Ohmster

I have a 1995 Honda Civic Del Sol with the factory green color and the weather here in South Florida has been crap all week. Rain, rain, rain. A large 18 wheeler was fishtailing in the rear and clipped my passenger fender, creamed it pretty good. Looks like this now.

http://www.ohmster.com/~ohmster/honda/fender/

You can click the images to get a better view. My mom will kill me if she finds out and I have very little money. What I need to know is where to get another fender like this and the signal lamp that was apparently held in by it because it is gone now. I found an awesome one here, same color, cheap price on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...sting

But it is the wrong side of the car, I need the passenger side. Now not only is it ugly as sin to drive but the wheels rub a little when turning. I want to fix this right away and as cheaply as possible as I am between jobs. Is this a hard part to take out and put back in again and should I take it out so it does not ruin the tires? It only scrapes a little sometimes and I have to get this fixed in like a week. The price on the wrong one was good, $25 with $50 shipping. Where to get the signal light I don't know yet.

Amy suppliers, advice, how to do this job, how to do it cheap, should I take the old one off and run it with no fender until I get one, anything you can help me with would go a long way my friends. I have fixed just about everything on this car, thanks to all of you!

Desperately waiting on your replies.
Thanks,
Ohmster

ifIexplode

Ever think about getting the license plate number of the truck and filing a claim? Instead of tryin to hide it?

Ohmster

I'd love to but he was moving along at like 70 MPH and it was raining and I could not see. My exit was right there and I had to get off the road. I am so mad about this because it is going to cost me now and is not my fault and I do not have an extra penny right now.

BrakeDanceJ

Ohmster,
You can get one for $88 new at certifit. Check their website: http://www.certifit.com/

I would have missed my exit to deliver an ***-beating any day.

Hittnthebz

That should fall under uninsured motorist claims if they have that in FL. Why are you worried about being in trouble if you werent at fault?

Ohmster

Because "No Fault' auto insurance in Florida has been sunsetting and finally did, two days ago and so far, they have not taken it back up but the democrats are furious and demding that Governer Christ do something immediately or put in in the upcoming session.

NOFX

http://www.car-part.com

Try there first.

Ohmster

Wow, that car-part place looks pretty good. Thanks NOFX

***Okay, I put a little more time into checking out http://car-part.com/. Like NOFX said, it is a good starting place but by no means a good, all in one answer. This is a real hodge-podge of savagers all over the U.S. who are listing car parts. Most all are used and may still be on the vehicle "out in the yard somewhere". You call and they don't want to ship the part because it has some kind of damage so they do not want to risk shipping a part that you won't accept. The average price for a Honda Del Sol fender is about a hundred bucks and shipping will probably cost another $50, if you can find someone to ship you a part. Most of the listed parts have some kind of damage and the ones that are listed in top shape cost over $125. This puts the total cost of a fender that is still used and not painted at $175 or more. A brand new Honda fender costs $163 at http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/. I was hoping to find a stock green fender, put it on, and be done with it for a decent price. Not so lucky here. The parts are damaged, they won't ship because of it, and if you do find a good part in good condition, it costs as much as a new one anyway, except this is from someplace far away and they may not have good shipping experience.

So it ends up that http://car-part.com/ is a total mixed bag. It is for sure worth putting in your bag of tricks for part suppliers but the chance of pulling a decent body part out of this place and getting it delivered in good condition puts it on par with buying a brand new part.

This did look good at first but I can see it will not work out for me this time. I will try ebay one more time and then just get the darned thing from CertiFit in Miami (And drive all the way down there, 43 miles), and then hope the part will fit in my car so that I can drive home with it. I get a new part, unpainted, but it will look better than a totally crunched one and then I just have to find a turn signal lamp, another $59.70 from Majestic Honda and put it in.

This is my review of the part places to help others looking for parts.

Good place for new parts and prices is Majestic Honda. They have everything you could need or want:
http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/

New after market body parts, a tad higher than half price. Must look for a store near you, they don't ship:
http://www.certifit.com/

Total pot luck, cost of good body part plus shipping equals or exceeds cost of new part. Parts are used, some damage, won't ship damaged parts, from junk yards all over the US:
http://car-part.com/


Modified by Ohmster at 1:47 PM 10/3/2007

Ohmster

Yep, the http://www.certifit.com/ has it for $90. I guess I could go there and get it. It is a bit of a drive though, and the fellow really did not want to stay on the phone very long. I wonder what condition the part is in, he said after market so would that be just primed and unpainted? He has no signal light though. At least that is one source, thanks BrakeDance.

Yeah, I really would rather have missed my exit than have to deal with this too.

NOFX

I've seen lots of good body parts on that site locally. You have to figure out how far you're willing to travel though.

Aodhan

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Hittnthebz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">That should fall under uninsured motorist claims if they have that in FL. Why are you worried about being in trouble if you werent at fault?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Even so, it would be cheaper to fix it yourself than file a claim if you have a deductible. Most deductibles start at $250, so at the most he'd only be gaining a few bux when all is said and done.

Not sure why his mom would kill him because another vehicle clipped him. I smell a coverup story...

Edited to add: Can't quite tell because of the damage, but it looks like the front bumper might have been pulled out a bit too?

John

MonkeyBoy668

The bumper might be damaged, but it may just be the clip broke during the impact and is now sitting at an odd angle against the bent fender. That plastic is somewhat pliable.

When one of my Sol's corner light mounts cracked, I just bought a pair off eBay for $20-ish plus shipping (It was under $40 total). They're not OEM, they're "crystal" clear corners, the plastic is clear but amber so you could use normal white bulbs in them (I switched to amber corner lights so they're "more yellow" with the bulb lit). I ended up epoxying the old set back together and decided to hold onto them in the event something goes wrong with the eBay pair. I heard stories about poor seals leading to condensation but so far mine have been fine.

Here's a set on eBay right now that look similar to mine:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...ZWDVW

There's some cheaper ones up there too if you don't care about the style ("Euro Black" seems to be the cheapest).

Off the top of my head, I think the only time my mom would care (beyond me being okay) about an accident would be if I was driving her car... do maybe he doesn't own the Sol...

BrakeDanceJ

Also be sure to check your local craigslist. (craigslist.org)

I have a samba green driver fender available, it has some minor denting; but for sure better than yours LOL. I'm in Chicago.