Front End Bodywork Repairs

[Jake_K12DCi]

Hi All,

New to the forum, and relatively new to Micra's too. I inherited my current micra off my grandad 3 months ago when he passed. Its a 2004 1.5 DCi, lovely car to drive (even if it outright refuses to track straight, always to the left), and 68mpg even if i occasionally kick its face in a little bit.

However, 2 days ago, i hit a deer at 40mph which made quite a mess of the front of the car.

And this lovely deer also bounced back off the road and dinted the drivers side door.

Now, for the time being, it starts and drives, everything but the washer bottle works perfectly fine (washer bottle leaks badly, its not where the pump connects into the bottle and i cant see if its cracked without taking the bumper off). I have slightly bodged the front end, by popping the bumper back out, taping the indicator secure and pushing the wing back in. So it looks a little bit better.

Now, Nissan told me that to replace the Bonnet, Front Bumper, Wing, Headlight Assembly and Door would set me back a whopping £1700, and thus, make the car a Cat D write off if i claimed on the insurance. So, i havent bothered claiming because a deer is not worth 5 years of extra payments on my insurance.

Now, being as it drives fine (albeit the tracking is now a country mile out), and its got more than half a tank of Shell V-Power diesel in it, i drove it back from the garage and all is well.

My questions are thus.

I was already planning on putting the Micra Sport+ front bumper on it at some point, now i have been forced into that decision sooner. Does anybody know if the bumpers bolt on and off in the same way for each model of micra, or do some have different fittings?

And are the wings bolted on, or welded on?

Someone also told me that the doors are double skinned, that being the case its likely i wont replace it, i'll just try and pull the door dent out as best as i can.

Also, if anyone knows where (aside from ebay) i could get the parts for this cheap, that would be great too.

Thanks

Jake

 

[Jen319]

There are places that sell whole new panels, but ebay or a breakers yard are probably your best bet
Pretty sure all the bits/panels are just bolted or trim clipped on
Most are just plastic

Last week i actually picked up a bonnet off ebay for just 99p!

bargains are out there

edit: with regards to the door you could feasibly take off the door card and gently push out the dent from inside ^_^

Edit2: gotta love the dirty diesel! *hi 5*

Edit3: almost forgot, I'd highly recommend getting your suspension checked out.
Wishbone arm, track rod ends etc...

 

[Jake_K12DCi]

I love the idea of pushing the dent out from inside......but i'm not so much looking forward to the cuts i shall get on my hands! The metal behind the door cards is famously sharp haha.

A friend of mine is a mechanic, has been for 15 years now, i had him look at it yesterday and he confirmed exactly what the garage said which is that the damage is purely cosmetic. Wishbone is straight and not cracked, some how the track rod end has survived (although its likely i'll just replace both anyway considering how cheap they are), theres no damage to the chassis or anything else. I even had a niggling dunk noise that used to occasionaly happen when backing off kurbs while steering. He reckons its the top mount bearing on that side, so i might even have had a problem fixed by having him look over it!

The only bonnets i saw on ebay were around 70 quid....and i dont fancy the postage for that much :/ Probably cheaper to drive and pick it up!! Thats why i love this car so much. I think if it was any other car i would have written it off and bought a diesel disastra or something similar with the money, but, you just cant find anything thats like the micra around. 30 quid tax, 68mpg, sits happily at 90 *coughs*70 officer*coughs*, and around town....its fairly pokey too. Love the dirty diesel!

When i went to pick it up from the stealers to see what the damage was, i went with my mam. And being as it looked like the top pictures then, she followed me home. On the way home we go up a quite steep hill, so you give it a bit of welly. And when i got back she said 'going up the bank there was a little bit of black smoke'. I told her 'No smoke, no poke!'. She didnt understand.......

 

[Jen319]

Wear gloves? LOL

Glad all the important bits are still straight

I was very lucky getting my bonnet for 99p, and It only being a 40 minute drive down the road, but surely that proves it can happen? ^_^

Sounds like you've got the "82" engine, just like me, best one there is (IMHO )

 

[Jake_K12DCi]

Gloves? Whey no! Its not as much fun if you dont bleed!! :')

Yeah, that was bloody lucky. Me and a mate are going to do a scrap yard run on Monday, theres about 5 near me, and if they have an micra's in, see what parts we can salvage. I'm hoping i can just bolt the sport+ bumper, or the facelift bumper with the foglights just like the bumper on your car actually, straight in place of where my bumper is, and then whatever other bits i can find like a replacement washer bottle, horn, wing, bonnet, either from a scrapyard or just pattern parts is gonna be cheap enough hopefully. I'll obviously post some pictures of the repair as it goes in here, just in case it might be helpful for anybody else in the future. Then....see where it goes from there really! Maybe one day, if there is such a thing as a micra meet? She might turn up there!

I do indeed have the "DCi 82" engine. Tbh, i have no idea why the 65 even exists? The 82 is an amazing engine.... And a little birdie has told me that, with a straight remap on standard engine and turbo, you could get 110 out of it, which, is not bad at all!