These past few months a few of my friends have all been "breaking in" their new cars with their first crash... well, I guess it was my turn the other night. I was coming home and took a bend a little too quick and clipped a stop sign and a street sign. I must have skidded on some gravel or something because I wasn't even able to make the turn down the hill and around the curve... very unusual to hear of a Thirdgen (especially the IROC-Z) not making it around a moderate turn.

Fortunately, the first sign landed right after the front wheel but before the door -- only the front fender and the rocker panel got damaged. The other sign hit the very edge of my rear bumper. When the car jumped the curb it also knocked some paint off the front fascia of the car... I don't think that will need replaced, though. Gladly, there was no mechanical damage to the car whatsoever.

Since nobody else really caused the accident, I'm going to have to pay for the property damage and the signage (with the help of insurance)... really no way around that one.

Obviously, I don't see this as a good thing but it doesn't seem like a bad thing, either. I'll most definitely need to get the car repaired, but I was planning on repainting the back bumper, anyway. I won't be driving the car for a while to ensure that my insurance doesn't go up toooo much, so I'll be able to do my drivetrain overhaul/rebuild without being tempted to rush the process just to drive the car.

As far as repairs are concerned, I have yet to get a quote on the damage. I priced out the parts that I truly need (front fender and rocker panel) and that only comes to about $150. What would a rough estimate be for painting those parts plus the front fascia and rear bumper? I heard somewhere that it can be really difficult to match paint -- especially my color -- because the car is rather old.

Well, here are the pictures... let me know what you all think .

 

that sucks man.

 

That sucks.

 

That really does suck. You have a real nice car. The thing I'd be scared of is any serious damage to the firewall. That fender looks to be pushed in too far for there not to be hidden damage. Hope thats not the case.

 

Thanks for the compliment. I just went out to check underneath the hood (hadn't had it open since)... everything looks normal. I also looked under the car itself and there doesn't look to be any structural damage. Upon closer examination of the actual angle that the dent is, it seems that the dent *just* missed breaking the firewall.

 

man that hurts,
it looks like a nice car

hope that it never happens to mine (85 iroc)

 

Yeah man that does suck. Your car is awesome, I love the color. Hopefully you can get it all fixed though, good luck!

 

that sux, your car is beautiful!!!!!!!! :hail:

 

sorry about that man. i know how you feel though. back in febuary i had my "break in" wreck. i (like you) looked under the car, nothing apeared to be wrong, man was that assumption wrong. lets see here the frame was bent, the radiator and condersor were ruined radiator support was bent. and i think that is all the hidden stuff. body shop wanted 5900 to fix it. i took that insurance money and fixed it my self, and also did a few mods with the money. at least yours isnt this bad.

 

damn bro that sucks.ive had 2 break in wrecks with my RS.one was kinda like youre,lost grip on a slippery turn,lost control,and went across some bushes,tearing off my ground effect the same way you did,and taking paint off of the front end.then a few months later,i rearended someone,and totally messed up the front nose piece,front ground effect,and the hood.those are gonna have to be replaced,but the nose is cheap and easy to get;i have yet to find a front ground effect though for a 91-92 'maro.and hte hood is going to be either an SS hood or a cowl hood.and for the paint,the guy i know thats gonna do mine told me he will paint my front end for around 250.yours,if you wanted to whole thing stripped and repainted,would be around the same price i would imagine.cheaper if you just want the unpainted part fixed.the ground effect i would imagine to be around 150 or so to paint.and ill say one other thing,youre damn lucky that hood didnt get touched!that looked real close to getting hit.that would be another couple hundred just for the hood alone!good luck with it man!gorgeous car!

 

Bummer; looks more like a telephone pole than a street sign! Are you sure there's no mechanical damage? Have the alignment done...

 

nice car

new fender
new ground f/x
and a friend to help with the hood to replace the fender. You should be able to fix the fender and ground f/x in a week end.

It could have been alot worse. At least The door didnt get destroyed. It easier to replace a fender than a door.


good luck.

 

Ouch!

 

Man, that sucks.

 

Yeah, I was seriously considering just getting the parts painted and putting them on myself... shouldn't be too hard to fix it in my situation (it looks a lot worse than it really is). As far as alignment is concerned, I think it is OK. I took my hands off the wheel while I was driving it home from the accident and it stayed straight.

There may be some bad news, though. My mom is thinking of making me sell my car . I remember always wanting a Thirdgen since I was real young, so it is kinda crushing. Still, my hopes of driving a nice car aren't completely destroyed... my mom basically said this: "Hey, why don't you sell your IROC and buy a 1970 Chevelle?" My mom and dad used to have a '70 Chevelle SS to pull around our '67 Camaro when my dad drag raced it.

Either way, we'll see what happens. Selling my car might be tragic, but I wouldn't exactly be unhappy with an old Chevelle, either .

 

That sucks man. I had something similar happen, cept, the car wasn't moving, and it wasn't my fault. Freakin Sears destroyed my drivers side GFX EXACLTY like that, snaped off and all, plus they bent up the fender.... all in the sake of rushing. They had started to raise it off the ground with there lift, but failed to stick the drivers side Lift Foot on the frame.

Adam

 

That is too bad to hear, your car is beautiful man.

 

sorry that was a nice car, hopefully u can get it back to stock ok

 

Not the best way to break in your car, lucky you didn't run into anyone else when you lost control, now I know why there are so many trashed 3rd. Gen's around (break in crashes) at least your planning on getting it fixed, hope it turns out like you want it, and keep it between the ditches when you get it fixed

 

Hey i was just wondering what the exact name of the shade of blue your iroc is...i would like to paint mine that color...thanks alot.

 

The fender would be cheap to change and paint, the bumper need to be changed as well, as for the rocker panel, I wouldn't recommand getting another one... Believe me, it is one hell of a job and you need weilding to fix it... that'll be more expensive. The paint, if you have the color code, won't be hard to match. But if you never painted a car I suggest you leave it to professional... I'm canadian, so my prices are can it'd be about a thousand bucks in overall max... like I said, the rocker panel is a bitch...

 

OMG

Your car was one of the best looking blue IROC's i've seen on the net

 

Well I got the estimate the other day from a trusted service garage and it comes to about $2200. Of course, labor charges were 75% of that . I'm really tempted to put the fender and rocker panel on myself and just have them paint it.

The paint RPO code is "23U." The actual name of the color is "Medium Maui Blue Metallic (91)." The guy at the body shop said that paint matching shouldn't be hard at all, surprisingly.

 

Better than hitting mail boxes. oh s--t

 

 

Hmm, interesting. I did a search for "23U" on ThirdGen.Org's RPO checker. It came up as Medium Maui Blue Metallic... I didn't know that they recycled RPO codes so soon.

 

 

That's pretty cool... I never knew that you could get touch-up paint for nearly any year car. That will definitely come in handy in the future.