Started the 2017 New Year With a Fender Bender
 

I was on a surface street that went down under a freeway. As I went up and crested the top I was faced with a Red Light. I applied the brakes about 2 car lengths behind the limit line but skidded out into the intersection and hit another a 2015 VW Golf (gasser) . No one hurt and light damage to both cars.

My fault; I apparently was going too fast.


The other party was left with a paint smear mark on their plastic bumper cover and unknown damage underneath I was left with a dented right front fender and a cracked fiberglass part in front of the radiator with my light pointing down.


The car I was driving is a 1986 Chevy Cavalier that was given to me and took about $600 in parts several years ago to get it road worthy and to pass the emission test. Part of that expense was to fix while my Wife was driving the radiator plastic tank cracked and the engine overheated blowing the head gasket.


So the goal of the fix was simply to make it road worthy; not to restore it to perfect condition.
Note that the right front had been in a previous accident in the same area but I had been able to nearly pop out the previous dent and the front fiberglass part had been replace with one from the junk yard. However , this time I decided to fix the Fiber Glass part.


The Fiber Glass part was not too bad but you could not simply glue it back as it would not go flush.

I took a hacksaw and cut part way along the crack and then took a small round bur on a dremal type tool and ground a groove along the rest of the cracks. That allowed the Fiber Glass to go back in place to the original contour.

Instead of resin I used quick drying JB Weld epoxy as the filler, I backed up the sawed groove with a polyester mesh and JB Weld taping to hold the Fiber Glass back in position. Later I filled the cut and grooves with JB Weld.

After the JB Weld cured I sanded with progressively finer emery paper and had to refill any indentations that I previously missed sanded again till it was OK and then painted it.

On the Fender metal it was unfortunately folded back over itself. I made a medal plate to get behind it and I used some treaded rod to make a slide hammer to pull the fold back.
That was followed by some hammering and back up with a Harbor Freight body fender kit.

The same area had been previously damaged so the results did not come out entirely well.

Under that plastic bumper cover my actual bumper was bent and twisted. The metal is thick enough it is not easily pounded back into shape. Fortunately I had previous experience on another vehicle but it requires a welder.

You cut the bent sections off so you are able to pound them back into shape and then you weld the sections back together. Again the results were not perfect but the plastic bumper cover covers it and you cannot see it.

More pics

Last pic. I used the electric harbor freight metal cutoff tool to section the bumper.

Not shown is the harbor freight Anvil that I got the bumper and parts on top of to beat the bumper back into shape.

I was in a hurry and did not take pics of my awful welding. Good thing the bumper cover hide that.

You did some good work there 911!

I started my year last year with a fender bender. That sucked. Wasnt my fault though. Cool that you can fix your car. If i dented my truck, which has little value, I would just drive it as is.

Thanks.

My Wife called 30 minuits ago and told be the electrical system failed and she was waiting for the Tow Truck.

Yester day my Van died in a Grocery Store parking lot and I had it towed home. Got it running by connectng the Fuel Pump direct to the Batter. However, I don't know what the real cause yet.

Also when my Wife took this vehicle it was because the Mercedes Turn Signals were not working.
I got those to work but have not driven it eonough to know if it is going to last.

I am running out of vehicles.!

OK my Wife claims the Headlights were on and it was raining hard and she forded a 1 foot deep puddle after which she had an electrical failure and smelled something burning.

I looked at the Car today and found that the fat read wire that goes from the Alternator direct to the positive battery terminal burned in two and of course not charging.

I replaced the wire and connectors with better quality and larger gage and have been driving the Car with no other issues except that the Battery I think is nearing the end as it is taking the charge slowly.