7d (edited) • General discussion
Crash repair 😎🦌
Just want to share myself and my partners recent experience. Tell me what you think, and I’d love to hear about any similar experiences you’ve had too!
So I think this is one we’ve all been through at some stage. An unexpected event that ends up ruining our pride and joy 😬
Last week my girlfriend hit a deer on the way home from a coffee run. She called me in a panic, and of course I thought the worst. Is she okay? Is the car totalled?.. luckily enough though it wasn’t that bad.
She told me she was fine and the car seemed okay, and she said she would be okay to get home she didn’t need me to come down. Her main worry was the deer who had run away from the scene of his crime 👀🤣
**In all seriousness though, we contacted our local animal sanctuary and they told us it happens, and they come across deers all the time who have gotten injuries and 90% of the time they end up fine. They reassured us that there are volunteer groups that specifically monitor and maintain the deer in the area and that there was nothing more we could actually do.**
So back to the car.. My girlfriend arrives home and her Volkswagen Golf’s head lamp lense was smashed, her fog light in her bumper had been knocked loose, and there was a little tiny dent and scratch on her bonnet where the deers horn had hit it.
And of course my girlfriend’s car was due in for its national car test the following week, nice! 😒
After a quick hug and a cup of tea for my lady, I got to work with sourcing parts. I checked a part supplier, that’s known to do cheap OE parts (not genuine from the manufacturer) and I found my girlfriend’s head lamp for €165. After looking to make sure it was the exact same I noticed one difference, my girlfriend’s original head lamp had a VW emblem inside the light where the bulb housing was. A pretty cool design I have to say!
So I thought about it for a while, and a few things came to mind..
- The VW badge is going to be noticed by anyone trying to knock some money off the price when we try to resell..
- I had replaced a head lamp on my Audi, and the new head lamp was much clearer than the old one, which had oxidised a little over time.
- I’m sure I can get one cheaper in a salvage yard!
So I finished work on Friday and headed to the local scrap yard where there’s heaps of VW golf’s (they’re very popular where I am with the young bucks!).
It took me a while looking through the shelves but there it was, drivers side front head lamp for a mk6 golf.
So I headed to the till and was happy to hear they only wanted €50 for it.. Jackpot! 🤑
I got home and removed the old head lamp, which involved removing 4 bolts holding the head lamp in place and another 6 bolts in the wheel arch that allowed me to peel back the bumper just enough to remove the lamp.
While the bumper was peeled back I secured the previously mentioned fog lamp back in place, and I then put the new head lamp on its place also, but I didn’t put any of the bolts for the head lamp in until I had secured the bumper back in place alongside the 6 bolts that held it on.
Once the bumper was aligned correctly, I then located the head lamp exactly as it was on the far side, making sure it was nicely placed in its spot on the quarter panel, and nicely resting on the bumper.
I then tightened the 4 bolts while holding it exactly where I wanted it.
With it being from the scrap yard, it was just as oxidised as the far side, you wouldn’t even know it had ever been replaced! I gave the car a basic service (oil + filter), and I used a bit of spare oil on to rub into the slight scratch on her bonnet from the deers horn. It made it a lot less visible, and I’ll be sure to deal with that properly in the next few weeks! 💎✅
I was a little worried the new head lamp from salvage was going to be out of alignment, so I aimed the front lights at a wall at our house, and I really did hit the jackpot because it matched up perfect with the other light.. Good old German engineering👌
So the moral of the story is, with the right tools at your disposal, and the right resources, you can take a major mishap, and resolve it yourself for a fraction of the price you’d be charged elsewhere!
- I managed to make the car look better than if it had a brand new head lamp ordered from a supplier.
- I got a genuine head lamp, for 30% of the price of an OE one.
- I saved at least €100-€150 on labor.
So all in I saved at least €250 and I managed to do it better than a local shop would have done, because they definitely aren’t digging through the scrap yard on my behalf!
Have you had any similar experiences? Please do share!!
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Crash repair 😎🦌
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