Technical B Pillar damage?

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Technical B Pillar damage?

amessenger99

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I have a 2001 Fiat seicento S that I left at a garage for an M.O.T (which it passed easy) after the MOT the garage decided to park it outside of their premises, don't ask me why; but soon after a box van hit the side of my car. it has hit straight on the B pillar of the car right where the door ends and the back panel begins. it did not cause any noticeable damage to the door apart from maybe a little paint loss right on the edge but has bent the back panel in enough for me to get my hand into the gap and it is level with the lock and door handle. the back panel has also got 4 creases ranging from 4cm long to around 4 inches long, one of which is about a cm in depth. I haven't been able to get inside the car and check the B pillar from the inside as i have left the car in the garages hands to help my case if it becomes legal or anything stupid like that. the over all size of the the dent is not massive only just bigger than my hand but it is deep roughly 2-3 inches. Is my car likely to be a write off? it was in mint condition before hand, only had one previous owner, FSH and only ever had 1 advisable on previous MOT's. it was also only on 57000 miles so damn near perfect for a second hand car.
 

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if it goes through insurer then yes it will have to be a write off
a local good independant paintshop should be able to sort it for less than £300
dont let mot garage sort it though speak to paintshop yourself if going this route so they can give you a description of how they will do it
remember a local bodyshop not one tied to an insurer with a big fancy name on the door
 
Hey, sorry to hear about this

Theres a few things there, the insurance wont hesitate to write that off(n) a body shop could easily fix that but there are also a few reinforcing panels and beams going up and down the B-pillat that would be a big issue

Is there any cameras over looking where the car was "alleged" off there premises ? as its just a way for the garage to get out of the liability, the garage is unlikely to let you see anything if it was actually on there premises.

Had this issue at my work, car gets nudged outside my work doors, put it across the carpark and no longer our problem as we said it happened over the other side of the carpark etc

Ash
 
I do have a picture of where it was parked yes. although it was off of their premises it was actually parked on a keep clear sign in front of bus stop so not the greatest of parking spaces. they do actually have parking inside the locked gates there so i do not understand why they felt the need to park it outside in the first place. they have also left it outside of their gates over the easter holiday which again is stupid as i'm pretty certain the door could be jimmied open pretty easily at the moment.
 
ok so its taken about a week for the garage/insurer to decide what to do and it seems the car is going through the garages insurance as they parked it illegally. it turned out the B pillar was bent a little and had a few creases in it etc. now as most said this should be a write off but for some reason the insurance company are deciding to weld in a new B pillar, replace both door locks and fit a new side panel to the car which needs a re-spray to match the colour correctly. Does this sound right? i would be sure that this kind of repair work would well exceed the value of my 13 year old, £1300 car.
 
This cant be an insurance approved garage then as thatcham wont allow a rear quarter replacement because the c post would need cutting
i think someones not being truthfull because a part repair by cutting and welding in of b post means a bodge repair and fiat wont have panels anymore so its a scrapyard jobbie
my advice stands because a decent independant will know how to put the strength back in without cutting and i believe there will be a maximum of one part strengthener and i dont think it will get in the way of a repair here


did you read my post?
 
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There is some chance of a new panel from Poland -- the car, as a Fiat 600, was still in production in 2006.

I have the Thatcham stuff (and the FIAT stuff) for the Cinq -- will see what's detailed. The Fiat stuff on accident repair is in the Seicento technical manual. (in the Downloads).

As S & B suggests, it isn't a single skin.
 
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I looked -- tricky, but certainly do-able.

If 2010 (and David C and ePer are likely to be correct) there should still be plenty of panels floating around. Whether FIAT UK will be willing to play ball or not is a different matter, but the Poles should be able to help.

Detailed in the Thatcham stuff as a rear wing repair -- Essentially the entire side panel on the Cinqs cut half way up the rear window -- but the Sei panel seems to go right up to the roof). The front lower section of the panel actually forms part of the sill.

In the Seicento Technical Manual it's detailed in Volume 3/Section 1/body.pdf (page 174 onwards).

Looks like it will live again!
 
Cheers for the help everyone.
to be honest i trust the people at this garage about as far as i can throw them, but the garage insurance company rang me and basically said that its being taken away to one of their approved garages for the repairs (i think in Swindon). it wasn't at the garage when i picked up the courtesy car so it must have gone somewhere. Just seems a lot of hassle on their part to fix it really. As far as i know it was the garage who did the evaluation of the damage and the repairs needed and then sent it off to the insurance approved garage, so for all i know it might have arrived and they just said no to the repairs or started on the work and decided it was too much. it only got there Friday midday-ish so i don't know if they have even looked at it yet.
either way i'm going to give the car a very good look over when i get it back and possibly get another garage to inspect the repairs
 
ok so i got the car back today. it wreaks of fibre glass inside:eek:. also the front seats were drowning in some smelly cleaner stuff so either they felt a compulsive need to deep clean my seats or they were trying to cover up the smell of the fibre glass. Guess I will be getting it checked over this weekend then
 
ok so i got the car back today. it wreaks of fibre glass inside:eek:. also the front seats were drowning in some smelly cleaner stuff so either they felt a compulsive need to deep clean my seats or they were trying to cover up the smell of the fibre glass. Guess I will be getting it checked over this weekend then
Bodyshops are always a haze of dust from sanding down, so they may have just been cleaning up some that got past any covering they used.

Smell of fibreglass is a bit worrying though... how easy is it to take the inner trim off and have a look inside...?
 
I'm not too sure but i'll have a go at it later. Would fiberglass be allowed anywhere near a B pillar or panel that was welded into it? I'm not too clued up on major repairs etc so not sure if they are allowed to just bang it back out and flll it in or not.
 
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