Pissed off doesn't even begin to describe my mood. Was the VW's fault entirely.
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSCN1739.jpg)
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSCN1740.jpg)
My side is sore, but more seriously, the 350's A-pillar and sill have moved inwards. This is not good at all. I'm really upset.
The other guy pulled off from a stop street and just drove into me as I passed through, having right of way.
Driving classics daily is all cool and all that, but these road hazards are real and one has to accept it. >:(
Hi S-Class
That's a real pity, as your 350 is a special car. Lets hope you and her can be mended.
Keep us posted and good luck.
Gavin
Thanks dude. Anything can be fixed, its just a question of what the cost will be. Insurance will probably value the car at a lot less than the cost of the repairs.
>:( >:(
Sorry for your trouble. :( :(
Keep us updated on how things go...
A sad state of affairs Ryan
This sort of thing is why I had classic car insurance on any of my old cars as it gives me far more options than standard insurance and also means I retain the wreck.
I had this with my old Valiant which in 1970 sold for about $2800.00 new, its insurance value was $5'000.00 and after being hit in the rear the repair bill was $6200.
I got paid out 5k, took the damaged car to a panel shop after id stripped the rear end and sourced bumper, lights, bootlid and trim from my parts stash and got them to pull the wrinkles out and repaint the damaged area and replacement boot lid/trunk lid.
3k later and with me reassembling the back end of the car I was back on the road again.
The 2 year old Commodore that hit me?
All airbags triggered = writeoff and besides the damage my towbar did the front end was a mess.
:-)
THaks guys. I have good replacements of all the trim items. I have a very nice door - I had been saving it for my 280SE (which has rust in the RF door), but it wil now be needed for this car. I have some fenders, but all have some degree of denting. Still much better than this one though.
The A pillar looks OK at its base, its kinked in a bit in the vicinity of the door hinges. So yes, probably I will end up doing the stripping and reassembly, and leave it to my chassis guy to pull things back into line.
Condolensces Ryan.
At least the car that hit you looks like it is likely to be insured and hopefully your hurt and your car's damage is temporary and relatively minor.
Bill
My preferred panel beater has agreed to take on the work. He can start in about 10 days time. The estimate is in the region of $2000 if I supply the required panels.
2 grand seems reasonable!
Sounds like a good outcome apart from the inconvenience
That's not good news,
Hopefully it can be repaired fairly easily, but I know it will never be original.
Tim
holy crap,
are you allowed to shoot people in SA?!
damn, but if one man can get this car back to A1 quickly, its yourself (and TJ, but thats two people then!)
Wow! Glad your ok, pics show the strength of the w116. You see so many people especially young people these days texting while driving, the roads are more dangerous than ever.
Sorry dude that sucks :( At least you ok, got to watch how other people drive.
Geez sclass, sad to see.
What a sad sight, as you say one of the risks involved in daily driving but that was such a lovely car, hope it all comes back together ok.
My sympathies also, keep us informed on the repair progress.
G
Quote from: Major Tom 6.9 on 05 July 2012, 04:18 AM
Wow i gotta move to south africa, 2k wouldnt even cover a key scratch here 8)
Just remember our exchange rate to your dollar is about 8.3. In ZAR that amounts to about ZAR16,000 wich is a lot of money. Shopping arround you can pick up a good running w116 for this price
Oh no! I liked that car. I wish you success in repairing it. It's a good thing you weren't in a flimsy car, looking at the location of impact.
Damaged sill stripped and etch primed:
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSC00253.jpg)
Dented A-pillar :
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSC00252.jpg)
and resulting misalignment of front door :
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSC00254.jpg)
Delivered to Goldstar :
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSC00251.jpg)
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSC00255.jpg)
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSC00256.jpg)
Progress meeting :
A-pillar pulled into alignment :
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSCN1774.jpg)
About to start pulling the sill :
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSCN1775.jpg)
Nice progress indeed, great stuff. 8)
By the look of things, damage was superficial.
I look forward to the resulting awesomeness. :)
Tim
The chassis guy did complain that the A-pillar was, in his words, very hard metal, and although it hadn't deflected much, a lot of force was required to being it back into alignment.
Progress meeting this morning :
A pillar required twisting to reverse the accident damage before the panels could be aligned. Alignment is now spot-on with perfect panel gaps :
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSCN1790.jpg)
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSCN1789.jpg)
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSCN1791.jpg)
The replacement front door came from the ex-fire-damaged 280S, and had a nasty dent near the top where rooftiles had fallen on it. I elected to use this door despite the dent, because it was rust free. The panel bloke has straightened it perfectly :
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSCN1792.jpg)
Excellent,
It's looking nice and straight indeed.
Tim
The car has one of those key-locks mounted in the body near the fuel filler from a vintage early 80's alarm system. Clearly this is the time to deal with that, so I 've OK'd welding the hole up, and painting the whole side of the car. I fear that the final bill is now nearer $3k than $2k. Hmmm.
.
Last pre-paint inspection at Goldstar this morning :
An old alarm-key-lock near the fuel filler was eliminated and welded :
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSCN1822.jpg)
Ripples in rear door elimintated by pinning, no fillers used :
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSCN1824.jpg)
Replacement front door, getting prepped for colour change inside :
The dents were eliminated by pinning and a thin lead wipe :
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSCN1825.jpg)
Frame and sill pulled out :
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSCN1823.jpg)
Bonnet was stripped to metal, and the waves pinned out. No filler, no lead.
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSCN1826.jpg)
Where's Gold Star??? Looks like they do some nice work....
They are in Ophirton, south of Johannesburg. Nice work, but expensive...
Yeah a little far for me to take mine!!! LOL! ;D
So I'm $2500 lighter, but they repaired the accident damage, straightened the waves out of the bonnet, and eliminated that lock hole near the filler cap. The work is outstanding, and the colour match is absolutely 100%.
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSCN1919.jpg)
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSCN1920.jpg)
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSCN1921.jpg)
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSCN1922.jpg)
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSCN1923.jpg)
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSCN1925.jpg)
That looks magnificent! Good as new. 8) And it's good that you got those few other little jobs done while you were at it, that's making the best of a bad situation. I can understand that you wouldn't be happy at having to spend so much money, but it seems it was money well spent.
Clearly these repairs are the work of a man who is both a gentleman and a scholar. 8)
Looks good. I do like the colour. Also, your paint job seems a pretty good price given how much these things can cost.
By South African standards, that price would be considered the top end of the market for a scope of work like this. But I'm really happy fo have done the job properly.
Very, very nice indeed. Just like a new one! I can't wait to see her back together
Loookin' goooood 8)
That's top workmanship, I bet you are satisfied with that. 8)
Tim
holy cow!
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSC00264.jpg)
Car got caught in hail today. THe suff was midway between golf-ball and tennis-ball size. The 350SE looks like someone was jumping on it. It needs a complete respray with multiple panel replacements.
I'm beyond gutted. Sorry, no chance of photos, I can't bear to look at it.
F___! I'm sorry about that my friend. I really feel for you.
We had some terrible storms here today as well.
Oh, and it needs a new windscreen, and a lot of the brightwork is bent too.
BTW, the engineless ivory 350 with green interior, I think, just became a parts car, as it copped the hail pretty bad too.
That sounds like a nightmare come true. It's a shame that it happened right after all that money and work was spent. I really hope you can find a way to deal with the loss. Arizona had a bad hail storm in 2005 that wiped out several cars, and I hope it doesn't happen again.
Damn, I couldn't imagine much worse than that! :'(
I'm at a loss for words.
Tim
Both the W202 C180 and the W202 C240 got beaten as well. The C180 all over, the C240 on the bonnet mainly as I managed to get it under a tree. My blue 6.9 picked up some tennis ball sized dents, but not too many as it was mostly under a tree. That's not the end of the world as it needs complete cosmetic resto anyway.
But this brown 350 is the most painful to accept.
s class,
very sorry to read about what happened!!! A few years back I got caught in a hail storm during a classic car event, they were about the size of golf balls....my 280S faired pretty well, no broken glass and just minor damage. Can't say the same about a few Pagodas and a then brand new SLK looked like a prune... a friend got hit on his 129 soft top and lost the rear plastic window, just a nightmare...
Hang in there...
All the best
Joe
Aw, that's such a shame. :(
Very unfortunate. I can't imagine how infuriating and frustrating it must be. Such awful, rotten luck. :(
Vacuum cups do a sterling job removing hail damage, a mate had a Dent Masters Franchise for a few years after he got retrenched and I tagged along with him for a few weeks to see what it was about.
3 days at a car dealers in Sydney sorting out hail damaged cars that looked like they'd never been damaged and I was amazed.
Worth a look
That sounds absolutely awful. A year after the respray I regular obsess over new minor scratches. Sounds like garages are a must where you live.
The damage is pretty grim. The two front fenders of the 350 are repairable, but wil need paint. They are beyond PDR. The bonnet will need to be replaced. The roof will probably come right with PDR. I have a new front screen on order.
So this will cost me :
a) new front screen
b) new front screen seal
c) donor bonnet
d) bonnet lining
e) panel and paint work on :
i) roof
ii) bonnet
iii) right front fender
iv) entire near-side.
This will amount to another $2500 - $3000 in expenses, plus a lot of days of disassembly and reassembly.
If I go ahead with this, by the time its completed, the entire car will have been painted in my ownership.
:'(
Oh wow, what a pisser. Still, if the car's a keeper then you know you are making a good decision and in a few years you won't remember the cost but will know every time you drive it you did the right thing.
Here is the storm in question, I believe:
http://youtu.be/xWzIvuTKmlM
The action starts at about :45
Grrr. Still can't get youtubes to embed properly.
We get some serious hail storms every now an then where I come from, but this one's like a carpet-bombing raid... No wonder the repair list is that long. I guess one has to clinch their teeth and keep going. It's only a car after all.
Quote from: John Hubertz on 22 October 2012, 10:25 AM
Here is the storm in question, I believe:
http://youtu.be/xWzIvuTKmlM
The action starts at about :45
Grrr. Still can't get youtubes to embed properly.
That's it - Dowerglen is about 2km from my house - and yes, thats what the stuff coming out the sky was like.
I lost all the north facing windows in my house, and there are tennis-ball sized holes clean through the guttering.
Fuuuuucccckkk! >:(
Sorry for your trouble :(
At least all the panelwork will look great when done.
Quote from: s class on 22 October 2012, 12:55 PM
Quote from: John Hubertz on 22 October 2012, 10:25 AM
Here is the storm in question, I believe:
http://youtu.be/xWzIvuTKmlM
The action starts at about :45
Grrr. Still can't get youtubes to embed properly.
That's it - Dowerglen is about 2km from my house - and yes, thats what the stuff coming out the sky was like.
I lost all the north facing windows in my house, and there are tennis-ball sized holes clean through the guttering.
Excuse my total ignorance, but is that a typical event for SA to have hail storms, especially of this magnitude?
I've always thought you guys have a relatively dry and warm climate, just like the Mediterranean?
This is a real nightmare come true :(
WOW! now that is hail! Just be thankful you weren't caught out in that without something hard overhead.
Generally here in north Georgia, USA large hailstones are usually accompanied by high winds and tornadoes. The hail is your last warning to get underground if you can before the roof disappears ;)
Good luck with the repairs. Let your efforts be as stubborn and resolute as life itself.
No, I was out and about in that stuff. I was running around with bags of garbage, old car covers, anything at hand to throw on top of the cars. I am covered in serious bruises - looks like a commando of paintballers used me for target practice.
The Gauteng area where I live is known for hail, and we get hail 5-6 times per summer, but its not usually big enough to panic about. THis type of hail is a once in 10 year event.
That is seriously bad luck!!! >:( :( :'( >:( :o ??? ::) But at least you know where to get quality repairs!!
Ah yeah,
That is serious hail! Getting pelted with that is almost certainly going to cause grief.
That's shocking.
Tim
Bugger!!!!!!!! That so sux!!!!!!!!!
Prepping to start pressing out hail dents in the roof :
removed a,b,c pillar trims, all roof gutter trims, headlining, rear seats, complete sunroof assembly.
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSCN1975.jpg)
Pressing in progress :
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSCN1977.jpg)
Lifting dents in scuttle panel :
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSC_0042.jpg)
Done :
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSC_0043.jpg)
Front fender "BEFORE" :
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSCN1976.jpg)
After initial pulling with glued on tabs and a slide hammer :
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSC_0040.jpg)
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSC_0041.jpg)
Done -
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/mercedes_s_class/oyster%20lady/DSC_0045.jpg)
The following panels are done :
roof - had about 20 smallish dents
bonnet - about 15 dents, most large to very large
right front fender - 3 very large dents, 1 small dent
left front fender - 3 small to medium dents
scuttle panel - 2 medium dents
right front door - 1 small dent
The following panels were undamaged :
right rear door
left rear fender
The following will be done this coming weekend :
bootlid - about 4-5 small dents
left front door - no hail damage, but some old parking-lot rash
left rear door - no hail damage, but some old parking-lot rash
Cost for all of this is about $600 excluding my time to strip and fit. A bit of a bargain compared to stripping and painting.
The smalll-to-medium dents will all be fine. The 2 largest dents on the right front fender required so much working (levering from inside, tapping down from outside), that although the paint is still in tact now, I suspect it will fail in the medium term and require painting. I'm hoping the bonnet paint will remain durable, but in the middle were a constellation of 4 large dents close together, and that general area required a lot of working, and again the paint may fail there in due course.
That's great news. At least it looks like most of the damage will be fixed at relatively little cost. My own car has a few door dings that will need work before paint, and I've been wondering what cost to expect to have them removed.
That's amazing to see what I thought was fairly significant damage, removed without far more work! You'll have her back to her glory days in no time!! :)
Quote from: s class on 13 November 2012, 02:52 AM
...although the paint is still intact now, I suspect it will fail in the medium term and require painting. I'm hoping the bonnet paint will remain durable, but in the middle were a constellation of 4 large dents close together, and that general area required a lot of working, and again the paint may fail there in due course.
You might be lucky, given that the paint was new (and therefore still relatively soft).
Either way, it's great to see all the damage fixed :D
Those dents on the front fenders were big! try putting a dent like that there with your fist and id be your hand would lose.Wonder if a hail storm like that could kill a person.
There were some reported deaths caused by hailstone hits.
Do you have a lot of undercoating in your fenders? Mine does and it seems like it would make dent removal difficult.
Squiggle, yes, the fenders have the usual coating of rubberising on the inside. I offered to strip it off for the technician, but he said he'd prefer if I left it in place, as it apparently helps to cushion the levering and reduce the tendency to raise tiny 'islands'.
Quote from: s class on 25 December 2012, 12:55 AM
Squiggle, yes, the fenders have the usual coating of rubberising on the inside. I offered to strip it off for the technician, but he said he'd prefer if I left it in place, as it apparently helps to cushion the levering and reduce the tendency to raise tiny 'islands'.
Wow, that's neat. I know the insides of the doors have lots of rubberizing too. I've got a lot of door dings and small dents that need to come out.