Need some solid advice on rear collision repair

[Karidan]

Hey everyone,

My car get hit in the rear awhile back and I'm just now getting around to really surveying the damage and looing into what it might take to fix it. It's an 85 SE. After pulling the bumper cover off it looks like the rear support and honeycomb took the bulk of the impact but my trunk is also dented in and there looks to be some damage (minor? I hope) the driver's side frame rail where the support bolts on. Also, although the bumper cover didn't tear it looks to have been deformed by the bent support underneath. Even after removing it from the car its misshapen.

First thing is I'll have to replace the support and honeycomb- can I pull this from any bumper pad notchback? Can the bumper cover be repaired or is this cover common enough it would be cheaper to just replace and paint? Is the frame horn and trunk damage a simple fix or should I leave this to a professional- any idea on what I should expect to pay someone to go this route?

[Karidan]

Few more pics. Passenger side frame horn doesn't look damaged but I included a pic of it to compare to the damaged driver's side.

[f85gtron]

Well places blows behind a wood block will straighten most of that out. Looks like very minor damage. I don't know about the plastic though. You could try to heat it while under stress to shape it again.
If that doesn't work, You could always fire up that Delorean in the background, hit 88mph, introduce 1.21 jiggawatts, and travel back in time to before the accident (or even further to buy crash parts?)

Need more pics of the Delorean

[Fierofool]

For anyone not seeing the pictures, you must log in first. 

Your picture host doesn't allow non-members and visiting guests to see the pics.  When you have time, download the Georgia Fieros image posting program in the Administrators Announcement section.  With it, you can post pictures on almost any forum and they will remain there until they're physically removed and everyone can see them. 

Now, to your body repair questions.  I've seen much worse damage being repaired.  ThaDriver of this forum has a paint and body shop and is intimately familiar with the Fiero.  A year or two back he repaired an 88GT that was hit on that corner at about 50MPH.  He may even be able to give you some advise on repairing it yourself.  Contact Paul Angel at  Imthadriver  "at" Yahoo dot Com  He has a number of Fiero bodies at his shop so he may have a decent rear fascia. 

The rear honeycomb and other bolt-ons from any bumper pad Fiero should work.  The only thing I'm not sure about is the fascia.  If yours has double exhaust cutouts, only the 85SE V6 fascia will work.  Repairing a dented fascia would require sending all the finish off, re-priming and painting to avoid spider cracks from coming back through the new paint. 

Where are you located?

[Karidan]

I'll look into this. Maybe youtube? My main concern is causing more damage that will cost more to fix 

Fortunately I've managed to never crash the DeLorean but I've had my share of close calls. I actually bought the Fiero so I'd have something to play with (i.e. make go fast) and no be tempted to try to modify it.

[Karidan]

Reposted with Pennock's Image Poster (i'll use this from now on):

[f85gtron]

THANKS! Love those things!

[Karidan]

I'm in Dallas. The cradle is out of the car at the moment for clutch replacement so I'll have to finish that up before I can move it anywhere. I have a truck and can pull it on a trailer anywhere I need to after that.

Since it's picture posting day I want to share a pic of what my clutch did.   I've done several clutch replacements on all kinds of vehicles but I've never seen one fail like this. I'm writing it off to cheap stock clutch, hard driving, and the extra torque of the 3.4.

[Tha Driver]

That is not too bad. A little hammer & dolly work should straighten the trunk & frame rail. You might be able to straighten the cover with heat, but it's iffy. I have a good heat gun if you want to come by some time & try it. I also have the reinforcement, but I'm not sure if the later eggcrate I have will work. I don't have any bumperpad covers.
I'm up near Commerce. You can PM me or email me at ImThaDriver at yahoo.
~ Paul
aka "Tha Driver"

Custom Fiberglass Parts

[Fierofool]

I see you have the V6, so you would need the 85-specific bumperpad fascia.

I've been running a LUK stock clutch kit in my 3.4 and so did Don Hulse.  Neither of us had any problems. 

[Raydar]

If the bumper cover is not torn, you can probably heat it with a hair dryer (or certainly a heat gun) and convince it to assume its original shape.
I did the same thing with a Miata bumper cover that had been driven under the back of a pickup, with enough force to trigger the air bags. Took an hour or so.
You should be able to coerce the frame horns back into shape with a hammer and a backup block (dolly block?) of some sort.
Bolt on a replacement bumper bar and make sure that it's even, from side to side.

I had a fiero with a trunk that was caved in from underneath, from someone trying to place a jack under the trunk well to lift the car. I placed some boards in the trunk floor, and placed a small floor jack on top of them, in the trunk. I then jacked against the back edge of the trunk to push the floor back out.
You may be able to do something similar with your trunk wall.

[Karidan]

@Tha Driver: I may take you up on that. I've been meaning to schedule a visit to commerce any to get with you about the 88 suspension parts since we spoke last spring.

@Fierofool: I almost bought a Luk but Rock Auto emailed me awhile back about a wholesaler closeout on a Valeo 5230221 clutch kit for $44.75. We'll see how long that lasts.  I took another look at the throwout bearing that came with the last clutch and now I'm suspecting it as the culprit. Its rattles and has a lot of play to it. Come to think of it there was a bit of a hiss in neutral with the clutch out on the day it failed.

@Raydar, Fierfool: It looks like it might be hard to replace the cover if I mess up. Looks like the 85 GT didn't have bumper pads and the other bumper pad Fieros of any year didn't have dual exhaust. Mine says SE on the sails and is badged 2M6 on the decklid. The car came with a plaque mounted inside that reads "Custom built for Chris Knighton" (the previous owner who I bought it from)



http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/089741.html   

[Fierofool]

The 85SE V6 was the only year that I know of that had the dual exhaust cutouts on the bumper pad fascia.  Ronzrx, our president has the same car.  All other V6's had the aero trim except the 88 coupe body. 

Georgia Fieros has 5 or 6 aero rear fascias stored at TopNotch's in Lawrenceville if you wanted to go that route.  You would also need the egg crate for the aero fascia.  The fender well liner is slightly different, not having the little filler piece that covers the extra aero flare at the bottom. 

My sister worked at Boomershine during the era of the Fiero and her 86 Trans Am had a plaque like that.  It was a beautiful copper color car.  I don't know that she had it specially ordered or anything special the dealer did to it.  I thought it was such a beautiful car at the time, but have since come to dislike that long back glass with the whale tale spoiler. 

Just out of curiosity, I looked up Christopher V. Knighton and he lives in Marietta.  You might be able to get some history on the car. 

OOPS!  Didn't see that you already know where he is since he sold it to you. 

[Raydar]

It looks like it might be hard to replace the cover if I mess up.
...

What are your options? Either fix that one or find a replacement?
Unless I'm missing something, the damage doesn't look too bad.
Truth be told, If it were still summer, you could probably drape the bumper cover over a sawhorse in the sun, and gravity combined with the heat from the sun on that black paint would probably almost pull it back into shape.

I'm pretty sure you're not going to damage anything with a hair dryer. Probably not even with a heat gun.
I'm not too far from you. Hwy 92 at Brownsville. I'm having some (hopefully minor) health issues at the moment, but once I get an "all clear", maybe I can mess with it. Will be a few weeks.

Here's a video. Not too hard...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qjb4I9kTy0

Here's the repaired Miata bumper. It was crushed down over the driver's side parking light. If you look carefully, you can see the scratches under the light. It wasn't even repainted before I put it on the  car.

[Karidan]

Hey Raydar

Sorry to hear you're not feeling well. It doesn't sound like you're too far away- I'm near 278 (Jimmy Lee Smith) and 61 (Villa Rica Highway). I know Brownsville Road and 278 is just on the other side of Hiram, maybe 15 minutes. I'd have to look at a map to see where it intersects with 92.

Let me know when you're feeling better maybe we can meet up sometime.