pr0digy1

hi guys
about 2 weeks ago i was coming home from work and while waiting at a red light some stupid woman smoked my 2 months old prelude from behind. She must have been going at least 50km/h cuz the hit was quite strong and I flew into the car infront of me. The insurance company covered the repairs and the car is now being fixed by a body shop. The trunk space was pushed in, quite demolished, trunk was bent, both rear fenders had damage on them and also the front hood and both bumpers, and lights. Damage was around 13k canadian. My question is could my suspension or chassis got damaged from the crash and if yes how can i find out if it is damaged. Did anyone experience a similar incident? What i'm afraid of is that my car frame might be slightly damaged and problems may come up in the future. I have a pictures of my crashed car, if anyone wants to see it i can post it, just let me know.

Thanx in advance for everyone's advice

laughinxxx

Body shops shold be able to check if the frame is straight.

pr0digy1

they said they're gonna do wheel alignment but i'm still not feeling good about this.

mr2

can ya total the car? if so i would rather do that and get the money from that to get another lude.. or something different... just my two centz

LudeBehavior

Yeah I would total the car out and take the engine and use the insurance money to make a hybrid. Once ya been hit that bad the wheels are always going to wear unevenly and it won't be as stable next time ya get in an accident.

Honda318dx

Sounds like your car is totaled to me. Did the airbags go off?

prelude1897

Your car is never going to be the same. I'd total it and strip everything out. Then get a new car from the insurance money

archmage

If this guy totals his car out, will he get MORE money or LESS? and if he totals it, where does it go? The junkyard? So he is then allowed to take whatever he wants out of it or what? How does that work? (I've never dealt with this..)

pr0digy1

but how can i total the car? Insurance company said they will total the car if the damage is close to the car value but it's not. I wanted to do that cuz i have special insurance that will buy a new car for me if it's totalled but icbc didnt let me do that. I'm so pissed off cuz of this. Is there some places that can test out the frame or the chassis if it's damaged?

pr0digy1

and no airbags did not go out. Do u think the airbags failed? I didnt hit the car infront of me too hard even though the damage on the front was quite bad. When are the airbags supposed to go off?

pr0digy1

[img]d:\pix\crashed prelude\1.jpg[/img]

pr0digy1

[img]d:\pix\crashed prelude\2.jpg[/img]
[img]d:\pix\crashed prelude\3.jpg[/img]
[img]d:\pix\crashed prelude\4.jpg[/img]
[img]d:\pix\crashed prelude\5.jpg[/img]

prelude1897

Not only did the air bags not come out, the pics didn't come up


[Modified by prelude1897, 1:50 PM 11/10/2001]

pr0digy1

yeah I know it's cuz i linked them to my hd, and then i realized that it's not gonna work. I tried signing up from photopoint but there i need to pay if i wanna post a link...

Greyout

It ALLLL depends on the body shop. If there is ANYTHING wrong with it, take it back. They are being paid to return it to its original condition, and there is no reason they can't

my car looked like this:



my alignment is just about perfect. Toe is 0.00X at all corners, the camber in each wheel is within 0.01 degrees of the rest. Caster in the rear is identical, while the front has about 0.05 difference. Good enough for me, the car is stable and solid at the edge of the handling evelope, rides smoothly, and I notice no differences when I drive friends ludes who haven't been through the same thing.

Then again - you HAVE to be picky. My car was in the shop for a total of 3 months while they did EVERYTHING right.

good luck.

pr0digy1

thanx for the info, u sure made me feel much better My car doesnt look nearly as bad as that and it was driving find after the accident except the muffler was loose and was sounding like a high performance muffler. thanx again for the info

Greyout

Take a good look yourself at the damage. If there is bent frame, it isn't THAT big of an issue as long as all the broken/bent stuff isn't near suspension hardpoints. My front clip had to be straightened, but all of the damage was in front of the strut tower.

Be prepared for a headache though, getting it back the way you want is NOT an easy task, and if you don't get yourself involved in the process, you won't be happy. Thats why I did my whole interior resoration myself - but it sounds like you don't have that problem so I say go for it.

JUNIOR

THAT **** LOOKS TOTALED TO ME

JG Luder

Simply cosmetic. New bumper, hood, fenders and headlights. Probably a new radiator and straighten out the core up front, and you're set. Headlights and hood were probably the most expensive. Probably less than $2k in parts including paint, toss in $1000-$2000 in labor, and you have under $4k and it looks brand new.

976

Do like the stangs, drive w/o a hood, chicks dig. Oh, yeah, you need to grow a mullet to do that.

ELUD THS

man ....... thats all i got to say ,,,,,.. im speechless,

project_DC2

JDM LUDE: Exactly what happen to your interior??And how do your restore it?What cleaners did you use?

Jordan_4WS

Try totalling it. If you try selling the car in a few years the buyers will be iffy about an accident with that much damage, even if there is no frame damange. If you cant total it, take teh oppurtunity to mod it. For your hood get CF, with your bumpers get a body kit and so on. Look at it as a free replacing of everything with whatever you want and a free paint job. Just go to a shop you trust, where you could just pay them the difference. Something stock parts are so much, the aftermarket ones are cheaper.

just my 2 cents

Greyout

OK guys first of all, read the original post. The car in the picture is MY car. HIS car was rear-ended. Mine has been fixed long ago.

FWIW to answer a question: my interior was sorta messed up - damage around the passenger side airbag, the glass cover on the passenger side over the dummy lights shattered, several bits and pieces were broken in the center console, my steering wheel, my gauge cluster, and the part of the dash under the steering column.