[sdngs]

Yes, my daughter learned a lesson in turning left in front of someone. Ouch!!

being im a newbie to fixing Beetle, just looking for thoughts on how bad this might be. Waiting for a body shop to look at it after the holidays is killing me waiting to know.

found a used silver door and fender already.

the bottom area under the door hinge is pretty caved in. Do you think that could be pulled out?

any thoughts will be helpful..

Thanks!

Scott

 

[jakenney]

Most likely totaled. The airbag deployed, and given the rest of the damage - and it looks like a pre 05 bug, its totaled. My daughter trusted someone's turn signal and pulled out - same result. Not saying you couldn't repair it - but it will be expensive - you have to replace the airbag in the seat - that alone is VERY expensive - might be easier to find a replacement seat in a junkyard or from someone parting one out here on the org. We found damage to the unibody since the whole side was caved in - no way to repair that.

Painful - and expensive lesson. I replaced my daughter's with an 03 convertible - she loves it and it has been scratch free since we bought it - She has also become a better driver and learned not to trust other drivers.

 

[mattyd2009]

That's sad. Painful lesson indeed. If you are mechanically inclined you can do your best. You could try to sledge hammer it straight. You might get the door to close but you might have a lot of wind leakage.
It is worth a try... I have witnessed a car with worse damage be hammered back to life.

Best of luck.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using AutoGuide.Com Free App

 

[D2Beetle]

I concur with it being totaled; however the exception is that is what the insurance company is going to do. Replacing interior and exterior parts can be done easily with parts from salvage yards.

But jakenney was right, the UNIBODY ... straightening any uni-body car can get/be expensive.

You could look at this from out side the box; buy another NB that needs work (not structural) and use your NB as the parts car to repair it.