DIY crash repair to door and wheel arch...

[Andy 308GTB]

This morning, I was involved in the kind of comedy accident that is normally reserved for Hugh Grant films or Insurance Company commercials.
I reversed out of a drive into a fairly quiet road, meanwhile the guy in the house opposite was doing exactly the same thing.
The rear corner of his 2 year old BMW went into the rear door and wheel arch of my 14 year old Focus Estate with 100,000+ miles on it.

I expect no claim will be made between the insurance companies. I also expect that my insurance company will write my car off.
But my old Focus is a reliabe and trusted old soldier and I'd rather hang on to it.

I am pretty good with the spanners and my painting skills with rattle cans are adequate for this car.
So I'm thinking of getting a replacement door from a scrappy, paint it the right colour and swap it over.
But the damage to wheel arch may be more of a challenge (see picture).

To be cost effective I would need to pull this out myself.
What's the best way to do this? (drill holes and use one of those slide hammer type things?)
It's single skinned and I'm not looking to enter the vehicle into some Car Polishing, Concours type event.

Edited by Andy 308GTB on Sunday 4th September 12:05

[steveo3002]

thats a very strong bit of arch , screw in slide hammers wont touch it

if i had to try and diy that i would weld on some plates and see if a ratchet strap around a stout tree will move it , although i think it wont move alot

[Andy 308GTB]

steveo3002 said:

thats a very strong bit of arch , screw in slide hammers wont touch it

if i had to try and diy that i would weld on some plates and see if a ratchet strap around a stout tree will move it , although i think it wont move alot

Cheers Steve.
That's really helpful - even if it wasn't the answer I was looking for!
If I was to take the car to a bodyshop and ask them to pull it out - any ideas on what they would charge, if in fact they would do it?

[steveo3002]

im sure some would ...more back street geezer type places id imagine

id imagine 1.5 hrs would get it roughed out , i wouldnt expect miricles though that would idealy need a new bit welded in but i understand its an old low value car

[TallPaul]

Get a door the right colour, even if you have to wait a few weeks for the right one to turn up, you'll struggle to get any sort of decent/acceptable/durable finish with spray cans. Then bolt the door on, jack car up with wheel off and smack the arch out from the wheel well using a good hammer & blunt chisel. Job done. Personally, unless your welding & filling skills are spot on, I wouldnt attempt it with a slide hammer, you'll just rip the outer skin and have an even bigger job getting rid of the sharp edges.
Accept that the best you can do is get the door to close and just improve the shape of the arch a bit.

[Andy 308GTB]

TallPaul said:

Get a door the right colour, even if you have to wait a few weeks for the right one to turn up, you'll struggle to get any sort of decent/acceptable/durable finish with spray cans. Then bolt the door on, jack car up with wheel off and smack the arch out from the wheel well using a good hammer & blunt chisel. Job done. Personally, unless your welding & filling skills are spot on, I wouldnt attempt it with a slide hammer, you'll just rip the outer skin and have an even bigger job getting rid of the sharp edges.
Accept that the best you can do is get the door to close and just improve the shape of the arch a bit.

Thanks

The door closes OK at the moment so that isn't a problem.

I have already put feelers out for a complete door and it's not an uncommon colour so as you suggest I will hold out for the correct colour. I have done a bit of paint on it before and it was OK - but a whole panel would probably highlight the shortcomings of my skills.

I'm going to speak to couple of people about pulling the wheel arch out but it simply isn't worth spending much money. Then I will consider hammers! I may have to settle with forming a rough arch and stuffing a load of filler into the bigger dents.