Sitting at a stop light yesterday, a Chevy Tahoe with a very large hitch decided to back up to avoid a Semi turning the corner, and hit my 2002 Altima fairly hard with the end of the hitch. It punched a hole in my bumper between the grill and the left headlight, but lower than both of them.
I notice that now my hood release is far more aggressive when the hood pops up and the space between the hood and bumper is larger on that side by about a 1/4 inch. What kind of damage do I look for that isn't easily visible so I can get this fixed properly?
Hopefully you got his insurance carrier and his license number. If not it will come out of your pocket. Like Penguin said. Body shop should be your next stop.
__________________ Driving is a privilege. . . and I just revoked your privileges.
2005 Altima 3.5SE, Smoke with 17" Nissan 5 spoke wheels.
Mods: K & N Air filter, Grille painted (body color match), SE-R Tail lights (with edges painted black), Pioneer AVIC-X710BT (with PAC SWI-PS steering wheel control), Painted Calipers, Eibach Pro-Kit, fiberglass eyelids.
My cars:
2007 Chevrolet Equinox
2005 3.5SE Altima
2002 Volvo S60
1996 Volvo 850
1996 Chevy Tahoe
1977 Corvette
I have his insurance (Progressive) and all his personal info, so that shouldn't be a problem, I am just looking for input from the forum on possible hidden damage from this kind of impact to the front end.
Most likely you'll need to replace the foam bumper pad behind the bumper cover but look real close for any signs of cracking or stress anywhere on the radiator core support.
The core support runs all the way across the front end and holds the radiator, hood latch and headlights. It is made of a type of plastic and once it is damaged it must be replaced as it cannot be bent back into place.
Sound to me like the core support did gt damaged if you're having trouble opening your hood.
__________________
Quote:
The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.
- Alexander Hamilton
Car was gone for a week, Progressive (other guys insurance) replaced the bumper skin and had it painted. I checked the car out with the bumper off and I could see no damage other than a small dent in the foam under the skin and no cracks in the radiator support. The work was done at the local GM dealer body shop collision center in Rice Lake WI.
The paint job was very nice and smooth, but I now have a white bumper on a car painted Satin White Pearl. The shop told me when I called and complained about it, that I should bring it back and they would blend the white into the fenders so it wasn't so obvious.
They are going to have to paint the bumper over, they claim they used the correct paint, but if they did they sure skimped on the pearl since there is none visible on the bumper.
QX3-Satin White Pearl
Satin White Pearl is what is called a Tri-Coat paint:
1: the base color
2: the pearl or effect coat applied in a "clear base"
3: clear coat
They are extremely difficult to match, but that isn't my problem, it matched before their client hit me and I want it to match now!
After Labor Day the fun starts with the insurance company and the body shop!
UPDATE: Got them to agree to repaint the bumper and that the job they did was not right, then the day before they were to do the job-
I hit a deer on my way home and only the bumper was damaged, but the aftermarket bumper cover they put on instead of a Nissan cover, literally shattered with the impact. Now my insurance gets to fix the bumper, but not with a cheap aftermarket cover that breaks into five pieces when it gets hit.
My original bumper got hit by a Tahoe and only put a small hole in the bumper with no cracking.
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Smokey
Driving is a privilege. . . and I just revoked your privileges.
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