Car got hit today.....I wanna cry! Latest update.

[Vista]

I'd add a front panel / valance to your list but I reckon the slam panel is repairable

[PaulAshman]

What is the difference/which bits are the front panel/valance and the slam panel? Sorry to appear thick.

[Vista]

Slam panel is the piece that goes across the top with the chassis plate and body plate on it, shown as E2E 23, 23b

 

front panel is the bit that the grill mounts onto and runs across the front of the car shown int the pic as E2E 25, 25B

 

The valance is the lower part of the front panel underneath the bumper, sometimes you can get these as a separate panel or as a repair panel but it looks from the picture below that it's all one panel on the mk2

 

 

Check out the link for a good, if expensive, source of quality panels

 

http://www.steelpanels.co.uk/escort2ec.html

[PaulAshman]

Thank you so much vista for that info

[marky4]

doesn't look quite so bad in those pics paul, hope you get it sorted soon

[Retromotorsport]

If you have to buy back from the insurance and repair yourself, then do you best to pull the bent panels back into shape before cutting them off, the inner wing has a crumple on it, and if you pull the wing and front panel back out, you'll get that back into shape. .

 

Buy a spot weld drill and then carefully drill the spot welds out of the bent panels. The front panel to wing joins just cut through on the damaged side and to be honest, its probably easier to fit another wing on the other side aswell, this would give you a chance to asses the wing fillers for the start of rot. Allthough being van wings its the cost of the wings that will stop you doing this.. so take your time on the undamaged side, carefully removing the front panel from the wing.. any cutting or grinding should be on the front panel, not the wing.

 

Then its a case of clamping/screwing all the panels back on, checking for fit all the time with a new bonnet in place. Get the bonnet gap at the screen right first.. then the rest of the panels... look at the old ones before taking them off to see the joins, photos help. and take measurements. Before removing any clamps/screws prior to welding scratch reference marks across the joins.

 

Good luck with it