My fender bender Re-build

[Whitethunder46]

Well, after 8 weeks, I can finally start fixing the fender bender.

Insurance check: $1,900

Projected Cost of Re-build w/ a few extra goodies: $750
Projected Profit off Insurance: $1,150

Tomorrow, I'm going to be dropping off my bumper that I'm sanding down myself and my new Headlight Mounting Panel to be painted. I started sanding down the current bumper a few minutes ago. I'm using an orbital sander with 180 grit sand paper. So far, it's turning out really well. It's gonna be a pain to do the areas that the sander can't reach by hand.

I have to sand down all the way to the Urethane bumper for the fender bender chipped away a good section of the paint clear down to the bumper surface.

Pics of progress:

View from side showing bent fender and progress of bumper sanding:


Side View of Sanding:


Close-up of Sanded surface after wiped down.


Replacement fender. Paid $175 for it at a junk yard. Perfect paint match.

[wytstang]

Gotta love the junk yards good luck with the build and very nice profit.

[Whitethunder46]

Going good so far. Only got the left section of the bumper left to sand with the orbital sander, and then gotta tackle the rest by hand. Going to wrap her up tomorrow, hopefully before noon.

[P1et]

That's some impressive bodywork. What happened initially?

[Whitethunder46]

Originally Posted by P1et

That's some impressive bodywork. What happened initially?

An older guy hit me in my neighborhood. Basically he was turning left on the road I was on, and I was turning right onto the road he was on. He had a yield, I had nothing, and he was at a T-intersection. He went, cut the corner, hit my front left and pushed me off the road.

Fender replaced, bumper re-painted, new driver headlight, and new headlight panel needs to be fixed.

[supercharged]

$1150 sounds like some extra cash to spend on Autogeek products. Man, you can get a lot.

[Rapidity]

hah... you wanna see a rebuild?

My dad and I are rebuilding my sis's totaled Jeep with the money he got from the payoff.

[supercharged]

Air bags deployed?

[Craig]

I had no idea your fender was damaged. Didn't know you were removing the bumper. Didn't know you were sanding with a orbital. I feel like a complete fool now. What the hey, isn't the first time, or last. Looks like it's been painted twice. I see a layer of primer, color coat and clear, another primer, color coat and clear. You're getting close now. Remember, refinishing is like detailing. It's all in the prep work. I assume you are putting the fender on, are you just taking the bumper to be sprayed or instulling and taking the whole car? Be sure and send pictures when your done.

[Whitethunder46]

Originally Posted by Craig

I had no idea your fender was damaged. Didn't know you were removing the bumper. Didn't know you were sanding with a orbital. I feel like a complete fool now. What the hey, isn't the first time, or last. Looks like it's been painted twice. I see a layer of primer, color coat and clear, another primer, color coat and clear. You're getting close now. Remember, refinishing is like detailing. It's all in the prep work. I assume you are putting the fender on, are you just taking the bumper to be sprayed or instulling and taking the whole car? Be sure and send pictures when your done.

Hahaha... No worries man. I thought the exact same thing about being re-painted. This is my very first time doing anything like this myself. I've been around engine's and performance work a lot, but never body work. Here's the coats that I've encountered while sanding: clear, white, grey, white, grey and then the surface of the urethane. The last two coats of white and grey seem very thin, but I don't know.

In the pics you see, I just finished up the last section of white paint on the passenger side of the bumper. The rest I'm going to have the body shop finish up for I can't reach it with my tools and hand sanding is a pita. I called them, talked them yet again, and they're gonna hook me up without charging me an arm and a leg again. I'm already making a pretty penny, so this isn't going to kill me.

I will be dropping off the bumper and my new headlight mounting panel for them to paint and keeping the car here. I will be installing everything myself. Hopefully tonight I will have the driver side, side skirt off and the bent up fender. I'll put on the new fender then and see how I feel re-installing the side skirt. I'm going to be using 3m industrial double side tape for re-mounting the side skirt.

I'll post pics when I start that this evening.