I just bent my old Citroen .... Bugger it, I finally had the car exactly the way I want it too My first ever accident where I'm at fault. Some idiot stopped half way down a merging lane in front of me..... I was picking a spot to merge into the traffic (so not looking in front) when my wife screamed............................. I only hit the #@$@# idiot at low speed (WTF ?? Who STOPS half way down a merging lane)...

Anyway, the CX is quite badly damaged, the nose cone is very bent, headlight, grill, bumper, indicator smashed, the radiator out of place and dented from where it's hammered into the turbo charger, the wastegate downpipe is jamned against the radiator......... merde ...... Anyway, the CX isn't leaking even though the radiator and front structure is damaged, so we limp back to the caravan park (being 700kms from home when this happened).

Stripping the nose off shows there is no way this car can be driven back in it's current state, the wastegate downpipe and turbo charger would punch holes in the radiator in no time at all







Bugger...... There is a nice big tree next to the car ..... We might just get home if I can find a nice heavy chain, or big rope...... Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........

None to be found.... I GOT IT !!!! The place is full of w@nk tanks pulling caravans.... There will be dozens of big winches, chains and recovery gear around this place.... I was horified to find, there was not one single 4wd there with a winch, let alone recovery gear I could beg them into lending me for a few minutes.

On asking the care taker of the park if he had a big rope .... "yeah sure mate, give me 5minutes and I'll come over".



We managed to pull the front clip a considerable distance forward clearing the radiator from the motor

Now where did I put the duct tape and ball of string.

I need to be certain these repairs will get me home..... What better way of testing this than "exercising" the CX a little.



Yeah, we need to make sure none of this stuff will fall off, and the damaged radiator can will not give up under pressure.





I later found the car had only one working radiator fan, not to mention it was running far hotter than usual... The wastegate downpipe had obviously crushed quite a few coolant passages through the radiator. However we did manage to limp the 10hour drive home.

I've never needed to repair accident damage before.... Now look what I'm facing:

****, I've really made a mess of the old girl this time







































****, it looks like I'll need to buy about 1dozen spot weld cutters and start drilling. I will have to repair what I have as this car was imported into the country by my father, and there is no replacement parts to be easily found

I'm guessing the bumper, grill and headlights can be plastic welded up. I have a new headlight glass here. Both indicator lenses have broken down the middle, however they should glue back together invisibly with plastex. The biggest issue is the very bent nose cone. I do have an earlier type of car with metal bumpers, however it's nose cone is different in places.

seeya,
Shane L.

Well that sucks Shane

It would never have happened with my wife though, hell I can drive with my eyes closed if she's in the car pointing out every possible thing I might hit

Actually I'm incredilbly lucky, if she wasn't there I would have destroyed the car, you see I'd just picked the spot in the traffic I was going to merge into .......... and had just moved my foot to the "GO" pedal and was about to accellerate hard.... Luckily instead she screamed and I stood on the brakes instead

I've had this car off the road for 3months while I pulled the engine and gearbox, changed the clutch, fully lined the car with insulatiion (which actually has fixed all the heat soak), fitted a twin system air-conditioning unit, fixed the rust I found in the front floors .... and performed million and one other little jobs.... It's a real kick in the guts to turn around and crash the bloody thing as soon as I had it "right" Still it could have been a hell of a lot worst !!

The nose cone is a lot more extensively bent and twisted than it appears in pictures sadly.

seeya,
Shane L.

**** that sucks man.

I was in the same boat 3 weeks ago. 4 weeks ago we paid off our Taurus a week later I rear ended someone. Same as you it was my first accident ever.

Insurance paid us 1800 for the damages and I found a new hood, fender and light for $100 from a guy who totaled his 07 taurus a week before. So all in all I made out on the deal. I hope you do as well.

Good luck.

Are replacement parts expensive and hard to find? It sure saves time and effort if you can get them. Such a crappy deal happening after you got it all together the way you wanted

A little putty an a little paint and make her what she ain't

Sorry to here, glad you were able to fix it enough to get you home. The hassle of a 700kms transport would have added insult to injury

The guy probably got a freaking phone call and went brain dead

I simply don't know how you professional bodywork people make $$$ out of this. Everything is just so incredibly time consuming.

Why does every job on this car end up being much bigger than I intended :disappr:

Well the radiator started leaking with the car sitting there .... In bits, not being driven from the front, not the back where the wategate and turbo hammered it Now THAT would have really messed us up if it had let go on the side of the road. The evaporator mounting bolt had hit it.



I found rust in front of the air cleaner (invisible without the front off ...).



Very strangely even under the battery is not rusty? Salt must get thrown up here unseen in the UK.



Anyway, just getting to that rust is "fun". The little 3" bodysaw (cheapo from SuperCrap) gets in there for most of it.... Then I found that amazing little Trident rotary tool that my wife got me for christmas has a right angle head you can attach... Works a ripper.





Look how many "impossible to get to" areas there are on the nose itself to strip. Under the bonnet is even worst....



Out with the shrinking disc after hammering and bashing at it for a while has the bonnet closing panel close to perfect. A smear of filler thin enough to see through should finish it. Gee's I love that shrinking disc !! Even someone that messes up everything they touch (like me) can use it without damage

Replacement bumper section from the wreck up the back. This took an incredible amount of time to get out. It needs repair too as it's been damaged on the passenger side in the past. Nothing that we can fix with a bit of time though I have lots of that . I'll strip it back and paint it and the car before welding it on (that way I can access the hidden areas to epoxy).



However "while I'm here" (don't you hate the while I'm heres) I should do something about the rust that's always been on all the "edges" under the bonnet. By "edges" I mean where ever layers of metal meet. Very strangely it's not rusty between the layers (which is usual where multiple layers of metal meet, and very hard to fix). Rather it's like the paint was never applied well at the factory and has just lifted away.








As you can see above, my only choice is to strip all the paint off under the bonnet and respray it all It's VERY hard to strip. I've taken a lot off with a wire brush in the angle grinder, but a lot of the corners are difficult to get to (there is a LOT of areas you can't get a power tool into). I'm not sure how I'll strip them ... Hmmm...

How do you guys strip back the paint under the hood of cars ?? I need to get into all the corners where the paint maybe lifting with something aggresive like a wire brush mounted in power tools.

seeya,
Shane L.

Shane...you CAN do this. its only metal and plastic...it CANT out think you. make a list and tackle each task one at a time. the devil is in the details; hurrying is why I forgot to tack-rag a friends gastank and had to repaint it at my own expense. So go steady and when you need to, walk away for a weekend from it, and visit the wife. If you have the engine in the car...youre going to have to get creative with getting the rust out. If you dont mind the work, Id pull the engine and get a small hand sandblaster and a recovery bag for it...lightly sandblast it. AND while the motor is out...Id kit it out with a bigger turbo and downpipe and a beefier radiator...since the motor is out and all, you know coincidentally

Goodluck my friend