with the door panel and hood.

Of course I had one brand new headlamp and an old foggy one, so I had to buff the old one clear so it matched.

A bumper cover from Certifit is like $38-45, so i'd just get that and some extra paint, that way you won't have to worry about cracks or flexing making your new paint fall off.

The parts on the front of your car were meant to be replaced after a not-so-severe accident like this. If you don't mind dropping the money on new parts, I would definitely recommend it.

Good luck!

[the_professional]

Originally Posted by JJJJJJ

Those look like Michelin MXV4 - what brand and make of tires do you have ?

It looks to be at least $3-4k to fix (using new factory parts) with most of that in labor, assuming frame laser measurements are within spec and no unseen damage.

You could fix it for about $1-2k using aftermarket parts and local shops.

For an 18 year old car, the insurance company is likely going to write it off for legal and financial reasons, especially on second accident.

I have some Cooper POS tires in the front. Not too sure as to the exact one. They are fine, its the back that fucked me, when my Car was in FL, it needed two rear tires as the belts seperated. Seeing I was from NY, & they were FL, they only had shitty no name tires, & just mounted them on. The tires are really shit. Well the last Insurance known accident dates to February '93 when the car was sideswipped. The last two incidents insurence wasnt involved. It's gonna be fixed out of my own pocket. & I just plan to buy all parts myself, get an Aftermarket fender, paint & rust proof it other than the exterior side. Mount everything myself & just have a shop paint the fender & bumper cover.

Originally Posted by Novice_cardude

I had a fender bender a couple years ago. It was my fault, but i literally ended up with a bent fender (I still have the old part). The headlight and side marker tabs were snapped and the housings pushed over. I had to replace the headlight, the side marker, and the fender. The bumper cover took almost no damage ... just a tiny scuff.

Total repair cost? About $250.

www.certifit.com - look at their catalog. I got the fender with a coat of primer on it for $28. Got some paint matched to the original pain code from English color, and had a friend spray the fender for me.

Putting all the parts on took about 30 minutes. The only tricky part is aligning the fender with the door panel and hood.

Of course I had one brand new headlamp and an old foggy one, so I had to buff the old one clear so it matched.

A bumper cover from Certifit is like $38-45, so i'd just get that and some extra paint, that way you won't have to worry about cracks or flexing making your new paint fall off.

The parts on the front of your car were meant to be replaced after a not-so-severe accident like this. If you don't mind dropping the money on new parts, I would definitely recommend it.

Good luck!

Yeah, I am getting a new fender, & looking to save the bumper cover, with aftermarket parts, get it painted. I plan to do the work (other than painting) myself. Save money for labor charges. Personally I like working on the cam, & since its the front fender I shouldnt have any big issues.