I clipped the back end of my Elddis Evante pulling out of a petrol garage, when forced to turn immediate. Very annoyed as I am usually very careful. The damage was to dent about 4 feet of my bottom awning rail, clipped off my rear nearside light, and damaged the bodywork around the light fitting about an area the size of my fist.
The light cover requires replacement, but the lights all work fine. The awning rail can be corrected with a bit of patience and a screwdriver, but the bodywork requires some effort. I am reluctant to pay to have it done as I can turn my hand to most repairs. The rear panel that houses the light fitting is formed to take the light and, as such is not flat but moulded. It looks like fibre glass and I am thinking of a GRP repair.
Can anybody give me any advice/tips before I start. This site is excellent for advice and you are all so helpful.
Hi Geoff , could you post a picture of the damage on here or email it to me at bobanoba86 at hotmail.com note change the at for the correct symbol and no spaces .
Hi Geoff, Depending on the severity of the damage you can either remove the panel and rebuild the panel by applying new glass matting to the rear,then facing the front of the panel with body filler preping and repainting, if the damage is not to severe you can use chopped glass fibre which comes ready made in a can, mis as per instructions and apply to the damaged area, when set sand down, apply body-filler prep and repaint.
Thank you both. I have to get to my storage to take photos, but am hoping to do that next week. The damage does not (I think) warrant removing the panel so it looks like the chopped glass in a tin option may be the best. I will post a couple of pics next week. Metz, where is the best place to get the chopped glass fibre in a can?
Thank again for the advice. I may need some more before finishing this one.
The easy way is to stick a vent/etc over it if its in a suitable place
I had 2 sets of triangles on the back of one caravan after the step ladders fell against it
My friend dented one caravan on the dealers forecourt before he had paid for it and the dealer fitted an external shower over the hole(never ever used!)
I have just sent a couple of pictures to your email address Wizard with a bit of text description. I would have posted them on here but do not know how to add pictures to messages.
Hope you can take a moment to have a look for me.
regards
I think they must be too large. The email was 1mb. I have just been reading a thread on how to photobucket them and send a link, also resizing them. I will try again in a few minutes. Sorry.
You will see from the first picture the general problem, including some damage to the side and vertical awning rails. Luckily no body damage on the side. The second picture shows a bit better the damage to the light housing panel and the light cover. After having the bang, the light was hanging by it's connections, but all bulbs are still working. The light fitting including cover had been clipped off the body panel and was left hanging. The screws that hold the light cover on, screw right through the light housing into the body panel before the impact. The altercation with a petrol pump caused the whole light fitting including the light housing to be pulled away from the bodywork. The screws pulled a sleeve of panel out with them (a bit like pulling out a screw from a wall taking the rawplug out with it) , leaving holes where the screws were. Not sure if I have explained this well. I then aligned the light fitting/cover and screws (with their fibre glass rawplugs) and pushed the whole thing back in place, and secured it with heaps of masking tape for extra security. This got me home.
If I try and remove thelight cover, the screws will turn (with their rawplugs) in the bodywork but will not unscrew. I will have to just pull them out, thus weakening them. I can then take off the 'rawplugs' from the screws and remove the cover from the light.
I am happy with replacing the cover but need advice on how best to attack the bodywork repair after the light has been removed. If I can make good the repair with fibre glass, I can then re-drill holes for the light fitting, before re-fitting the light and new cover.
Phew! Any advice or guidance on the body repair would be very welcome and very much appreciated.
Regards
Hi Geoff , the rawplug things that hold the light fitting are normally a rubber tube with a nut molded in the end , as you do the screw up the rubber expands and grips in the hole . If the fitting has been ripped out you could try glueing the rubbers in place on the body with araldite or try increasing the diameter of the rubber tube by sticking some thin strips of rubber to the tube .
Looking at your pics , unless your pretty handy with fibre glass i would use car body filler , you could then fill , smooth and spray . If the filler was to fall out , you could then do a fibre glass repair , but if you do a fibre glass repair first and don't get it spot on it could look a bit of a mess and would be difficult to put right .
Hope this helps . Do ask as many questions as you like .
Thanks for the tips and the help with the pictures. I will remove the light fitting first, and then attack the damage with car filler as you suggest. Just need a bit of kind weather.
Once again thanks for your help. I will post a picture of the finished job, if I get it right!
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Topic: Small Bodywork Damage Repair
