The Best Plans Of Mice & Men...

[YellowRose]

Often go astray.. Last night, one of the mechanics at the shop where Rose is being worked on, accidentally ran her into the back of the managers F250 pickup truck. It is a big thing with a steel bumper on the rear. Rose lost out in the crash that ensued... He was not watching what he was doing, saw that he was about to hit the truck and instead of hitting the brakes, his foot hit the accellerator.. You can see the results in the pix below.

I have since found out that the fender panels, including the headlight "eye" areas are available through Bird Nest. As is the center piece between the two eyes.. I am told they are spot welded in place at the factory and will have to be taken off and replaced with new panels, which is what I think they are going to do. All at their expense. I also have a radiator leak, and the hood is jammed so we cannot see the damage under the hood yet. This has sure ruined my day! The owner is very upset about what happened, and so am I, but I am keeping cool because one heart attack is enough! Here are some pix.

[Guest]

Holy S^#$*!!! That's not good! At least he went over the bumper if there is any good in this. Sorry to hear this (and see)...............

[byersmtrco]

Oh thats a shame !!!

Sorry to see/hear that !!!

Tell him John Byers in Calif says he is a dumbA** AND SHOULD NOT
be allowed to fix a lawn mower !!!

[JohnG]

Ray, I am terribly, terribly sorry to see what happened! You must be heartbroken!

Please be very cautious and patient in finding the best possible body shop. Accept nothing but the best.

Also please second John Byer's comments to him...

good luck!

John

[RustyNCa]

Wow, that stinks

Ray, he must have really hammered it hard to do that damage.

I rear-ended a BMW with my 58, shoved the BMW into the car in front of it, and it didn't do that much damage to my 58. I will say that my hood wouldn't open either.

The problem is you have bent back the core support, which is that bar across the front that the hood and rad mount on. Which will have pulled the inside corners of your fenders in as well.

So what ever shop you go to needs to push or pull that core support back up on a frame rack, or you can do like alot of BelAir friends I know have done, cut the core out and install a bolt in one.... but I don't know about doing that when our hood mounts to it.

[simplyconnected]

Ray, you know how I feel because we spoke on the phone earlier today. We discusseds the fact that there may be a silver lining here... Ray wants his engine bay painted with everything in place. If they remove the front clip to repair/replace fender metal, he might get better access for a spray gun to shoot the engine bay. He may also have better access to do his disk brake booster and 3/16" lines.

Ray was going to get his car painted. If this had to be, I'm glad it was before the new paint job.

If I can help, gimme a call, Ray. - Dave

[keith]

Ray,

So sorry to see your car. Hope everything works out.

Keith Daleen
Sedalia,Mo.

[tmjsong1aolcom]

This is one of those lifes trials that tries mans patience.

Based on what I can see and what I know about these unibody cars, this repair is not going to be simple or cheap. Check to see if the fender was pushed back into the door. Check the opening for the door.

Because they are unibody the upper front cross member at the top has been pushed back and much of the hidden framing is now bent. Repairing back to undamaged will be a huge pain.

Best bet to to get the hood open carefully and see what is pushed back. Once this is determined, find a parts car that has all this area undamaged. Should be doable, but will take time. Don't let them straighten it and fill with bondo. I am not aware of aftermarket sheet metal available for this area. Most aftermarket sheet metal is no where as good as original Ford sheet metal.

Good luck and make sure you watch the repair as they progress thru it. Watch closely.

Fuz
58's&64's
Sun Prairie, Wi.
tmjsong1@aol.com

[YellowRose]

The Best Plans Of Mice & Men...

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. It has been a trying day for me and the owner of the shop. He has been so upset over this happening. He knows a very good auto body and paint shop that he is going to see if they will fix this. He has known the owner for many years and says they are the best in the business when it comes to fixing cars that have been in accidents. You can bet I will be living with him if he takes this job on and watching everything.

I really appreciate the suggestions as to what else might be damaged behind the front panels that we cant see right now. We will find out more when they get the hood to open without causing further damage. I have no idea where in San Antonio we would find a donor Squarebird. You cant find a Squarebird in any junk yards around here that I know of. At least the fender panels and the center panels are replaceable. I did not know that the center section was a piece all to itself. Don at Bird Nest says the center section is welded to each side of the two fender panels. I was hoping that the panels bolted on, but Howard Prout confirmed what Don said about them being spot welded on at the factory. Dave Dare gave me some very good advice also, as ya'll did and I appreciate it.

This happened because he was taking it to their car wash right behind their shop to wash it. I am just glad the young man was not hurt. As for the F250, I doubt much would hurt it from the looks of it. The problem is that the young man has never driven my Tbird before, that I know of, and was not familiar with the controls. He was trying to find the windshield wipers to clear the water off the windshield and made the mistake of looking down for it while the car was in motion. Unfortunately, Rose was headed directly for that F250 when he looked up. I am told he was in a panic when he saw what was about to happen, hit the brakes, he thought, and instead got the accellerator, which only made things worse. I will be talking with the owner tomorrow about him never getting near my Tbird again. Once this problem is fixed it has to go back to that shop because they were about to adjust the transmission linkage. The transmission was rebuilt by them and is under warranty.

Dave has a good idea about using this time to get the engine bay painted if a bunch of stuff is going to come off the car anyway. However, I was not planning on using another company to do it. The shop owner says they have painted many custom and classic cars over the many years and they are very good. So, they might be painting my car instead..

Fuz, we did check to see if the fenders were pushed back against the door and they are not. There does not seem to be a problem there after we tested the doors and looked to see if the spacing between the fender and the door had been altered. It seems to be fine.

Rusty, thanks for the comments about the core support. We will have to look at that and underneath the car once we can get the hood open and get it up on a rack.

I am going to see if I can get an idea of how fast he was going when he hit that bumper. It sure took a good whack. I dont know if it had been better if he had hit my bumper instead of the front. It might have been better if he had. I dont know.

Thanks for your concerns, suggestions and best wishes. I will let ya know how things go. It now looks like I will not have the car ready for the VTCI Regional in June in Dallas-Ft. Worth, as I had planned.

[bird 60]

Hi Ray,
What is there to say. I feel for you like everybody else.
Like you said, lucky no one got hurt, & also lucky that it didn't happen after the paint job. I hope everything works out for you & that it'll be ready for you by June.

Best wishes from Downunder.

Chris.

[fomoco59]

If I lived in Texas, I'd probably have a sidearm...and things could've gotten out of hand quickly. Sorry to see this, Ray.

[Guest]

Ray; Sorry to hear that you got your car damaged. It would have been better if the bumper had been hit instead. It would have been much cheaper to repair since the bumper would have absorbed most if not all of the impact.
On the bright side, if there is one, you were going to get Rose painted anyway and since it's yellow and the paint probably won't match you will get a free paint job at the very least.
The pictures of the damage don't look too bad and since most of the cars now are unibody constructed most body shops know how to do repairs and have the equipment to do unibody work.
Also you will probably get a new radiator and probably get your A/C serviced also.
I hope all goes well and you get Rose back better than ever.

Gary

[Anders]

What a terrible thing Totally nightmare. Luckely the guy didnt hurt himself, and even if it was his fault, I must say I also feel for him. It canīt be a good day for him either.
Hope you got your car back again, as soon as possible, and hopefully better than ever. But man, what a nightmare

[Guest]

Ouch !!!

Sorry to hear that Ray. Mike

[Dutchbird]

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. It has been a trying day for me and the owner of the shop. The problem is that the young man has never driven my Tbird before, that I know of, and was not familiar with the controls.

What the .... happened!!!!
Sorry to hear this Ray, very sorry.....

Why on earth got a man permission to drive (somebody else's) classic car without experience with it???
If an owner decides to let anyone drive his/her car without knowledge, it's alright by me, it's your choice.
OK, the young man couldn't help it and feels very sick now I think - although fortunately not injured - but it's part his own responsibility. The other part lies with the shopowner / -manager who let him drive unknowing a customers classic car.

I really hope it will turn out to be good at the end and hopefully you'll be able to enjoy some S&S events this year with your 'new' Rose...........