Well I gave up on waiting for the insurance company inspector to make contact (besides which I’m doubtful they’d provide a particularly useful assessment anyway…) and had time this afternoon to take it to a body repair shop just round the corner. They seem to know these cars well, and agreed that, though the crossmember was slightly pushed back, it would be no problem whatsoever to pull it back into shape - they also reckoned it could probably be done without even having to remove the front bumper.
Fingers crossed this all goes as planned, but if so, it’s a pretty cheap repair - then I can replace the broken front indicator lamps myself with second hand parts for next to nothing. As for the bumper, it really doesn’t seem damaged other than a few nasty scratches - so I can either live with a scratched bumper, or consider getting it repainted or fit a new or 2nd hand one at some point. Anyway, very far from a write off by any definition.
I suspect I may get a few suggestions to take the bumper off anyway to see if there’s any other damage, but the repair shop were adamant that the sections of the slam panel further down would be fine, based on the fact that it’s only slightly bent at the top (as indicated by MickAP’s yellow arrows - thanks for this by the way!) and that the bumper itself is not cracked or dented. If anyone strongly disagrees with this, do let me know.
Thanks again for all the advice, I’ll report back in a day or so whether this all goes as smoothly as hoped!
Just for your info here is a pic of my Mk1 with the rear bumper skin removed. As you can see laying on the floor is the bumper crash bar for want of a better word, it absorbs those small bumps etc. Mine was removed because I could see the bumper wasn’t sitting correctly, I was having it sprayed up as well. It had taken a bump and had a kink in it, but I couldn’t tell how bad until I’d removed it. Anyway a big hammer on the bracket (the bit hanging down from the rear of the car) and a replacement crash bar (secondhand £20) and all was good again the bumper lined up perfectly.
So ok why are you showing me this you ask? Well you will have similar on the front of yours, hopefully a big hammer might fix it, but do check all around for any other damage.
All sorted now, got it bent back into shape pretty cheaply at the local body shop I mentioned.
M-m, MickAP etc - yes I know I probably could have done this myself, but I would have needed more tools, and on this occasion I just wanted the peace of mind of having a pro deal with it. I never doubted your opinions that it was an easy fix though! Trust me, that was very good to hear, before this thread I really didn’t have a clue how serious (or not serious) a bent crossmember was.
Anyway, now I’ve seen this sort of damage fixed with my own eyes I’ll be more confident to have a bash at it myself next time. Not that this car will be crashed again, if my co-driver is reading this…!!
Only thing to fix now is the front indicators, and don’t worry, this I will be doing myself.
Thanks again all, it’s good to be back on the road!
