So I just bought my first F-body! My dad used to have two F-Bodys but i've never owned my own. It's a 1984 Firebird with a 2.8L V6 and basically has no extra options on it at all. I bought it from a insurance write-off auction for only 250$!! The interior is pratically mint and the engine has about 170,000KM on it which is'nt bad for a 1984 car IMO. There is a bit of rust on it, mainly on the driver side quarter panel and on the driver side rocker panel but for a '84 canadian car, it's reasonable. Now the reason why it was written off was because of a wrecked driver's door and fender which is fine seeing as my dad has a spare of each I can use. Now the one thing I can't figure out is how the damage happened. I took a quick picture and I was hoping that someone could shed some light on this. Does anyone know how this would happen or if anyone had this happen to them? If so, any opinion would be awesome!

 

not sure how that happened (maybe a little 5 iron frenzy lol). Some interior pics would be cool.

So what you planning for the car? Also good luck on the body work, it's pretty difficult at first but stick with it.

 

That's just weird damage. It puts you in the mind of a giant person just taking their hands like The Hulk & ripping it apart .

But seriously, it dosen't look like a wreck or anything. It's like someone intentionaly did it.

 

Yea when I saw the car at the auction lot it looked like it was just minimal damage. As for what i'm going to do to the car I'm most likealy just gonna get it on the road and go from there. Maybe even a V8 swap. I drove the 2.8 for a couple of minutes and it was nothing compared to my dad's 305 camaro (even though the 305 is not anything spectacular either).

 

Looks like he may of gotten T-Boned by a motorcycle.

 

well guys, i think im right in saying that the door was just bent backwards...really far.

 

Looks like someone backed up with the door open and caught it on something and it opened the door past its normal range.Then the only way to get it to close back right was to seperate the door from the quarter panal some more.I`ve seen it happen with my own eyes when I was much younger and muuuuuuuuch drunker.

 

yea it was definitley not hit by a motorcycle. Shadygrady is probably right though, the guy most likely backed up with the door open and caught a pole. either that or i forgot to mention that the car was keyed with the words *** so someone could have deliberatly done it.

 

I did something like that. My mom's old Dodge Crapkota. I was giving someone a jump start.. and the shift lever never fully went into park. It popped back into reverse as I was opening the hood. I hopped back in and slammed the brakes.. about a second after the door caught a tree. DOH!
Looked quite a bit like that.

I hated that truck.

 

Shady is probably right, but my intial thought was that a truck with a hitch on the back backed into that area.

 

I agree with the door backing into something theory. Does the door close and line up when you slam it shut?

 

yea it still lines up when I close it but I REALLY got to slam it to get it to close. the hinges on it are messed up. Oh well ill be putting in the new door tommorow probably. After that the fender and then bodywork. once thats all done then paint! hopefully i can finish this by summer vacation.

 

Definetley get the door on and see how it fits. Just hope the area where the door bolts up to is not messed up. I tried to fix a bird that was broadsided by a car, and that part got pushed inward....it was virtually IMPOSSIBLE to get it to line up right!!! haha

 

That was great.

 

Someone might have bumpted it backing up then the owner forced the door open bending the finder and door more.

 

Alright well I actually ran into the guy who used to own the car and he told me what happened. Turns out he lives seven blocks down from my dads and he saw us working on it. He said that the door was starting to sag really bad because of old hinge pins and two bolts missing on the bottom hinge. He told me one day it was sagging so bad that when he went to get out of his car, he opened the door and it got caught on the edge of the fender. Not knowing why it was stopping, he slammed it open as hard as he could and well... it all just buckled. So after meeting him I mounted on the new red door and it does'nt close at all. It has too raise like an inch more just to meet the bolt type thing it closes onto. Me and my dad tried pulling up on the door as hard as we could and tightning the bolts but it did'nt do much. So my question is, is it bent where the hinges go or bad pins on this door to?

 

Maybe try some shims,or look into getting an entire knew hinge assembly.That would probably be the best way to be sure it fits.Then you may still need to shim it.These doors are long and heavy.Its a pretty common problem.

 

yea I was thinking shims of some sort. I forgot to mention that the car is completely lifted and resting on four jackstands so I was also wondering if it could be body flex at all? are these cars bad for body seeing as there a unibody? Just throwing out ideas.

 

I was gonna say bad hinges and a case of angermanagment or someone opened it into traffic. Sounds like the door pilar is out of wack, or you have the door on wrong. If the door pillar is out of wack good luck. You could put the old door back on and jack under it to try to straighten it out. Did you get new hinges and pins?

 

Lol well the door is at the dump right now so that is'nt an option. I dunno though I keep thinking body flex 'cause that one rocker panel on the driver side is completely shot and rusted out. either way I'm gonna be doing body work on the weekend and i'll take it off the jackstands to see. I'll also take pics.

 

Yes these cars do have body flex problems.Thats one reason evryone recomends sub-frame connectors,especialy for t-tops and verts.Try it on the ground it may be easier,unless the frames or the pillars bent from a previous wreck.Ever noticed how the car creeks and pops when you pull into a steep driveway....bodyfiex.

 

i can see what happened on the fender as a result of pushing it all the way, but the door??? IDK about that....

 

I personally dont think someone could do that much damage to a car from the inside. I am guessing that isn't what really happened to it. Anyway, lets get some pictures of it as you go along restoring it. It is probably bringing back some memories for you father as well. Have fun with it.

 

Alright well a bit of an update: Did a bit of body work on the passenger side. nothing too major but I was busy with work this weekend. Took the car off the jackstands and onto all four tires and now the door closes properly. Me and my dad have no clue as to why it only closes properly on the ground 'cause while it was on the jackstands the passenger door closed properly but I still think it would be because of the rotted out rocker panel. Otherwise though things are going smooth. Wanted to get pictures but I Don't have my camera right now 'cause I lent it to a friend.Lol thats for sure! Whenever were working on a thing he'll always bring up "Remember that one time you and I were working on my '82 camaro...and then this happened...and then that happened...and finally we got it running smoothly..." Yea it's also ridiculuos hearing some of the storys my dad had when he was young and had his first camaro. A '71 Camaro I think it was. The things they did back then would never happen again in these days!