I crashed my baby today. Advice with parts?
 

Pic 1
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I was part of a multi-car accident today, and everyone was ok, except my 08 RX-8. I rear-ended a pickup truck and slid my nose under it, with the trailer hitch going through my headlight.

After some anger and sadness, I started to inspect the details of the damage. In general, things didn't appear all that bad. I don't have the money to fix it all right now, but if there isn't anything horribly wrong, I can chip away at it over the next couple of months.

1. I'll need a new hood eventually, but it still opens and closes.
2. The front bumper is shot but looks like it can be temporarily bonded
3. The driver's side fender is bent at the front, but I'm thinking it may be able to be bent back enough to work
4. The headlight obviously needs to be replaced

The only thing that gives me pause is the metal piece that the headlight gets connected to and a lot of other things seem to be connected to. It was peeled up a little from when the truck pulled his hitch out of my car, and it's bent/sheared a bit in the back behind where the headlight would sit - pushing a little into my fender cover/wheel well and causing my tire to rub when turning. I've looked at the mazda repair guide, but I don't really know what I'm looking for.

Can anyone tell me what this piece is, and if it's safe to just try to pound back into position when I take this apart?

Is there anything else that damage through the headlight may have done that I've overlooked?

M A Z D A

This needs to be taken up with a qualified body shop. It's nearly impossible to rule out exactly what is damaged or needs replacing from two pictures. Blindly taking a mallet to your car will likely result in even more messed up body lines and more frustration.

I appreciate the reply, but I guess I was hoping for something a bit less obvious. If there is more documentation regarding the assembly of the car, beyond the repair manual, that would be a big help. I'd like to have as much information as possible, so I don't end up getting ripped off more than I have to.

I can pretty much bank on this costing thousands to repair in parts alone, so anything that can be done with time, elbow grease, and education is going to have to be a priority based on my current budget.

Insurance?

Since you are a responsible adult that knew the importance of collision insurance on a $30,000 rare sports car that you couldn't afford to repair yourself, why don't you file a claim with your insurance company? Any rate increase is going to be less than the cost of repairs.

that headlamp assembly alone (hid) msrp is $1,045 http://onlinemazdaparts.com/parts/20...iagram=5455020
just call your insurance company

So, I know this will turn into a witch burning session, but I don't have collision - just liability. I've already seen the lectures doled out in situations by this, and believe me if I could take it ll back, I would.

However, I now find myself in a situation where I can't lament past mistakes, and I'm usually pretty adept at finding out how to persevere through them. I guess I thought this community would be a little less judgmental and maybe a bit more experienced at handling things like this themselves, as dedicated hobbyists. If I pretended I was doing this because I wanted to do it myself, and not because I have to, would that make a difference?

I work as an engineer by trade, so I have confidence that I can learn how this is all done, as long as I can find where to look. I was hoping that people may have been more supportive of a project.

Jedi, I have the sport model, so I don't have the HID assembly. Amazon has them for $250 shipped, so I think that would be alright.


I've also seen aftermarket bumpers for around $200 and fenders for $150-$200. Getting them painted is a lower priority, but I know some folks that could do that.

Does anyone know what the steel unit is that everything appears to be connected to?

This isn't about lack of empathy, it's about sensibility. If you had a broken arm and wanted to set the bone yourself, would you post pictures and then ask for help? I'd hope not. Medicine and mechanics are not fair analogies, but I'm trying to make a point here.

If you go back onto the Foxed.ca site, there's two key documents, the body shop repair manual and the collision guide. One outlines the frame structure, along with weld points and repair guidelines, the other is a glorified parts catalog. A body shop would disassemble the front-end while salvaging as many "usable" parts as they could; some will be mended, an others will be tossed. The structural damage would have to be addressed by cutting out the affected section and welding in replacement pieces, assuming it can be fixed and the car's integrity won't be compromised. The shop would gather the necessary parts, some OEM and some second-hand.

Now we have to figure in what you want to contribute. You would have to disassemble the front end of the car, assuming nothing has been damaged badly enough to "lock" pieces into place, gather all the usable parts and figure out what you need to finish the job. At this point, you have a parts pile and a car that won't fit them properly. You now need to tow your RX-8 to a body shop that can repair the structural damage. (Unless you have an assortment of MIG welders, cutting tools, fabrication equipment, etc.) Then you either tow the car back and assemble it, or you drop your parts pile off at the body shop to make sure all the lines match up.

The laborious conclusion from this is there isn't a solution that "we", as a community, can provide for you. We are engineers, doctors, statisticians, enthusiasts, and hobbyists too. However, the damage is unique to your situation. The same goes for every other accident on and off the road.

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If you want parts, figure out what you think you need from the collision guide as you are largely on your own. Get what you can from junkyard cars, everything else would have to come from a Mazda dealer.

Online Mazda Parts
Mazda Parts
https://www.mazda-parts.com/

Many times when cars are in collisions there is damage that is not seen on surface. I'm not saying you can't do it, just sometimes there is more to it than just bending some sheet metal and plastic. Many people have a multitude of reasons why they don't carry collision on their vehicles, saving money would be the primary one. However as has been proven time and time again, that 6 month premium is chump change compared to what your faced with now. My car has been paid for for years and it's still fully covered. The only one that has liability only is the escort. Why, because if it gets hurt I really don't care, and I would never get crap for it anyway. Hope fully you will have learned from this though.

You can buy all the parts and do the best you can to piece it back together. Getting paint to match, and corners to line up properly if there is unseen damage are your largest obstacles. If you bent any part of that frame and its damaged you will need special equipment to fix that if it can even be repaired. I admit it does not look that bad, but you just never know until you start working on it. Good Luck.

Thank you TPB & Kevin. I appreciate you guys taking the time, and I know this isn't a straightforward operation. I'll start taking it apart using the guides and try to get a more clear understanding of what's going on underneath it all. I'm fortunate enough to have friends and family with some experience in mechanical & auto-body work, so hopefully I can at least get some hands-on guidance with things that aren't RX-8 specific.

Believe me, in hindsight the right course of action is perfectly clear, and I'll be amending my insurance once this is all settled. I had to drop full coverage about a year ago when I had to take a lower-paying job (My monthly premium was $260), but I wish now that I had found something else to cut.

A quick note: selection of the "Bodyshop Manual" in chrome and firefox isn't doing anything for me. Does anyone have a direct link to it?

M A Z D A

try here (pdf link) RotaryHeads.com - Mazda RX-8 PDF Technical Manuals FE3S

I go along with the idea of getting help from a body shop. Not necessarily a fancy first line place, but a shop that can do heavy stuff beyond your skills and tools, while you put in the labor for the stuff you can do. I did that very successfully some time back with a VW Beetle with a pounded in front end. Low end shop, but they did the heavy pulling on the subframe, let me work in a corner of their lot, and gave me tips when I got stuck. Don't understimate the know-how that someone who does this for a living has.

Ken

That part under the headlight doesn't look structural, but it is very hard to tell from the pics. It looks like there might be a hole in whatever is behind that as well. You won't really know until you take it apart how bad the damage is behind the headlight.

If you want to repair it yourself and cheap look at car-part.com and try to find red body panels. OEM paint should match well. I replaced my sisters hood, fender, and headlight for around $800 this way. Bumpers are harder to find though.

You're right about there being damage behind the headlight. It's honestly what concerns me the most as I'm not sure if that counts as the frame. Where the headlight was pushed back, there is a piece of red painted steel about 5 inches long that was sheared/bent backwards. It looks like it may have been support for behind the headlight This piece pushes into my wheel well and causes the plastic shielding to be pretty close to my front tire, rubbing on turns from the drive home. I figure that will have to be the first thing that's fixed so that the headlight can be installed properly, but as folks said, I'll have to see what the extent is.

This is a good idea, thanks. I'll definitely need the help of someone for anything involving that kind of work or welding. Generally, I figured a body shop would frown on doing a specific piece of work that didn't involve getting the whole car operational again. Are you referring to a mom-and pop style place that does a little of everything?

Yes - more of a mom-and-pop place. Or a backyard mechanic. You might start by talking to a real body shop. People in the business know who's around. With the VW, we got an insurance estimate from a body shop where my dad knew the owner. The owner said that he would not take on the job because all of his guys were prima donnas who only wanted to work on late model Cadillacs. But one of his former employees (a gentleman named Preston) had opened his own shop across the street, and worked on older stuff. Preston just wanted to be his own man, and worked on whatever he could get.

This was back in the 60s. For $50 cash (a lot of money back then) Preston and his two helpers dropped what they were doing, got the pullers and sledgehammers (no frame machine) and did the heavy stuff. Then he wandered over every now and then and kept me from hurting myself or the car as I did the light pounding and the reassembly.

Ken

Update: Finally got the bumper off.

It's starting to get pretty frigid out here in Buffalo, NY - perfect for an aggravating project :)

The most frustrating part of it was actually disconnecting the passengers side turn indicator. I'd like to meet the person that designed those plastic clips.

Anyway, here are some pictures sans-bumper.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...%20removed.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...%20housing.jpg

Tomorrow I plan to remove the headlight and maybe the fender to find out how bad the sheet metal is under there.

Too bad you're across the country: 2007 MAZDA RX8

Wow, what a waste. You think it would just be better to rebuild the engine.

Can someone help me identify what "part" the sheared metal surrounding the headlight and under the fender is? Would this be the radiator core support?

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...%20housing.jpg

*Update*

Today I took the headlight out. I also took out my good headlight to use as reference for what was messed up.

My dad came over armed with something called a slide hammer. Initially, I was pretty skeptical, as I never imagined fixing a problem with my car with any sort of hammer. However, I'm pretty impressed with our progress.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...adjustment.jpg

The goal for the day was to get out the major creases and pull the steel into a more workable position. I think we made good progress. The next order of business is to take off the fender and finesse the pieces back into alignment. Once we're sure that the new headlight fits properly, we'll probably weld the split back together and be off to a good start.

All things said and done, I've been incredibly lucky so far. The damage appears to be localized to a very small area, and it seems like this just might be a doable project.

Next order of business is to order a headlight, turn signal indicator bracket, and one of those plastic wheel well covers.

I plan on documenting the rest of the repair in this thread. Is this the appropriate section for the thread? I'd also like to rename it to include the repair work.

Hey fellas, I could use a hand identifying a couple of parts. Included here is a stock photo to reference what I need:

http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_...0013_large.jpg

When looking at the passengers side headlight, the is a black fan-shaped plastic support that connects to the underside of the headlight and bolts through it. Any idea what that's called?

A search on carparts.com came up empty, as did the body manual.

I also need the plastic plastic connector that is adjacent to the headlight and bolts under then fender by the turn indicator. The last thing I need is that long rectangular black piece of plastic that sits on top of the bumper.

I got all the big parts easily, but the plastic connectors seem to be eluding me. If you could help me identify what they're called, or even where I could find out, I'd really appreciate it.

Any ideas on those part names or where i could find them?