So yesterday night, I was driving home on a poorly lit and windy road. I let myself get distracted for just a second or two. When I looked back at the road, it was taking a sharp turn to the left. I couldn't react in time and slammed into the right side curb. (This is mostly just excuses, it was a completely idiotic mistake on my part...)

Anyways, this is the aftermath:
(I'm linking the pictures because they are very large, and I don't want to stretch the page.)

Main damage on the rim (a noticeable dent):
http://i40.tinypic.com/28kmzkk.jpg

Major curb rash:
http://i40.tinypic.com/2ywwz1l.jpg

I also noticed today that the fender above this wheel seems to have been raised up slightly. The first picture shows the raised fender, and the second picture is from the left side of the car, which was not damaged (to show the difference). I'm not sure what implications this might have... could I have damaged my chassis?:
http://i42.tinypic.com/ousk85.jpg
http://i40.tinypic.com/1zflkwi.jpg



*sigh* I just really hope I didn't fudge her up too badly. The cosmetic damage is painful enough. I hate to think what kind of costly damage I might have done that I can't see.

I was going to have my rear tires replaced this week at NTB, so I figured while I was there, I would ask them to take a look at this wheel/tire to see if there was anything wrong.

Is there anything else you guys recommend I do? What do you think I might have done here? I figured I'd ask you guys what you think the possibilities are before I got any professional work done.

For the record, I see no bubbles (yet), and the ride seems fine as far as I can tell. But I know those aren't tell-all signs of what might be wrong.

Thanks in advance. I don't know what I'd do without the help from the people on this forum.

 

Sorry to hear about the damages, always loved how your car looked. Sadly, almost the same exact thing happened to me. I curbed my wheels HARD on a curb I didn't see and my wheels/tires (stock) had very similar looking damage. I didn't have any issues with a raised fender, so I can't offer any advice. Hope everything works out for you.

 

yummy, FS-01 only full face rim i'd ever buy

about the damage... only way to be sure is to take it to a shop AND THEN take it to ANOTHER shop to see if the two stories they tell you match up.

 

Sorry to hear about your car. Man we have such sh#$@y roads in Houston!

 

Thanks for the advice guys. Most shops should be willing to investigate something like this and give me a run down/estimate for free, right? There's one place I know I'll take the car to, and that's JPImportz, where I got my Teins installed.

Also, how urgent do you think it is that I have the car looked at for possible chassis/frame damage? I'm going to be very busy during the week for the a little while, but I would hate to cause anymore damage by continuing to drive around normally.


Was your tire or rim damaged? Or was it just cosmetic?

 

lets see a pic of ur car before the damages lol

 

Sorry to hear. Some simple suggestions:

First of all is your tire Oversized? If so when u went up the curb abruptly it probably just pushed your fender up. Most of the time this will just stretch the fender and would probably be fixed easily. If its bent too far (which doesnt look like it) you'll just have to replace the fender.

The 2nd part would be alignment and suspension components to see if they are bent, leaks from the strut etc. Then from there get a 4 wheel alignment to make sure everything checks out.

The 3rd part go to your wheel place and make sure the wheel can be balanced out or just replace it.

Just some suggestions to get things going (in no particular order).

Best of luck.

 

Could be one of the clips that holds the fender on, when i got my car back from the shop after getting the front end fixed my fender was higher, i brought it back and they basically pushed it down, i really hope it is not a chassis problem for you!!

 

Thanks for the tips.

My tire isn't oversized. It's the stock size, but it is lowered about an inch and a half in the front. I was thinking it might be what you described - that the sudden shock just knocked the fender up, but didn't actually bend anything. I definitely hope that's the case, as that should be much cheaper to fix.

Lexasaurus, I tried pushing it back into place myself, but couldn't. That's what I was a little worried about... but I have no idea what's under there that is resisting me.

 

You're lucky that wheel isn't too banged up. When my tire exploded from a pothole, the wheel ended up cracking. No chassis/structural damage though. Hopefully it's a small clip or so that got knocked out of place. Dealership might be best place to get an estimate from and then ask around other shops to see what price they can do it for. Dealership should be able to give you a free estimate without doing work on your car.