I damaged the driver front QP. The upper panel has been bent in and seems to have popped off some clips on the inside that hold the two panels together? What would be the best approach for fixing this?
Please see photos attached. Thank you.
2010 Toyota Camry SE
Scott
Simple , if you want it to look like it should then take it to a body shop ( now called collision centers ) . If you have full coverage then all it will cost you is your deductible . Your question indicates that you don’t have skill or tools to do body work.
And don’t ask price as that can only be determined by the shop looking at it.
If it were mine, I’d grab that fender (quarter panel is the rear) and give it a few tugs to bring it back to shape and the snap the bumper cover back in place. Unless the clips are broken, then I’d figure a way to re-attach them. Maybe tie-wraps inside the fende, of course. Maybe a bit of touch-up paint, color sand and buff.
If these words confuse you or you want it to look like new again, follow @VOLVO_V70’s advice and take it to a body shop.
Yeah that’s a fender not a quarter panel. Likely the bumper cover connections have been ripped but you will need to take a look. If they are ripped, a body shop is going to want to replace the bumper cover. If you can figure a way to re-attach the cover to the fender you can salvage the bumper cover. Done that before but a shop is not going to mess with it.
I agree with grabbing the fender at the bottom corner next to the head light and just pulling it back out. You have to go a little past the original position because of spring back, but not much. Take it easy, you can always pull it just a tad more on a second or third pull.
The bumper cover is a different story. If you look under the car, there may be holes in the fender and the bumper cover where you can use those plastic push pins you get at the parts place to pin them back together. Those will be at the very back of the bumper cover and the front of the fender. Clip the rest of the bumper cover first.
If the hole in the bumper cover for the push pin is torn out, (very likely), you could use a nut, bolt and two fender washers and a lock washer to secure the end of the bumper cover.
If you are planning on doing this yourself, this is a video showing removal of the front bumper cover.
There are clips that attach the cover to the fender, but also a screw mount. I don’t think you’ll find those repairable if broken. The fender is fairly weak (thin) so might be able to push it into shape with minimum effort.
The guys are correct about this being a fender. It is bolted on. In the early 60’s, the T-bird had fenders that were welded. Ford referred to that as a fender (when selling the outer skin) but other times referred to it as a front quarter panel. The term never caught on.
Thank you all for the input. Seems I’ll give it a go on bending it back into shape and reconnecting it first before bringing to a shop.
After the third time repairing my son’s fender and bumper cover, I told him one more time and we’d have to replace the cover. There was nothing much left to connect it to the fender again after being ripped. People liked to back into the car hitting the same place every time. I stocked green pearl paint. Good luck but I did my first body work at 13 so study up.
