https://www.flickr.com/photos/1974_fiat ... 3728328052
At the very end of last driving season (sometime in November) I under-steered into and climbed up a curb. I totally wrecked the front rim and shredded the tire, plus bent the rear rim. Most upsetting to me was that my daughter was in the car and I had frightened her. After testing steering and brakes I quickly scooted the car home (just a few blocks) and tucked it into the garage, listening to the tire deflate. My wife was in a particularly bad way at the time health-wise so I didn't have the time or energy to worry about the car: I just put on a spare and stored it for the season, leaving with dealing with damage to the spring. Now here we are.
As the season approached I bought a set of four leftover rims from the previous owner of the car (who had also had a spare parts car); I also got two bins of spare bits and bobs (arm rests, chrome bumpers, dash bits, etc.). I spray painted the best rim to match the others and had a new tire installed; meanwhile I pulled the still good tire off the bent rim and used it on what had been my painted spare and now have a quite rusty spare.
Here's a vid showing the corner and damage:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/1974_fiat ... 3764319972
What worried me most was other possible damage. The alignment was off (no suprise!) plus the steering wheel angle. More troubling was a slight bow in the front quarter panel where it meets the door (new as I had just had the exterior of the car painted) and the engine hood sat differently. Something had happened there... I was most concerned about the control arm or crossmember (both of which can be easily fixed) but especially about the unibody alignment along the main beam. I was wondering even if I would have to write off the car as I didn't want to have to pay the huge bucks to bring it to a frame straightener at our local Porsche dealership.
I had it up on a hoist early last week. Good news is that it passes muster. I'll keep an eye on it, but so far so good. Nothing bent in the steering linkages, the control arms is still solidly affixed to the crossmember, and the crossmember is good on the frame. I'll have to look more carefully at the shock tower next. If I'm lucky it will just be an alignment issue.
When up on the hoist we noticed the stainless downtube was scraped and a bit crushed on one side -- luckily I missed the oil pan!! Now THAT would have been a disaster! I wonder if this force of the curb on the downtube then put enough compression force through the stainless header and into the block, then yanking on the mounts and if this could have put the pressure on the front quarter panel through the beam. I dunno.
Anyhow, I'm just glad to so far I don't either have to write off the car or order piles and piles of parts that I had already just replaced last year.
Cheers,
phaetn