FD1 Civic panel issue

[stevo1210]

Long story short... a few months ago my brother took my brand new Civic for a ride without asking and then crashed it and his friends ran off and he was left to deal with the deluge. HINT: I was not happy at this point, not only with him taking my car without asking but the rotten fools who ran off.
This was in May 2012 when it rained so hard it flooded half of Sydney on that gloomy Wednesday. Anyway, what happened was he ran up the back of a brand new Ford Focus that belonged to the service manager of a Ford dealer in Sydney. I ended up paying a lot of $$$ to repair his car and then saved up to repair my own car afterwards through lots and lots of overtime at work. I have insurance but I'm already hit hard with being an under 25 year old owner and the excess was $2400, so I worked out paying out the other party was cheaper and did that.
Anyway, about a month ago I finally had the time and money to do some repairs. I replaced the bumper support and re-used my mash bumper after molding it back into shape again. However, the driver side headlight won't align now and the gap on my bonnet on the drivers side is slightly larger than the left hand side. My mechanic friend said it looks like the chassis has been damaged???
I've put it all together again and it looks okay, you can't notice it unless you're picky and walk up to have a close look but still I'd like to know if I actually have chassis damage. I have no wheel alignment issues at all.

That's what happened...



Thanks.

[xenonkuraz]

Just a question, why didn't you just pay insurance to fix both the cars? Wouldn't that have worked out cheaper?

Anyway, hard to tell if you have any chassis damage behind there...the reinforcement bar looks gone

[lolmclol]

baseball bat, brothers legs.

left headlight looks like its pointing south east, also the force from the bumper bar definitely would have gone back somewhere.

[stevo1210]

Just a question, why didn't you just pay insurance to fix both the cars? Wouldn't that have worked out cheaper?

I was thinking the same at the time, but it didn't. My excess was $2500. I paid a few hundred to the other party to get a touch up paint repair on their rear bumper. I paid $250 for a new reinforcement beam at Honda and D.I.Y'd it, so it didn't work out to be $2500.

[DuffyFD]

if you're driving straight I wouldn't worry. Make that headlight fit.

[curtis265]

Try replace that bumper support beam. might be expensive but it'll save you a million hours of headaches trying to bash it straight.

[lolmclol]

I was thinking the same at the time, but it didn't. My excess was $2500. I paid a few hundred to the other party to get a touch up paint repair on their rear bumper. I paid $250 for a new reinforcement beam at Honda and D.I.Y'd it, so it didn't work out to be $2500.

Try replace that bumper support beam. might be expensive but it'll save you a million hours of headaches trying to bash it straight.

I think its safe to presume that photo is before the fixes went through. Which also nullifies my previous comment :-p bar the baseball bat comment.

[curtis265]

[stevo1210]

Sorry to bring up an old thread... but I thought I'd ask something in regards to the bumper reinforcement bar I replaced 12 months ago. I left it in black primer because this part was behind the bumper and it would be pretty stupid to paint something that I cant even see and is also covered by a bumper.... but today I was told that I HAVE to get this thing painted because otherwise it'll rust out?
I thought primer was okay as a protectant? especially in this case where a part is not exposed to the sun or water?

Any opinions would be great.

[lolmclol]

Sorry to bring up an old thread... but I thought I'd ask something in regards to the bumper reinforcement bar I replaced 12 months ago. I left it in black primer because this part was behind the bumper and it would be pretty stupid to paint something that I cant even see and is also covered by a bumper.... but today I was told that I HAVE to get this thing painted because otherwise it'll rust out?
I thought primer was okay as a protectant? especially in this case where a part is not exposed to the sun or water?

Any opinions would be great.

did you use a rust resistent primer? ... there are heaps of rattle can options that are rust guard

[stevo1210]

did you use a rust resistent primer? ... there are heaps of rattle can options that are rust guard

No, just left it as-is from when i bought it new from the Honda dealer. The black stuff it's painted in, that's primer... right?

This is what I did...

[lolmclol]

Ummm ... if you bought it from the dealership like that then I wouldn't worry, it should technically be rust treated on the metal to begin with.

As far as I am aware of the reinforcement bar won't be painted, but generally left just primed.