My wife has just had an accident in the A500 - a length of wood that had been leant against a parked 4x4 slipped and fell into the road as she drove past. The wood hit the wing mirror on the way down, went through the open window, bounced (?) off the side of my sons head (3 stitches) and tried to impale the roof of the car.

Looks like a serious bit of beating and shrinking will be needed for the roof, a new roof lining, new door seal, new wing mirror, new window seal and possibly a new door.

Am not best pleased but just glad my son is still breathing, half an inch further across and would have impaled him through his eye socket. A complete freak accident, just hoping that it is covered by the insurance policy of the guy unloading his car.

Now have to spend weeks without my A500 while it gets fixed and not even sure they will be able to do a good enough repair...

jimbro1000 said:

My wife has just had an accident in the A500 - a length of wood that had been leant against a parked 4x4 slipped and fell into the road as she drove past. The wood hit the wing mirror on the way down, went through the open window, bounced (?) off the side of my sons head (3 stitches) and tried to impale the roof of the car.

Looks like a serious bit of beating and shrinking will be needed for the roof, a new roof lining, new door seal, new wing mirror, new window seal and possibly a new door.

Am not best pleased but just glad my son is still breathing, half an inch further across and would have impaled him through his eye socket. A complete freak accident, just hoping that it is covered by the insurance policy of the guy unloading his car.

Now have to spend weeks without my A500 while it gets fixed and not even sure they will be able to do a good enough repair...

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You are very lucky that you son and wife were not injured. The car is not really important. I'll never forgot the pain that a patient opposite me in the honda ward was going through when a horse jumped through the windscreen of his car. My regards to your family that this incident will be soon forgotten. The car is incidental and will be as good as new when its fixed. A500 is well made and I would imagine that it was a factor that there were no fatalities.

All the best in these difficult times, thank God your wife and son are still alive. What a really freak incident.

Sotty to hear your bad news.

But glad all your family are ok

Bloody hell! Sounds like something of Final Destination! Glad all are safe and well

Sorry to hear about the accident, but glad your son is OK, could have been much worse! The car will get repaired...

God, what a freaky accident. So glad to hear your lad is OK, thats really the important thing

Sorry to hear it, Glad the family are Ok

Lets hope the insurance co agree to fix it, so much stuff being totalled these days its criminal

Thanks for all your comments - wife and son are both doing well although my son looks a bit the worse for wear and has been back in hospital for the injuries again over the weekend.

The estimator came over yesterday and had a look, he confessed that if I hadn't been there to point the details out he would only have spotted the headlining damage. Now however he has a longer shopping list - window weather seal, door weather seal, side airbag cover trim, headlining, roof panel and wing mirror trim.

The roof is the bit that worries me - to do it properly it will need the roof panel replacing and as I'm sure you realise that is pretty major surgery. The cheap option is to bodge it, knock the dents in, shrink the metal and then use filler to smooth it out. Exactly the sort of thing I would expect from a dodgy back street garage - I suspect I know which method will be used.

jimbro1000 said:

Thanks for all your comments - wife and son are both doing well although my son looks a bit the worse for wear and has been back in hospital for the injuries again over the weekend.

The estimator came over yesterday and had a look, he confessed that if I hadn't been there to point the details out he would only have spotted the headlining damage. Now however he has a longer shopping list - window weather seal, door weather seal, side airbag cover trim, headlining, roof panel and wing mirror trim.

The roof is the bit that worries me - to do it properly it will need the roof panel replacing and as I'm sure you realise that is pretty major surgery. The cheap option is to bodge it, knock the dents in, shrink the metal and then use filler to smooth it out. Exactly the sort of thing I would expect from a dodgy back street garage - I suspect I know which method will be used.

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You don't need to hear this but for gods sake dont let them go the bash and fill route

The roof repair wont be cheap to do properly, also it may be that Fiat dont supply just a roof panel. I had to try & get one for a BMW & had to go s/hand. The roof can be easily fixed though by a decent panelbeater or tapped & filled by backstreet harry so the salvage value for the car is high. Dont be suprised if they consider totalling it.

Theres nothing wrong with repairing the roof panel & a skilled bodyshop should not have a problem, you just need to ensure they get 99% of it out by beating & its a skim of filler, I would want to see it before its filled. Personally I would prefer that route, the roof is an integral part of the shell & if they replace the roof you are relying on the standard of welding when replacing the panel to maintain the shells integrity.

If they insist on totalling it try for a cash settlement without it being totalled, I know of one person who achieved this with the help of a bodyshop who agreed a max figure to fix the car. At the same time research fixing it yourself so you know what it will cost, there are good bodyshops around, usually the smaller independants.
If its totalled & its a car you like you can often buy it back & fix it, if cat D assume it will knock 40% off the value, if cat C walk away. Also check the insurance as some companies charge more to imnsure a cat D

Lets hope they agree to fix it, in these days of trying to save waste its criminal whats being totalled.

jimbro1000 said:

Thanks for all your comments - wife and son are both doing well although my son looks a bit the worse for wear and has been back in hospital for the injuries again over the weekend.

The estimator came over yesterday and had a look, he confessed that if I hadn't been there to point the details out he would only have spotted the headlining damage. Now however he has a longer shopping list - window weather seal, door weather seal, side airbag cover trim, headlining, roof panel and wing mirror trim.

The roof is the bit that worries me - to do it properly it will need the roof panel replacing and as I'm sure you realise that is pretty major surgery. The cheap option is to bodge it, knock the dents in, shrink the metal and then use filler to smooth it out. Exactly the sort of thing I would expect from a dodgy back street garage - I suspect I know which method will be used.

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Glad to hear that your wife is doing well and that your son is doing the best he can. I hope they both have a full recovery.

On the roof. I had the roof replaced on an RS Turbo back in 1992 under warranty due to rust from an sunroof that was retrofited by the RS factory. It was never the same afterwards with a slight whistle that had never been there before. My local repair shop uses filler and you would never know that it had been done. It will probably come down to the re-spray and the quality of lacquer that is used.

When I had my garage and bodyshop if this type of repair was ever carried out it would always be "leaded" but I fear that in todays modern age of adhesives and fillers you would be hard pressed to find a bodyshop with anyone with those skills.

Perhaps only still used by classic car specialist repairers.

If done properly you will not be able to see the repair (unless you took the headlining down) and if the repair is not painted until each coat of primer has had plenty of time to dry the paint will not sink into the repair.

However, this is definitely preferable to having the roof cut off and the new one cut and welded halfway down each pillar even if done on a jig.

My preferred repairer still uses leading - possibly because they do a lot of classic car repairs (astons, jaguars, etc) and it is still regarded as the defacto standard for such things.

The important part for a modern repair would be to make sure the metal is shrunk back instead of being left stretched otherwise the dent is just inverted and a load of slap is applied to level it out. The other factor is that working the metal is going to result in the anti-corrosion treatment being removed with obvious consequences - it might take several years for it to show but eventually it will be a weak point corrosion wise. I didn't buy my car is a temporary run around that I will pass on after a few years, my intention was to keep it but I now have to seriously consider my long term plans. I know it all sounds petty and reading my thoughts back to myself makes me sound overly pedantic to myself but I will always know that the dent is there and the car is compromised.

If I had bought the car as a track toy or as something to modify I would be less concerned but this is an everyday road car, purchased for reliability (never thought I'd say that about anything Fiat related) and some fun along the way.

I already have a modified track toy and a classic, both of which take a lot of tlc. I don't need another one...

jimbro1000 said:

My preferred repairer still uses leading - possibly because they do a lot of classic car repairs (astons, jaguars, etc) and it is still regarded as the defacto standard for such things.

The important part for a modern repair would be to make sure the metal is shrunk back instead of being left stretched otherwise the dent is just inverted and a load of slap is applied to level it out. The other factor is that working the metal is going to result in the anti-corrosion treatment being removed with obvious consequences - it might take several years for it to show but eventually it will be a weak point corrosion wise. I didn't buy my car is a temporary run around that I will pass on after a few years, my intention was to keep it but I now have to seriously consider my long term plans. I know it all sounds petty and reading my thoughts back to myself makes me sound overly pedantic to myself but I will always know that the dent is there and the car is compromised.

If I had bought the car as a track toy or as something to modify I would be less concerned but this is an everyday road car, purchased for reliability (never thought I'd say that about anything Fiat related) and some fun along the way.

I already have a modified track toy and a classic, both of which take a lot of tlc. I don't need another one...

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You can get it repaired wherever you want as you probably know. Leaded is a top notch job but I doubt you could push the insurance co to that but if the Abarth body shop is any good at least using them should ensure the anti corrosion work is done properly "theoretically" sadly many brand new cars have already been repaired so being pedantic is great but eventually you have to be realistic.

I went through this a few years ago when my track toy Sei slid on oil into another car - not a high speed accident but enough to cause damage to a fairly flimsy piece of bodywork (bumper, bonnet and wing). The main shell was reinforced so the damage was very localised but that didn't stop the insurance company trying to write the losses off for a pitiful amount.

It took a year of arguing to get it sorted mostly because I refused to let just anyone repair it - the insurers even tried stealing it out of the compound it was stored in at one point.

Unless they start coming up with ridiculous excuses this time around I will be leaving it to the insurance company to resolve (their entire operation is in-house so it never goes to an external agent at any point). I am however prepared to argue with them if it comes back half-done.

I've been over the car several times making sure I had found everything wrong and so far I think I have all the damage covered - more importantly I know where all the current damage is. Any new defects that appear will be chased as well (been on the receiving end of that one in the past as well).

My main issue right now is chasing the personal injury claims though. My son is going to be left with a two inch scar down the side of his face and my wife is refusing to drive anything but our 4x4, with the windows up so I suspect a bit of psychological trauma.

jimbro1000 said:

I went through this a few years ago when my track toy Sei slid on oil into another car - not a high speed accident but enough to cause damage to a fairly flimsy piece of bodywork (bumper, bonnet and wing). The main shell was reinforced so the damage was very localised but that didn't stop the insurance company trying to write the losses off for a pitiful amount.

It took a year of arguing to get it sorted mostly because I refused to let just anyone repair it - the insurers even tried stealing it out of the compound it was stored in at one point.

Unless they start coming up with ridiculous excuses this time around I will be leaving it to the insurance company to resolve (their entire operation is in-house so it never goes to an external agent at any point). I am however prepared to argue with them if it comes back half-done.

I've been over the car several times making sure I had found everything wrong and so far I think I have all the damage covered - more importantly I know where all the current damage is. Any new defects that appear will be chased as well (been on the receiving end of that one in the past as well).

My main issue right now is chasing the personal injury claims though. My son is going to be left with a two inch scar down the side of his face and my wife is refusing to drive anything but our 4x4, with the windows up so I suspect a bit of psychological trauma.

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I trust a suitable set of digital photos has been taken of the damage & also the general state of the car. Informing the bodyshop of this & what a fussy & pedantic person you are before they start is fun. I did it with ours & it came back with perfect repairs & valeted to a better than new standard, I almost felt guilty

jimbro1000 said:

Thanks for all your comments - wife and son are both doing well although my son looks a bit the worse for wear and has been back in hospital for the injuries again over the weekend.

The estimator came over yesterday and had a look, he confessed that if I hadn't been there to point the details out he would only have spotted the headlining damage. Now however he has a longer shopping list - window weather seal, door weather seal, side airbag cover trim, headlining, roof panel and wing mirror trim.

The roof is the bit that worries me - to do it properly it will need the roof panel replacing and as I'm sure you realise that is pretty major surgery. The cheap option is to bodge it, knock the dents in, shrink the metal and then use filler to smooth it out. Exactly the sort of thing I would expect from a dodgy back street garage - I suspect I know which method will be used.

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Tbh depending on the damage I think it's a little extreme to have the roof replaced. As long as they don't just put a crapload of filler in I think it's acceptable to fill it and paint it over.

If you're really that bothered about it being done in a particular way then I'd push for it to be written off.