98 TA front right damage
08-23-2014, 08:17 PM
#1
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98 TA front right damage Hi guys!
I'm a new member to the forum. I live in Europe. The US cars are rare here. One of my dream is a 4thgen TA (first was an Expedition, but it is completed currently: I have one
). A few weeks ago I found an advertisement of a 98 4thgen TA. It is in Germany. I got several information about the car. Unfortunatelly this is an injured TA. The damage was on the side of a guardrail on the highway. The car slided under the guardrail on the front, and bumped against sideways at the right rear quarter panel.
The right rear quarter is currently damaged, I see, that if I buy this car, we can repair it.
The owner repaired partly the front damage: he bought the right front fender and a WS6 Ram Air hood. They installed these on the car. He wants to sell the car in this current state.
But some things disturb me.
I upload some pictures of the front of the car.
You can see, that there are several problems, with the new body panels install.
Let see on the picture:
1.
The gap between the new hood and the new right fender is not the same everywhere.
2.
There is a step between the new hood and the old bumper at the headlights. BUT, in the middle, the new hood is sitting on the bumper.
I think that the front edge of this aftermarket hood is thicker than the factory hood.
3.
There is a step between the headlight and the new hood.
My question is the following: is it possible to align everything to get a proper look?
- is it possible to get the same gap between the new fender and the new hood?
- is it possible to lift up the front bumper at the nostrils, but in this case there is two question: A: if the bumper can be lifted up at the nostrils, the middle of the bumper stay on the sam level? B: what about the headlight cover: is it possible to lift up only the inner side of the cover?
Please help me, because this information need to decide this purchase.
The photos:
http://s1371.photobucket.com/user/dz...rary/1998%20TA
I'm a new member to the forum. I live in Europe. The US cars are rare here. One of my dream is a 4thgen TA (first was an Expedition, but it is completed currently: I have one
). A few weeks ago I found an advertisement of a 98 4thgen TA. It is in Germany. I got several information about the car. Unfortunatelly this is an injured TA. The damage was on the side of a guardrail on the highway. The car slided under the guardrail on the front, and bumped against sideways at the right rear quarter panel.The right rear quarter is currently damaged, I see, that if I buy this car, we can repair it.
The owner repaired partly the front damage: he bought the right front fender and a WS6 Ram Air hood. They installed these on the car. He wants to sell the car in this current state.
But some things disturb me.
I upload some pictures of the front of the car.
You can see, that there are several problems, with the new body panels install.
Let see on the picture:
1.
The gap between the new hood and the new right fender is not the same everywhere.
2.
There is a step between the new hood and the old bumper at the headlights. BUT, in the middle, the new hood is sitting on the bumper.
I think that the front edge of this aftermarket hood is thicker than the factory hood.
3.
There is a step between the headlight and the new hood.
My question is the following: is it possible to align everything to get a proper look?
- is it possible to get the same gap between the new fender and the new hood?
- is it possible to lift up the front bumper at the nostrils, but in this case there is two question: A: if the bumper can be lifted up at the nostrils, the middle of the bumper stay on the sam level? B: what about the headlight cover: is it possible to lift up only the inner side of the cover?
Please help me, because this information need to decide this purchase.
The photos:
http://s1371.photobucket.com/user/dz...rary/1998%20TA
08-23-2014, 08:44 PM
#2
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2. The hood latch has some adjustment to it, which can be used to raise or lower the center of the area between the lights.
3. there are bump stops on the left and right side of the area between the headlights that can be used to tweak how high each side sits.
over all it could just be a matter of adjusting things for proper alignment, but what we can't tell in pictures (at least these pics) is if/what kind of damage is being hidden underneath the new fender.
3. there are bump stops on the left and right side of the area between the headlights that can be used to tweak how high each side sits.
over all it could just be a matter of adjusting things for proper alignment, but what we can't tell in pictures (at least these pics) is if/what kind of damage is being hidden underneath the new fender.
08-23-2014, 08:44 PM
#3
Are you planning on doing the body work yourself? I'm sure a good body shop can get those lines back in spec and you would never know it was ever damaged. If you are serious about purchasing it, I would have it checked out by a professional just to make sure there is no damage to the frame since it was wrecked. Sometimes people try and hide damage with new panels. Whatever happens, good luck and hopefully it all works out for you!
08-24-2014, 03:29 AM
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Thanks for the answer.
I think that the fender-hood gap can be aligned and the hood latch needs align to lower the center area of the froont of hood.
Unfortunatelly I have only this pictures, the car is more than 1000 miles from me.
The owner seems to be a reliable, honest person. There are more new things on the car (new head, new transmission, new diff.) he has got bill for every work.
He told me that he measured the track after the collision, and it was everything fine. He sad there is no frame damage.
He spent a lot of money for the car, but currently he do not want to spend more (he has got 3 motorcycle and 2 other car).
I think that this damage was mainly a fender bender. The rear right is not damaged mainly, and the front bumper was not injured.
If I buy this car, I will take it to a professional body shop. I showed them the pictures, they told me, that they can repair the whole things, they wil get off the front tight fender, and if the front right body projection (? I do not know this is the good word for this in english, so the front right part of the body) needs align, they can do it.
I think that the fender-hood gap can be aligned and the hood latch needs align to lower the center area of the froont of hood.
Unfortunatelly I have only this pictures, the car is more than 1000 miles from me.
The owner seems to be a reliable, honest person. There are more new things on the car (new head, new transmission, new diff.) he has got bill for every work.
He told me that he measured the track after the collision, and it was everything fine. He sad there is no frame damage.
He spent a lot of money for the car, but currently he do not want to spend more (he has got 3 motorcycle and 2 other car).
I think that this damage was mainly a fender bender. The rear right is not damaged mainly, and the front bumper was not injured.
If I buy this car, I will take it to a professional body shop. I showed them the pictures, they told me, that they can repair the whole things, they wil get off the front tight fender, and if the front right body projection (? I do not know this is the good word for this in english, so the front right part of the body) needs align, they can do it.
08-30-2014, 04:08 PM
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Welcome, as far as the hood goes, to me it looks like an aftermarket hood, the thing that got me was where the hood meets the front bumper, bottom part of the hood looks to thick.
As far as the headlight covers go, they are adjustable, but you have to be careful if you raise them too high, they may interfere with the hood, and the lights wont come up. If youre getting a bodyshop to do this, make sure to tell them to open and close the headlights to make sure they are aligned properly.
As far as the headlight covers go, they are adjustable, but you have to be careful if you raise them too high, they may interfere with the hood, and the lights wont come up. If youre getting a bodyshop to do this, make sure to tell them to open and close the headlights to make sure they are aligned properly.