So this lady falls asleep at the wheel and rams into my Maxima's rear end at about 30mph. Her 89 Saab's front end was completely totaled and had to be towed away. My Maxima only sustained rear bumper damage and POSSIBLY some frame bending.
It's the frame bending that worries me.
Can anyone look at these pictures and tell me if you think the dent that appears just behind the right rear window is associated with the frame of the car being bent(marked with a red arrow)? Is that weird indentation on the "quarter panel" ? I hear that when the bumper takes an impact, the force can be transfered to the frame arch which would result in bending of the upper arch of the frame even though the impact occured on the lower bumper part. I just want to be able to know if there is damage to my "quarter panel" before her appraiser comes to evalulate it. Thanks for the input!

 

damn thats f-'d up

 

That's pain, man. People like that shouldn't drive.

I'm not certain but that may be part of the crumple zone - and not frame damage. I'm sure someone on this board could correct me if I'm wrong.

Good thing you're ok, though.

 

Real sorry about your car dude.

I can't answer your question, but i'm wondering if the Active headrest did their job? Did you feel like they saved you from whiplash or anything at all?

 

You definitely need a full assessment of damage, but I would say YEP.

 

That sux man. Glad you're alright.

 

the car can always be replaced....a life can't...

make sure ur neck is ok (hint hint)

 

Well, most modern cars don't really have frames, do they? They have unibodies that are welded together. I think I'm right.

So, yep, they need to unbend your car.

 

Same thing happened to me when I owned a '85 Z28... and they had to reconstruct that side of the pillar.

 

An impact at 30mph is going to generate a lot of force! I'm glad that you're ok. You're car looks f-ed, though

 

You need a new quarter pannel. It gets cut off right above where you drew that arrow and down below just under the rear door. There is no frame back there, the only frame in the rear of the car is the sub frame that your suspension mounts onto. You probably have some trunk pannels that are going to need replacement as well.

The collision damage done to your car doesn't look serious. It's gonna cost a few thousand...

Proline Body and Chassis
545 River Drive
Elmwood Park, NJ 07407
201-398-1512

We are a Nissan approved body repair facility.

 

Just got off the phone with the appraiser.
He said that he got a chance today to appraise the damage on the
'89 Saab that hit me. His response to me was.."daaaammn...you
got hit by that Saab?!?! If it doesn't look like it, you definately got some hidden damage on you car!" =(

He's going to come take a look at it tomorrow morning.
Fingers are crossed that there was no catastrophic damage to my frame.

 

That ripple looks to be where the bulkhead is that separates the interior form the rest of the car. There should be a lot of structural strength in this area as it is supposed to be sort of a roll cage around the passenger compartment. If this rollcage has deformed then the force of the impact has exceeded the yield strength of the steel and even though it can be bent back into shape, it will never again offer the protection of undeformed steel should another rear-ender occur.

Hope your neck is feeling okay. Over the years, I've been rear-ended (insert crude humor reference here) three times and my neck now makes all kinds of snap-crackle-and pop noises when I turn my head. In one instance, I had to wear a neck brace for a few days- what a literal pain in the neck that was. At least the pain killers the doctor prescribed were fun!

 

yes that dent is definitely from the rear QP beginning to crumple..