[body_work] Front End Rebuilded

[EnglishRob 0]

Hi folks,

 

Well finally after um... 6 months I think I'm finally getting my 205 back on the road. As you may have read, I had a bit of an incident with a telegraph pole. Anyway to cut a long story short, the front end was knackered. The car was taken away and the insurance assessor originally said it was a category B. After much complaining with the help of the great folks on here I managed to get them to re-assess it as a Category C.

 

Eventually (about 6 weeks or so later) I got the car back minus the back box (which the insurance company didn't pay out for despite me complaining) and it's been sat in the garage since.

 

Now I'd like to say thanks to Steve@Cornwall here as he gave me a load of bits for my car to help get it back on the road. I did also have one or two spare bits myself so hopefully I've saved a wad of cash that way.

 

So, today I had my other half's friend's other half who is a mechanic around to start work. He's stripped down the front end and removed the broken bits (bumper, headlight, front valance, grill etc) to see what is what. From what he says it isn't as bad as he originally anticipated. Now it's just a case of arranging a suitable time to get things sorted out. From what I understand there is a bit of welding needed to be done and some straightening out of bits. It looks as though the front valance and bumper took the brunt of the damage (the radiator was squashed but the oil cooler looks to be okay).

 

My garage is a bit of a tip at the moment so I haven't really got any exciting pictures to post yet. I'll try and post some over the next day or two.

 

In the mean time, I was wondering about one piece, not sure what it's called but I believe it was attached to the bumper (or front valance) and it's rusted up badly (in fact I think there was two of them which were rusted).

 

 

Anyway, when I get more pictures I'll post them up. I have the feeling I've also got the exciting (or possibly not) task of re-spraying the bonnet, front valance and grill as they're graphite grey so I'll probably need some advice on this too (like what colour primer to use and how to re-spray it), that is unless anyone happens to have any red bits they want to get rid of?)

 

Ta,

 

Rob

[jimistdt 1]

That bracket lives under the wheel arch and between the wings.

[EnglishRob 0]

Ahh I see. Any idea what this bracket's name is?

 

I'm just thinking for getting a replacement set.

 

Rob

[jimistdt 1]

Here you go Rob, just for you;

 

741375 £7.30, tunular side bracket from inner wing to outer wing/bumper.

[EnglishRob 0]

Great thanks. That's not bad. I'm actually quite pleasantly surprised that everything seems to be fairly cheap so far (compared to how much it cost for my old Astra company car for bits). Guess that's the advantage of having an old car.

 

Rob

[jimistdt 1]

I wouldn't take the price as gospel as its from an old thread, a quick check on servicebox might be more accurate.

 

Either way, I wouldn't have thought it'd be much more.

[EnglishRob 0]

That's good then. I'm hoping I have put aside enough to cover all these niggly bits and maybe if I'm lucky a few other bits which need doing (such as the drivers side electric windows).

 

Just won a red grill on eBay. There were two, one which looked like it had been re-sprayed and then the one which I won which cost me 99p plus delivery. I figured it's less hassle than re-spraying a graphite one.

 

Rob