General Need help to repair body/frame damage

[usafstud]

Fellow 500 owners, I need your help.

What needs to be done to repair the damage caused by the tow truck. Are parts available? It occurred when they were tightening the straps and did it too fast/tight. Who should I take it to? I'm in South Carolina.

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[fiat500]

In the UK that would have been secured down by using straps around the wheels. What a shame that it was handled so roughly.
I would try to bend and hammer everything back as near as possible into alignment; the mounting point should give good leverage. Then examine to see if any parts of the steel are ripped or spot-welds pulled out, which would then need some straightforward welding which any bodyshop could do. That could probably be done without any external damage other than a bit of flaked paint off the lower flange of the sill. It has been repaired and filled before so the damage may be highlighting some pre-existing corrosion or poor repairs.
It's an awkward area to access for welding but the panels are available, but any repair sections would be easy to make.
Main thing.....your chassis, safety and alignments are unlikely to be affected.

 

[looigi]

Wouldn't it be traditional in the USA to either shoot or sue them?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

[Bambino]

You may find that the damaged areas were pre-weakened, possibly by hidden rust.

Just a thought.

Chris

 

[usafstud]

In the UK that would have been secured down by using straps around the wheels. What a shame that it was handled so roughly.

I would try to bend and hammer everything back as near as possible into alignment; the mounting point should give good leverage. Then examine to see if any parts of the steel are ripped or spot-welds pulled out, which would then need some straightforward welding which any bodyshop could do. That could probably be done without any external damage other than a bit of flaked paint off the lower flange of the sill. It has been repaired and filled before so the damage may be highlighting some pre-existing corrosion or poor repairs.

It's an awkward area to access for welding but the panels are available, but any repair sections would be easy to make.

Main thing.....your chassis, safety and alignments are unlikely to be affected.

Fiat500, why would you think there was prior repair completed to the area before?

 

[fiat500]

I'm maybe presuming too much here, but what I think I see is at least a certain amount of bodyfiller under the rear of the right-hand sill. There is also possible evidence of filler flaking out from between inner and outer panels.
Obviously it has had a respray at some point so it may simply have been to tidy things up before that. But this is one of the many weak areas on the 500 and it would be a lucky car to have escaped any patching around there.
It will be less serious than it looks and I would try to take a low-tech repair solution if possible.
All the best, Peter.

 

[usafstud]

I'm maybe presuming too much here, but what I think I see is at least a certain amount of bodyfiller under the rear of the right-hand sill. There is also possible evidence of filler flaking out from between inner and outer panels.

Obviously it has had a respray at some point so it may simply have been to tidy things up before that. But this is one of the many weak areas on the 500 and it would be a lucky car to have escaped any patching around there.

It will be less serious than it looks and I would try to take a low-tech repair solution if possible.

All the best, Peter.

Thanks fiat500. So you don't think any new parts are required? Just metal work to bend and reweld existing parts?

I'm a newbie to body work.

 

[fiat500]

I think that in that case you need to be guided by the advice of a bodyshop. But at least go fore-armed with the knowledge that if you're paying for it rather than it being a insured repair, it should be possible for an experienced person to do the job without completely ripping that area apart.