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The main impact areas (ringed) This had the effect of bending the last inch of the rear wing inwards. I managed to straighten it out enough to make the boot lid shut by careful "posting" of the damaged area. (Basically attaching a rope to the crumpled area and then driving very carefully away from it, in this case the other end of the rope was attached to a Land Rover which had the hand brake on and wheels chocked so it would not move!) Close-ups of the areas. The impact is above the sub-frame (the square hole where the cross member armature fits).
I leaned the brush handle on the dent in the rear pillar so that it could be spotted more easily in the photo. At first I thought this was distortion caused by the impact bending the whole of the rear wing. Looking at it now it looks more like it actually been caused by something hitting the panel quite possibly the tailgate of the the car that reversed into it, which sprang open and must have bounced up and down a couple of times as the glass out of it showered over everything.
I have pulled out the area around the boot lock striker plate to where it was intended to be, and roughly bent the boot lid back into shape (it will need a replacement) At least it shuts now and seals on the rubber so hopefully it will keep the rain out -no more ponds in the spare wheel well! The bumper cross member showing very slight distortion to the metal cross member.
A little help from a hydraulic jack and a nice heavy Land Rover and the cross member is near enough straight.
The next stage is to do a temporary repair on the bumper and make the car presentable to drive around in when (hopefully) after a VIC I finally get the V5 log book and I can tax it again.
Well I had no trouble with the VIC, I did some
temporary repairs. At the moment it looks like this:
I have obtained a bumper, fuel flap, boot lid and
other bits from a scrap car for £50, in green so they will need repainting.
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