Hole torn underbody

[Davev]

Originally Posted by radroach

So last night ... found a foot long iron chisel sticking out the bottom of my car, I consider myself lucky it didn't destroy my tire! :

This logic makes no sense to me. Much better to destroy a tire than to punch a hole thru your car.

[gramicci101]

Originally Posted by radroach

I guess my question should be, what is a body shop going to do to repair this? And will the metal rust?

A body shop will knock it back into shape, clean any developing rust, weld it, and repaint it. Then they'll pull the seat and lift the carpet to make sure there's no damage to the interior.

Originally Posted by Davev

This logic makes no sense to me. Much better to destroy a tire than to punch a hole thru your car.

Destroying a tire at speed is a good way to destroy the rest of the car, so this is the lesser of two evils.

[radroach]

Originally Posted by Davev

This logic makes no sense to me. Much better to destroy a tire than to punch a hole thru your car.

Originally Posted by gramicci101

Destroying a tire at speed is a good way to destroy the rest of the car, so this is the lesser of two evils.

yep, if my tire had blown that could have caused a further accident, could have sent me into the guardrail or something..

[kavanagh]

Originally Posted by gramicci101

I seem to recall Timo Rautiainen catching a metal bar in his ass during a WRC race. It pierced the shell, the seat, and the codriver.

"Up in the ass of Timo."
-Marcus Gronholm


Best driver quote of all time.

[Davev]

You guys never have blown out tires? You don't go careening into the guard rail or launching off the cliff into the Pacific. Yes- it might do some plastic damage- but most times not.

Daily- hundreds of blown out tires at speed.
Rarely- spears jammed thru cars.

Hmmmm.

[Ashikabi]

Hammer + JB Weld

[Hot Lava]

Originally Posted by kavanagh

"Up in the ass of Timo."
-Marcus Gronholm


Best driver quote of all time.

Took one for the teamo.

[radroach]

So update I've talked to insurance and body shop people, and decided not to go with them because it will raise my insurance. They want over $1000 to patch the hole.

Instead, I'm going to call a friend of a friend who's a welder to spot weld a plate over it from the inside, and then cover the hole from the outside with bondo and an a spray on undercoat. Is this a sound idea?

Can anybody point to a guide for removing the passenger seat and floor carpet?

[aznatama]

It shouldn't raise your insurance is it's a comprehensive claim... Else you got crap insurance, or file a lot of comp claims...

Look in the diy sound dampening section. You need a special female torx bit for seat removal, then just pop off a bunch of trim. No need to put a plate there, just weld it shut. Might as well sound dampen at the same time

[radroach]

They said it's covered as a collision, by definition.

I have state farm, and I got a few tickets so I already have a high priced insurance premium. So I'm not going to file a claim because then they might label me as a higher risk driver.

Thanks for further advice! Found this thread which shows whole interior disassembly: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53511

[jeepmor]

Fast fix - tap it back together with a hammer and put a urethane or undercoating seal on it. Haven't been under mine to know what that undercoating is.

Good fix - tap closed, pull interior, weld shut. Try not to burn your garage down, undercoating can light up quickly if the asphalt kind. Clean up weld area, seal with similar undercoating, paint with rustoleum or similar on cabin side.

It's a bummer your insurance considers it a collision, is that code for, we'll jack your rates if you file a claim? And, since you already spoke to them about it, it's a recordable, so they are gonna jack your rates anyway. So file a claim and go get it fixed. Never tell your insurance company about it until you know what you can and cannot do first. They say they are there to help, and they are, helping themselves to your money.

[Dave-ROR]

Uh insurance.

[radroach]

Originally Posted by Dave-ROR

Uh insurance.

No. Already said I've gone to them. Paying a deductible and then dealing with a worse driver rating / premium rates is not worth it.

Much easier paying a race shop guy a couple hundred to weld in a plate for me then have some overpriced corporate body shop charge over $1000 to fill it with bondo (that's all they suggested that they would do).

[radroach]

Originally Posted by jeepmor

It's a bummer your insurance considers it a collision, is that code for, we'll jack your rates if you file a claim? And, since you already spoke to them about it, it's a recordable, so they are gonna jack your rates anyway. So file a claim and go get it fixed. Never tell your insurance company about it until you know what you can and cannot do first. They say they are there to help, and they are, helping themselves to your money.

Yes, they said that if I claimed it would raise my rate if I claimed it. But no, since I didn't claim it they didn't change my rate.