Please help.Minor incident repair.

[JBurt09]

I have a 1997 Toyota Corolla.Tonight my brother was driving the car and tried to slowly coast under a chain blocking off a parking lot and it caught the spoiler on the back, ripping the trunk up and bending the bending the hinges, struts, etc that hold the trunk lid on.I need whatever parts are needed to make the repairs.The trunk lid seems to be fine, but I haven't had a chance to examine it in the day light yet.Any and ALL help is greatly appreciated as well as and pointers or guidance.Here's some pictures of the damage:

[Kiwi-Corolla]

Ouch, looks like your brother made a bit of a mess. Should be quite an easy fix though. You'll definitely have to replace the trunk hinges to get everything straight and aligned again, but everything else is mostly cosmetic - Like the huge part missing in the spoiler and the dent near the center of the trunk. Hopefully he didn't cause any damage to the latch at the same time, although that's an easy fix if he has.

Be sure to cover up the spoiler tonight so that no moisture of condensation can get into the wiring and cause it to short-circuit etc. It would probably be a good idea to unbolt the trunk from the hinges and leave the trunk just resting there (even if you have to bend the hinges out of the way to do so).

You may be able to pop the dent out from the inside of the trunk when you've got a bit more light to work with. See if you can get a small block of wood in there and apply pressure to it with a screwdriver or something similar (just don't use a screwdriver directly against the metal or you'll more than likely cause an outward dent). You won't get it perfect, but it should look a bit better than it does at the moment.

If it was my brother, I'd take it to the professionals and get him to pay the bill, lol. But in the meantime, just concentrate on getting everything relatively back to normal and watertight while you find some replacement parts.

Best of luck.

[fast68]

got them off the car just in time today... barely..

[JBurt09]

Originally Posted by Kiwi-Corolla

Ouch, looks like your brother made a bit of a mess. Should be quite an easy fix though. You'll definitely have to replace the trunk hinges to get everything straight and aligned again, but everything else is mostly cosmetic - Like the huge part missing in the spoiler and the dent near the center of the trunk. Hopefully he didn't cause any damage to the latch at the same time, although that's an easy fix if he has.

Be sure to cover up the spoiler tonight so that no moisture of condensation can get into the wiring and cause it to short-circuit etc. It would probably be a good idea to unbolt the trunk from the hinges and leave the trunk just resting there (even if you have to bend the hinges out of the way to do so).

You may be able to pop the dent out from the inside of the trunk when you've got a bit more light to work with. See if you can get a small block of wood in there and apply pressure to it with a screwdriver or something similar (just don't use a screwdriver directly against the metal or you'll more than likely cause an outward dent). You won't get it perfect, but it should look a bit better than it does at the moment.

If it was my brother, I'd take it to the professionals and get him to pay the bill, lol. But in the meantime, just concentrate on getting everything relatively back to normal and watertight while you find some replacement parts.

Best of luck.

Thanks a lot for the quick response.I've been in contact with a guy that is parting out his Corolla and he has the entire trunk and assembly.What parts should I have him snatch for me?I'd rather take them all then me be shorthanded things that I need.I'd rather get more than I need than not enough.

The spoiler I've found a few replacements and that looks like a simple replacement.The dent in the trunk was there long before this incident happened.I'm not so much worried about it, although since I'll be in there I may go ahead and knock it out.

Thanks again for the help.I really appreciate it.I've never done a fix like this, although I am pretty mechanically inclined and work on cars in my field of employment.So if it's an easy fix it shouldn't be anything too difficult.

[Kiwi-Corolla]

No worries, welcome to the forums by the way. Lol about the dent in the trunk, thought that may have been caused by the chain whacking down on it as it looked like it was circled in your photo, but yeah you might as well whack that out while you're there (unless you end up replacing the whole trunk of course). As for the replacement parts, you may as well take the whole trunk, hinges, and the latch. It might pay to check that the trunk release cable is still intact too as it looks a little bent in the photo. Also do a quick check to make sure that none of the trunk rubber got split or damaged in the accident. Once you've got those few things, your Corolla should be well on it's way to making a full recovery .

[fast68]

pics below for you.

[JBurt09]

Originally Posted by Kiwi-Corolla

It might pay to check that the trunk release cable is still intact too as it looks a little bent in the photo.

Luckily the trunk release appears to be okay.From what I can see it looks like the chain only really snatched on the passenger side of the spoiler and ripped it up and bent the hinge on that side.The driver side hinge appears to be in perfect shape and that's the side the trunk release cable runs on.Worse comes to worst, he'll just have to use his key to get into his trunk.

The trunk lid appears to have gotten away unscathed.I took of the hinges and everything and it fits like a charm.Again, thanks a ton for your help.

Originally Posted by fast68

ok i got the hinges and rods and all from the car. the car was hauled away a couple hours ago but i figured out how to get these parts off it just in the nick of time.

i might be able to find you any other parts you may need, if you can tell me exactly what you may still need, besides the hinges assemblies i removed today,.

i can email you a pic if you need. or send you pics url from my photobucket account of them

oh lakeland FL ? i have family thats lived in lakeland in the past, they are back up here again though now,
haha

randy

Thanks again man.I really appreciate everything.I think the hinges and a green spoiler are all I am going to need.Everything else appears to be in ship shape.The trunk release piece and the lock were the main things I was concerned about but they appear to be fine.If you could link a picture on here of what you pulled from photobucket that would be awesome.And yeah my zip is 33813.Haha it's a small world as they say.

[fast68]

here we go







if you can set up a shipping co. to come pick this up then we can do this.

i can have it picked up from a commercial address.. a loading dock even...

all you gotta do is set up a pick up time and date and ill give the addy to the place where it can be picked up...

217 671 7792 text me

randy