[TR] Front apron woes

David Ljung Madison team.net at daveola.com
Wed Feb 13 17:52:30 MST 2008


Bob Labuz:
> The damage does not look that bad to me...  I dont see any rips or tears.

I must confess that looking at the photos and it doesn't look as bad
as it does in person.  There *is* at least one rip, you can see it in:

http://DavePics.com/Album/Trouble/2007-10-22.Triumph-Accident/tn/cimg0823.jpg.html

It's the white line under the headlight that heads up to the fender.

The things that concern me the most are:

1) The top driver's headlight is bent back (you can see the bend
   on the very top), this also causes a bump inwards where the
   letters are.
2) There's a rip in the bondo section under the headlight as
   mentioned, though most of the apron is actually metal (it's
   one of the few body panels on the car that's still mostly
   metal, sadly).
3) The mouth above the grill is bent up and bent inwards,
   at some points folded pretty sharply.

But I'm starting to get the impression that good body guys can
fix these things (though I'm not sure how close they can get
to the original curves, or how much that actually matters to
the human eye).

Incidentally, a couple people have contacted me with possible front
aprons they could sell me, which has opened up my options greatly.

I've heard that fitting body panels from one car to another can
be a hassle, but I can't imagine it's as difficult as fixing the
apron I have...


David Lylis:
> I would look up a competent body shop.  
> Someone who can straighten metal and not a bondo king.  

Any suggestions from anyone on SF Bay Area "competent" body shops?

I should point out that I want the car to look nice (again), but
it's not a competition car.  The body shop I'm talking to now
did a pretty good job a couple years back when they did the paint job:

http://triumph.Daveola.com/Album/Paint-Job/

Although I should point out:

1) Not all the parts went back as desired (mostly due to the
   extremely thick paint and coat) - but it was mostly nitpicking.
2) They probably mixed the color up wrong, although I must confess
   I like the new color.
3) There wasn't any serious body work though they managed to smooth
   out the metal considerably (using bondo)
4) The body guy is quite the salesman.  Meaning I'm not sure
   whether what he's telling me will actually work out, or
   where he's getting the $1200 from (I suspect it's based
   on the new one costing $2200).

Dave

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Dave Ljung Madison          http://GetDave.com/                415.341.5555
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