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This accident happened the morning after my wife died. It was a real insult to injury. It took me a week just to get out and check how bad the damage was. Thankfully my friends teamed up and removed the carport and cleaned everything up for me. I really owe them.
The car will be saved. I have to. I am buying a set of doors since the passenger door got a pretty good tweak and the drivers was already full of filler.
I am currently shopping for a new daily driver so that I can take my time, do a proper job on the bodywork and get the beast into some real paint.
Now I have to decide on a new daily. A 97 BMW M3 sedan or a 2006 MINI Cooper S ?
Distracting myself with thoughts of cars is my way of trying to deal with the grieving process. If I sound crass or calloused it is because thinking about fixing the 850 or buying a new car is a fair deal easier than imagining the rest of my life without her.
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jpsmit
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,274
Member is Online
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Gutted to hear about your wife. be assured of my prayers. Do you have support around you?
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Seth
South East
MorrisOxford TriumphMirald HillmanMinx BorgwardIsabellaCombi
Posts: 15,543
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Very sorry to hear your news. Thinking of you from this side of the Ocean.
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Follow your dreams or you might as well be a vegetable.
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miilor
Part of things
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all are with you
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I'm sorry to hear the news. It seems as if you have good friends, use their support to see you through these tough times. My thoughts are with you.
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1987 Alfa Milano/75 1979 Alfetta Mille Miglia 1976 Alfetta GT race car 1970 Lancia Fulvia 1.3 Rallye S 1968 Fiat 850 spider
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RA40tony
Europe
Rollin' rollin' rollin'
Posts: 768
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Really sorry to hear this.
Having something to work on will help you cope, heard it too many times unfortunately.
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1979 Toyota Celica GT. Currently Gone.
1975 Toyota Celica ST. 13x7 Allycats, "the stick" applied. 100kW 4AGE... Sold
1963 Karmann Ghia - Lo & Slo, Sold.
1965 VW Fastback - cruising
1953 Oval Ragtop, work in progress...
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My regards... Shin up is the best way forward... keep up the good work
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luckygti
Posted a lot
I need to try harder!
Posts: 4,912
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Terrible news about your wife, like you say, insult to injury to have that happen to the cars as well. Hopefully it can be repaired, a man of your talents will manage it I have no doubt. Thinking of you from this side of the pond
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Sorry to hear this. I would be tempted to drill a series of small pilot holes along the crease, screw in self-tapping screws and use an engine crane or similar to gently pull it back into shape.
Or, if you don't like the idea of drilling holes, you could use one of those electric dent puller kits, where you temporarily electrically weld studs on then pull on them using a slide hammer. I've used one on a van that had a dented sill, and it worked well. Then you just snap the studs off and use an angle grinder to dress them back to the panel metal.
A pair of pliers or Mole grips would ease the gutter back into shape.
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I drove the car around today. Still drives straight and true. Still more fun than should be allowed on public roads. I really need to get out and mow the lawn.
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Absolute sympathy mate.
I could not start to think what I would do in your situation.
My advice as always is to seek strength in celebrating the good things in her life.
Last pic looks great in the grass.
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Are you feeding the ponies? !?!?! LLLoooLLL
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It's sometimes difficult to know what to say to someone you feel you know, because of the posts about their projects you have read. I have just read through the whole of this thread and was gutted to see the carport damage. When I got to the next page and saw the rest of your terrible news I was welling up. My, and I guess everybody elses, thoughts go out to you.
The word epic is often used wrongly in the car forum community, but this thread is genuinely Epic.
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As all have said, you are definitely in the thoughts and prayers of many people from all round the World, hope that is some small comfort dude. Stay strong my friend.
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1981 VW T25
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FIAT
Part of things
Posts: 149
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Great little car ! Good idea about the brakes . Good luck fixing it up. FIATs rule
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andyborris
Posted a lot
Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.
Posts: 2,220
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I can only imagine what you must feel like at the moment.
And all I can do is offer sympathy via this forum.
Remember the good times and celebrate her life.
The car is something I know you can easily fix, life can be a bit harder to make right, so good luck with the future.
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It puts things in perspective, i guess. So sorry to read about (almost) the worse thing that can happen to anyone. The fiat is just a little car , it can be replaced or rebuild or whatever. I wish you lots of strength, to overcome this. even though i am a continent away and i don't know you personally, i feel for you. Can not imagine how i would feel if my girl were to pass away
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Trent,
My thoughts are with you on your loss.
The car doesn't look that bad, I had a similar dent in my last 600 from transporting it from Florida to here.
We had a freak storm here on October 30, 2011, over a foot of heavy snow. It left over 200,000 people in MA without power, I had none for a week.
It also destroyed two of my sheds, one of which totaled my popup camper. I ended up selling almost everything, including ten garden tractors.
On a positive note, my 1967 850 Coupe arrived this past Friday. It's in my garage waiting for my wrenches to get on it.
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Apr 12, 2012 13:55:15 GMT
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Crikey, I trawled back through the pages to find out how your little fiat was going, one of the few things I often come back to look at. I am gobsmacked at the terrible news, my thoughts are with you. I can only imagine what it must feel like, but I can see how the cars will give you an avenue of distraction. On the fiat, I recently found some crash damage on my Celica project, it had been slid into a bank and pushed all the sill in, this is an integral part to the celica shape and was very noticable. I used a stud weld gun and slide hammer to pull the worst of the dents out. The surface is now rippled but only 2-3mm out from the original position and so much more manageable. Depends on what kind of repair you will be happy with, it might be worth cutting it out and wedling in a new section? I used a kit very similar to this - If there is anything I can do, sourcing parts from the UK etc, don't hesitate to PM. J
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Last Edit: Apr 12, 2012 13:56:52 GMT by Blown_Imp
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jaws
Part of things
Posts: 39
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Apr 12, 2012 21:41:51 GMT
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I've been following this thread from Ireland, as I had an 850 many years ago. I only read about your wife today. May she rest in peace, and as we say over here ,I'm so sorry for your trouble. Good luck with the car, it's only metal and if it can be bent ,it can be bent back, I've no doubt you'll get it sorted. Keep the chin up.
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