CRUNCH!!! went the front wing! - How difficult to replace?

[icurnow]

Reversed into a bollard, front nearside wing pushed in between wheel and door (very fortunate really no door damage). Just for fun ASGARD Volvo to quote tomorrow... however, how difficult can it be to replace a bolt on bolt off wing. Has anyone experience of this? Should I buy a volvo on at £160 or eurocarparts at £90? Local guy will spray for £50 leaving me to bolt on, potentialy repaired for £140. Opinions or suggestions folks, or does anyone know a good bodyshop in Dudley, Wolverhampton, Telford area?

Advice warmly received, thanks Ian

V70 classic 1999 TDI

[cootuk]

When my mrs had an argument with an artic we took the car to a local bodyshop, cash in hand, new front left wing, indicator lens, and respray, about £150.
Most local indy garages have a friendly bodyshop they pass work to so could be well just to ask around. If you mention them in the deal, then they a few credits built up.
The only thing to make sure is that they align it correctly with the bonnet and door in terms of the gapping.
If it's not too bad they might be able to just pull the wing back in to shape.

why not just get a panel of the right colour from your local scrappers, and not bother spraying it?

Hugh

Hi Ian,

Sorry to hear of your mis-fortune.

As posted above, try scrappies first - if you are fortunate enough to find a wing from a vehicle of similar age and in the same colour then you've saved the expense of getting it sprayed. Furthermore, the paint will not be new so there shouldn't be too much of a mis-match.

If you do it yourself, yes, it's an easy job to just unbolt and then bolt back on. However, the second phase isn't so easy - trying to line it up aith the door, bonnet and front headlight. You'll find that when you've lined it up wih the bonnet it doesn't line up with the door and vice versa. A little patience and you'll get there though.

Finally, if you do go down the new wing route, I'd personally pay the extra and get a Volvo one. The only reason I say that is because I think my T5 has had new wings at some point in its life (there's a couple of tell-tale signs plus it's ex-police so panel replacement is quite likely). I suspect the wings were replaced with non-Volvo ones because there is some rust bubbling up from behind the paint on the off-side wing. Also, both have minor scuffs on the rim of each wheel arch and some surface rust is showing. From my experience these cars don't rust so I can only assume the corrosion is due to crap materials in non-OEM parts.

Regards

Andy

[icurnow]

Thank you all for you thoughts, I am going to ring around the scrappies this afternoon, and am thinking of getting on and doing it myself. It must be said I am struggling to find anybody shop which would do it for less than £150 labour/paint on top of the wing cost.


Ian Curnow

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V70 99 TDI

[Chris_Rogers]

My advise would be to fit the wing and then have it sprayed.
Use the genuine part new or secondhand.

If you try and fit the wing afterwards you will end up marking the soft new paint. The paint also needs to be matched with the existing faded paint.

[icurnow]

Thanks Chris,

Volvo quote is now in..... wait for it.... £742inc.. had to decline their kind offer.

Decision re method is made thanks to kind friend with body shop (bit of a travel but worth it I think) proper volvo wing (£120) to be fitted, painted, blended at a friendly price. Sooner I get it done the sooner I can bring myself to wash the poor vehicle (dont like to look at it at the moment and mud hides the scar!).


Ian Curnow

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V70 99 TDI