It's been a while...so here's some major body damage

My girlfriend's sister backed out of her driveway and clipped my front passenger side while the car was parked out front. In her defense, it's pitch black out front of their house, but I was far away from the driveway entrance. C'est la vie...

My girl works at Enterprise and sees these things all the time. She thinks I need a new fender, new passenger side headlight housing, and new front bumper. ~$5,000 job. The fender is buckled pretty bad around the headlight housing, and the bumper is warped under the headlight. The headlight housing itself is scratched pretty bad. The hood is scratched a tiny bit where the front corner of the hood meets the fender. It can be sanded down and repainted. Thank God...

Anyone who's been through this with their Stang or any beloved car, please feel free to chime in. I haven't taken it to the body shop yet. Have to call the girl's insurance company tomorrow.

Edit: I have ZERO disposable income for a new fascia, and while Ive thought about it, I just can't risk putting myself over budget...even if I pocketed the estimate money, I just want it done right and to have my baby back to the way it was......





















Ugh, I'm sick...

I miss you all. Work has me completely bogged down.

ouch, sorry bro. wondered where you'd been. just get her fixed before spring

Hey I have a stock black gt bumper cover, might hekp you on the cost.

I offered it to Alex for 50 bucks, so you have to fight it out with him...

with painting, and bumper should save you at least 500

oh I have stock headlamps too

sorry to hear that Andrew, hope u get it back up to speed soon....

Yea hopefully I'll be able to get the estimate done this week.

Thanks for the offer Will, but her insurance will cover everything...I just hope a body shop will really make it look like new.

Try to ask around and use a shop someone recommends

damn that sucks bro...been there. Good luck!

Thats sucks, she must be a future soccer mom. Hope she gets back to her former glory; ive bef been there a few times.

Sorry to hear that.

that sucks, from the pics it looks like you will need a fender, bumper and headlight. hood looks fixable. i would go to the dealer and see what body shop they use, shops tied to dealers generally do better work.

sorry about that buddy. ive been there myself with mine took forever to find parts to put it all back together. youll get her all fixed up in no time

Sorry to hear, Andrew! That's not that bad though! Once they get the parts, you should have it back in less than a week! I have been there myself

Oh wait I just read its your "girllfriends" sister...

If she's cute, you need more payment

I don't think you are looking at the silver lining here. If that were my car I would be take the insurance money and replace the parts with Cervini's stuff. Nows the time to do it while YOU don't have to pay for it.

Now you know what to get her gor christmas...a rear view camera

oh lord, that looks horrible. Sorry to hear about that happening to your car. Just take it to the dealer and let them and her insurance fight it out!

Update: insurance company fiasco added another 10 days to my repair time. On top of that, the first shop I took it to, the guy gives me all this nonsense about ripping off the insurance company by saying he's gotta repaint the entire hood and that he'll "find a bunch of other stuff that needs fixing"...all so he and I can "share in the profits"...WTF

My g/f (a manager at a large rental car chain) has been awesome in helping me find a *reputable* shop to do work on my car. She found a Ford body shop that will re-do my vinyl work on the front bumper and can have all the replacement parts in a single day. I will be taking the car in on Monday probably. Hope to have it back to perfect in time for some Fall Cruisin...

Update:
So I go to pick the car up Monday night from the shop...the shop's outsourced "vinyl guy" who put the replacement stripes on my bumper decided to lay them down 1/2" off center and had the brilliance to use A RAZOR TO SLICE OFF THE OFFENDING VINYL. This idiotic method might have worked well except for the MASSIVE 6" CUTS THROUGH THE CLEARCOAT AND INTO THE BUMPER

Somehow these clowns managed to scrape all the anti-glare coating off my HID fogs, and couldn't even screw one of them back into its socket!

And if it weren't bad enough, the cap that goes over the antenna was split in half (probably through stupid-ass brute-force attempts at removing the fender). "Oh that piece should be in the shop in a few days, and it'll just snap back into place". WRONG. The damn cap was split in half like you'd slice apart the north and south hemispheres of the Earth.

So now I'm looking at needing my bumper repainted, stripes re-applied to the bumper, a pair of busted ass foglights, and a mangled antenna cap...gives me an excuse to drop ~$40 on a painted one I guess....

I told those idiots to keep the car until it was as perfect as I expect (and I'm reasonable). The guy says it'll be ready by Friday, and I will put the "GT 281" fender stripe back on the side that was replaced, and I SHOULD be good to go...hopefully for the Saturday Sonic cruise.

I miss you all, and I long for my triumphant return to the herd.

Man talk about a Kick in the nuts...

That shop sucks, sorry to hear you're going through all that SH^#+.

Good luck!

The worst part is, the body work and paint job was phenomenal...it's just the vinyl that's TERRIBLE.

It's about to get re-done for a THIRD time. Went back today during lunch hour and this "vinyl guy" that they do business with couldn't match the color and screwed up the gap in the front.

No Sonic cruise for me. Looking at something during the Christmas holiday I suppose.

Sorry to hear that, Andrew, but as you have already stated...don't take it back until it's perfect! I waited almost 4 long months to get mine back and that was extremely hard doing Stang related stuff without a Stang of my own.

Sorry about all your hassle but as long as your stang is perfect in the end, you'll be happy in the long run.
I hate waiting for S@%# and anyone who has ever taken stuff to a shop knows they always take longer than expected and usually don't get it perfect