Driving my old Trueno everyday has its ups and downs, and after the high of the weekends mods, we have a little low today. During some slightly over enthusiastic parking manoeuvres on my small snow covered driveway I clipped a small (cast iron!) fence post with my rear left corner! It was a slow speed impact but the damage was done.
A nice big crack in my lightweight RunFree bumper and a bit of a dent and scrape into the panel. Very inconvenient when I was only on my lunchbreak. Luckily my left Redline was spared, and the damage did not extend below to the pocket. I took the bumper off for a quick cabletie fix.
...and examined the rear of the car. I hadn't had the rear bumper off since I got the car, it was the last unexplored place, so I was pleased to find the pockets were in very good health.
Unfortunately there was some rust growing on the rear panel seam.. I had seen a little of this a few times before when the car was up on the ramp but I got to examine it closer today, although I wish it was under different circumstances.
I was going to keep the RunFree Aero with the early splitter combo on the front bumper but it looks like I will be going to standard rear end & skirts afterall now, a new RunFree will be silly money and I dont think it could be cleanly repaired as its so thin. So the car will be taking a trip to the bodyshop for the rust aswell as my new damage. The not so fun part of daily AE86 life!
Anyway looks like she will be wearing her small battle scar for the rest of the winter, at least it looks a little more presentable now with colour coded cable-ties. :)
Winter car or at least winter tyres next year I think..
Hey man, if you repair the inside first then you will have thickness to repair the outside. If I lived near I could do it but alas I'm in a different hemisphere. Happy to talk you through it if you are keen to diy.
ReplyDeletethanks for the tip man, Id love to save it! must save for a bodyshop anyway now, maybe they can do it, DIY FRP does not sound so much fun :)
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