Alfa Vs. Skip Bin Options

[Red Rock]

OK, not exactly carnage, but still pretty devastating to me.

I was driving down a narrow alley way this evening, like I have done many times before. On the left is a big metal skip like bin on wheels, which must have been slightly further out than usual. I clipped it with the passenger wing mirror (which is fine), but this contact must have caused the bin to roll or swing around as the metal corner then dug into the door, scraped down the door and jammed itself in the B pillar.

My '96 boxer was in pretty much pristine and original condition prior to this, so I'm feeling gutted and annoyed with myself.

The wing mirror survived...




The B pillar is a mess.


On the face of it, the damage looks to be contained, but as the B Pillar is out of shape, I'm presuming there will be structural concerns and the car could well be a right off??

Has anyone had any experience of damage in this area? Is it repairable at reasonable cost??

Cheers,

Mark.
NZ.

[JasonHillAO]

I'm no expert but the skill of some metal workers are impressive. all a body shop would do is get a replacement b pillar skin and straighten the innners.

It could be a wright off if you went through insurance. But it depends in their value over there.

[1 Wish]

Its not structural its a skin as jason said!
Its not bad and any good bodyahop should be ablw to us the equipment us good non back stret bodyshops use to repair that!!!
That is nothing more than bit of panel work and metal shrinking to reform!

[Red Rock]

Thanks for the information guys,

The insurance assessor took a look at it last week and called me today to say it was uneconomic to repair. The car is insured for the equivalent of GBP 1,200 and he said the labour to fix the existing panel would exceed this amount. They looked around for a new or second hand panel, but there are none available in NZ.

I'll take it to a couple of local body shops to see what they can do as it seems 'private' jobs are much cheaper than the same job for an insurance company.

Now I know that the damage is not structural, I'm more inclined to forget the insurance claim, see what can be done to tidy it up for a sensible amount of money and carry on driving it.

Cheers,

Mark.
NZ.

[JasonHillAO]

Garages always rip off insurance company's and overprice just so they can make money. Private is always best th only time I would ever use an insurance company is if it wasn't my fault.

Defiantly get it fixed though

[Ganz]

OK, not exactly carnage, but still pretty devastating to me.

I was driving down a narrow alley way this evening, like I have done many times before. On the left is a big metal skip like bin on wheels, which must have been slightly further out than usual. I clipped it with the passenger wing mirror (which is fine), but this contact must have caused the bin to roll or swing around as the metal corner then dug into the door, scraped down the door and jammed itself in the B pillar.

My '96 boxer was in pretty much pristine and original condition prior to this, so I'm feeling gutted and annoyed with myself.

The wing mirror survived...




The B pillar is a mess.


On the face of it, the damage looks to be contained, but as the B Pillar is out of shape, I'm presuming there will be structural concerns and the car could well be a right off??

Has anyone had any experience of damage in this area? Is it repairable at reasonable cost??

Cheers,

Mark.
NZ.

Worth trying to get it fixed. Like the guys have said an expert in this field would have the expertise to repair this. Also, it's a 145, there's not many left.

[Red Rock]

I've now had a couple of quotes from mid range panel beaters (not 'Porsche approved', but not under a railway arch either) and even a private repair cost still far exceeds the value of the car at about the equivalent of GBP 1,600. They all seem to want to replace the complete rear wing and the door, which seems to ramp the cost right up.

I'm tempted to get my hammer out and have a go myself, or else just leave it and hope it gets through its WOF (NZ MOT).

I was starting to think that the damage wasn't all that significant, but I'm running out of options.

Cheers,

Mark.
NZ.

[buellboy]

I've now had a couple of quotes from mid range panel beaters (not 'Porsche approved', but not under a railway arch either) and even a private repair cost still far exceeds the value of the car at about the equivalent of GBP 1,600. They all seem to want to replace the complete rear wing and the door, which seems to ramp the cost right up.

I'm tempted to get my hammer out and have a go myself, or else just leave it and hope it gets through its WOF (NZ MOT).

I was starting to think that the damage wasn't all that significant, but I'm running out of options.

Cheers,

Mark.
NZ.

The car doesn't have "rear wings" it is one of the unfortunate design characteristics of the 145.

[JasonHillAO]

Get a panel beaters slide hammer, you tack on one end and pull out the dent with the slide hammer. Then fill and shape the rest.

[GialloEvo94]

I'd say that's going to require quite a bit more work than just a slide hammer and filler. In fact with the damage on part of the panel which has a lot of strength to it (on a shaped piece and also on a corner) it is going to take all the skill of one of those talented old school panel beaters to work their magic. I would probably even go so far as to say that if the existing panel is repaired rather than a new section welded in then it would probably need to be cut from the car so it can be properly beaten and shaped from all sides on a bench. And it's that sort of manually intensive labour that's drives the cost up.

[Red Rock]

An update on this one...

I could not find an 'old school panel beater' to repair this - all the repair shops in Wellington seem to be 'panel replace and paint' shops and this was out of their comfort zone - which made it out of my price zone. All the garages I went to said it would not pass it's WOF in that state, so continuing to run it was not a (legal) option.

However, discussing the problem with my local independent Alfa mechanic, he decided to buy it and see if he could fix it himself!

This was a happy/sad outcome - I no longer own the 145, but there is every chance that it will be repaired and back on the road soon.

While in a state of mourning, I bought a 1978 88" series 3 landrover to replace it. Not quite sure what I was thinking, but old/interesting Alfas are hard to come by in this part of the world.

Cheers,

Mark.
NZ

[denraud2]

good luck, sorry for you...