Hey everyone, Over the long weekend I had a small accident. Although small it has done a fair bit of damage to the car. On Saturday evening I was coming down a steep road with a right angle corner at the bottom. It had been raining and was slippery. Although I was not traveling fast, as I went to round the bend at the bottom of the road the car just under steered into the curb. Although I slowed down a little bit the brakes locked and the car slid straight on into the curb. Because of the angle the wheel struck the curb it managed to smash a piece out of the wheel and force the whole left front suspension assembly to move. It has pulled the radius rod through the cross member and moved the lower arm and the strut assembly. It forced the wheel into the quarter panel and also broke my side skirt. The front bumper also sustained some damage. I have been unable to remove the wheel as it was jammed against the guard so I am unaware how much damage has been done under the car... but either way it is going to be expensive. Looking under the bonnet it appears that the strut brace saved the strut tower from bending or warping and due to the pillow mounted strut tops it appears they have had enough flex in them to prevent further damage also. Speaking to the neighbours it appears this section of road it horrible to take in the wet at the best of times. The road surface is very poor and with the trucks that live on the road a lot of oil/diesel is present and is especially slippery after a shower of rain. I will post some pictures from my mobile phone when I get home later this afternoon/evening. There was another mark about a metre from where I hit the curb from another vehicle that did the same thing a week or two ago - according to the neighbour. The other mark is actually much bigger. The neighbour also stated that a lot of other cars have ended up in the garden or hitting the trees as they haven't been able to wipe off as much speed. Anyways... A pretty sh!tty long weekend for me - but i guess life goes on... just a pain it's my only car. Just thought I would share with the group, Here are some photos from my phone: Front Exterior Damage 01 Front Exterior Damage 02 Cross Member Damage 01 Cross Member Damage 02 The Curb That Did The Damage: My mark is on the right, The other one is from a few weeks ago! Later, Jason Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Sucks to hear, hopefully its isolated to only suspension/steering components and not the body.

Quote: Originally Posted by calais3L Sucks to hear, hopefully its isolated to only suspension/steering components and not the body. Yea, I'm hoping it hasn't done any major damage or I will be gutted! It has definately rooted the cross member and proabably the lower arm. Just hoping the chassis is alright. I wasn't going fast so hopefully it didn't f_ck too much more than what I could see when I had a quick look. I'm hoping it's a case of the old 'looks worse than it is' Cheers, Jason

By the looks of your photos it might just be a case of replacing the strut, bottom arm and x-member, plus the panel damage, looks like you got off lightly!

hmmmmm ive had the same thing happen to me at about 50kmh it bent the chassie about 20cms even though you couldnt tell!!! I hope in your case it hasnt cos its expensive if it is!!! good luck bud

gutted looks nasty bro.. what road did it happen on..

ouch I hate to see people's cars damaged good luck with the repair

Quote: hmmmmm ive had the same thing happen to me at about 50kmh it bent the chassie about 20cms even though you couldnt tell!!! I hope in your case it hasnt cos its expensive if it is!!! good luck bud Good Point! better take it to a panel shop and have it checked!

do you need a p/s strut and bits? i did similar to d/s so got spare.

Evening eveyone, I am not sure what i am going to do about the repair yet. I may claim on my insurance - just my excess is not cheap - $1000 for the car and another possible $600 for the wheels. Plus knowing them they'll put my premiums up to some crazy amount. It is currently at a tow yard as it wasn't able to be moved under its own steam - the wheel is quite wedged in the wheel arch. I guess i will call my insurance tomorrow and try to sort it all out - I'm guessing there is a fair amount of damage done there - maybe even more than $1600 worth. In which case i guess claiming is probably my best option. However i am quite fussy and i will want it fixed correctly and up to my standards. e.g. New front bumper & skirt etc, not just a fix up the old ones. That sort of thing. 4sakenvl - happened on Nor East Drive - not far from my house. NZ_BT1, calais3L - I was probably only going about 15kph on impact. I wasn't even going 50kph down that road. I know that corner is bad... unfortunately i didn't know it was that bad when it rains. But yea... better to be safe than sorry in regards to the chassis being bent/warped. NZ VL com - thanks for the offer but i will see what happens with insurance first. Anyways - I guess i will see what they have to say about it all tomorrow. I will keep ya'll posted. Cheers, J

bt1 you bent your chassis 20cms??thats alot or u mean 20mm?

guttered man. i have all the bits you need if you decide to fix it, ive got a bare rolling vl shell

shouldnt be too hard to fix, just be the paint work matching will be a pain, theres heaps of those mags at my wrecker

Just down the road from me, don't recognise the spot though. I can imagine how pissed off you must've been!

Quote: Originally Posted by Irontusk Just down the road from me, don't recognise the spot though. I can imagine how pissed off you must've been! From the lights take the first left - it's at the bottom of the hill there - i was turning right.

Quote: Originally Posted by '87Calais From the lights take the first left - it's at the bottom of the hill there - i was turning right. I thought it might be there but the footpath just didn't look right.. but yeah the road doesn't really 'flatten out' until you're half way down the next hill. I just have to say you're lucky a car wasn't parked there, there usually is!

87calais empty your mail!!! try G&M wreckers in Te Awamutu 07 871 8575 hey usually got a few of them. i can collect if you need be,you prang wasnt as bad as mine i rolled my walky in the wet, like i said i got spare strut just get a crossmember from vn v8 and be sweet. you got msn? [email removed] Dave

Dam man that doesn’t look good. Normally those sorts of things are worse than they look... VLs aren't strong cars unfortunately

Damn that sucks man.

Quote: Originally Posted by NZ VL com bt1 you bent your chassis 20cms??thats alot or u mean 20mm? yeah 20mm!!! but I have bent a chassie more than 30CMS and popped every single weld in a VL chassie hehehe you have seen that evidence before in here Some original photos have not been recovered yet.