Need some body knowledge

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I'm more of a mechanical person than a body person so I need some advice. 2004 Pontiac Grand Prix

I hit a deer awhile ago and it messed up the hood, front bumper and left fender and the support behind the bumper that the headlights fasten into. I don't know what other parts (if any) they may have replaced behind the bumper cover, but it was all done at a body shop through insurance.

I put my stock headlights in when I left it for the work so the insurance wouldn't ask questions or the shop have to mess with the lights, but when I swapped my retrofits back in when I got the car back, the right side light was aimed waaay low. Left side was right on the mark, and the adjustments are in the light assembly, not the car... so there's no way the shop tried to re aim the lights.

The right side has a huge gap between the bottom of the light assembly and the bumper where it would rest, so it droops down. I had to stack up some double sided tape to act as a booster for it to keep it aimed up right.

So that got me thinking something in the body work isn't lined up right. There's also a big gap between the hood and fender on the right side, that you can look in and see part of the hood strut. The left side is nice and tight.

I'd bring it back to the shop but this was over a year ago they did the work, they'd probably tell me to eff off now. I'm gunna take the bumper cover off, but I was hoping maybe someone could point me in a direction to look at.

It seems like it's something lined up wrong between the fender/bumper/hood/support behind the bumper. I don't know enough about body to know how these parts align together and affect one another.
 
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If you used insurance and especially if they directed you to this shop contact your insurer. Typically insurer guarentees the work under their guise. I have brought my vehicle back a few times thru progressive from their recommended shop without issue. I think insurance and shop sometimes bank on you'll get another vehicle before shortcut work comes back to bite them.
 
Look at the fender to door gap top to bottom and compare it to the right side. The hood can be adjusted but if the fender is off that's a problem.
Remove the fender to radiator support bolts (probably one or two) add see if you can flex the support forward and close the gap on the bottom of the light.
Post some pics of the support, inner fender bolts and body lines.

Your description is fine but we cant get specific without seeing it. If they didn't use OE panels and bumper cover chances are it will take a lot of messing to get it even close.
I use OE blems to guarantee a perfect fit along with OE hood, rad support and fender. On this one they forgot to trim a 5mm plastic strip where it came out of the mold. The problem for them is its primed already and a lot of work to trim and reprime, for me its 15 min. All parts cost me $300, the fender had a scratch in the E coat, the hood a tiny dimple on the rear corner and the support was missing a welded nut, it took less than 1 hr to get everything in top shape.

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Okay, I'll try that. I just feel pretty sure since it's iver a year later they're going to try to say it's from a separate incident or something and refuse to cover it getting it sorted.
 
Originally Posted by Trav
Look at the fender to door gap top to bottom and compare it to the right side. The hood can be adjusted but if the fender is off that's a problem.
Remove the fender to radiator support bolts (probably one or two) add see if you can flex the support forward and close the gap on the bottom of the light.
Post some pics of the support, inner fender bolts and body lines.

Your description is fine but we cant get specific without seeing it. If they didn't use OE panels and bumper cover chances are it will take a lot of messing to get it even close.
I use OE blems to guarantee a perfect fit along with OE hood, rad support and fender. On this one they forgot to trim a 5mm plastic strip where it came out of the mold. The problem for them is its primed already and a lot of work to trim and reprime, for me its 15 min. All parts cost me $300, the fender had a scratch in the E coat, the hood a tiny dimple on the rear corner and the support was missing a welded nut, it took less than 1 hr to get everything in top shape.





I'll try to get some pics when I get home later, thanks
 
Originally Posted by FriboRage
Okay, I'll try that. I just feel pretty sure since it's iver a year later they're going to try to say it's from a separate incident or something and refuse to cover it getting it sorted.


That could be a bit of a problem. Was the stock headlight lined up?

Pa deer... the question isn't if you'll hit one, it's how much damage will there be when you do.
 
Yep, I've been lucky in 15 years of driving I've only gotten 3.

But I'll double check the stock headlight. It's a little harder to see cause the projector in the retrofit has such a clean cutoff it's really obvious. The originals are just reflector halogens.

I'm pretty sure it's gotta be because the cause of the retrofit light being out of line is the bumper being so low on that side vs the mounting point. It allows the light to hang down about an inch, where it should be resting evenly on the bumper cover.
 
Originally Posted by Trav
Look at the fender to door gap top to bottom and compare it to the right side. The hood can be adjusted but if the fender is off that's a problem.
Remove the fender to radiator support bolts (probably one or two) add see if you can flex the support forward and close the gap on the bottom of the light.
Post some pics of the support, inner fender bolts and body lines.

Your description is fine but we cant get specific without seeing it. If they didn't use OE panels and bumper cover chances are it will take a lot of messing to get it even close.
I use OE blems to guarantee a perfect fit along with OE hood, rad support and fender. On this one they forgot to trim a 5mm plastic strip where it came out of the mold. The problem for them is its primed already and a lot of work to trim and reprime, for me its 15 min. All parts cost me $300, the fender had a scratch in the E coat, the hood a tiny dimple on the rear corner and the support was missing a welded nut, it took less than 1 hr to get everything in top shape.
You are the man Trav! Your customers must love you.
 
Okay I got some pictures found here:

https://imgur.com/a/msuMTMA

So I did my best to highlight the areas of interest here. As per the earlier questions, it seems like the gaps between the door and fender is pretty even top to bottom on both sides.

Pictures 1 and 2 show the gap between the hood and fender on top from above. You can see how the left side is nice and tight, but the gap is much larger on the right.

Pics 3 and 4 show the hood-fender gap from a side angle. You can see a bit of the hood strut on the right side whereas on the left, the hood seems to sit slightly below the top fender line. The hood is properly closed and latched in these pictures.

5 and 6 show a small gap between the front tip of the fender and the bumper cover, more of a gap on right than on the left.

Picture 7 I wanted to get the whole front end so you can see the disparity between the left and right. It's pretty good resolution so you can zoom in to get more detail. I highlighted the areas in question. Left side seems correct with a small gap between the plastic and the metal frame. Right side gap is huge.

8, 9, 10, and 11 are just different angles of what we're looking at in 7, and closer up. Just again, small tight gap on the driver side, big sloppy gap on the passenger side.

The thing is, left side is the side that took the deer hit, so I'm not really understanding that the problem seems to be on the right. Right side headlight is also the side that droops and won't aim properly.
 
I guess I'm going to take the bumper cover off tonight and see if I can identify anything out of line.

I just hope they didn't install bent parts or something, and it's something fixable without spending a million dollars
 
So the body shop did a crap job over a year ago and you're worried about it now?

Cars don't always go back together as well as they come apart.
 
I'm not bad mouthing anybody. I've been in automotive for years and I understand that. I'm just looking for some advice on something I don't have a ton of experience on hoping to be able to fix it myself.

That's the only reason I'm here, if I didn't understand that I'd have been one of those [censored] coming back at the garage yelling at people about how "my car wasn't like this before you touched it."

I'm trying to handle it quietly on my own, I just never got my hands into body stuff, so I thought maybe someone in a forum that's helped me a ton in the past might have some suggestion on where to start looking.

I'm just coming off a solid year of working 60-70 hour weeks, so yeah, I'm worrying about it now.

I'm not even that worried about all the gaps and stuff, I'm worried that my right headlight doesn't aim properly without a giant wad of two faced tape propping it up after my insurance paid $2.5k to have it fixed, otherwise I'd be living with it happily. I just figured the gaps might be a clue as to what's wrong to somebody with a trained eye.
 
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Originally Posted by FriboRage
That's the only reason I'm here, if I didn't understand that I'd have been one of those [censored] coming back at the garage yelling at people about how "my car wasn't like this before you touched it."


No need to yell at them. Just go back and calmly explain what you noticed and see how they react. Then you'll really know what kind of shop they are. The shop I go to has a lifetime guarantee on their work as long as you own the car. One time my dad had to take it back because the headlight they replaced wasn't working. No big deal and not a good reason to get huffy puffy about it.
 
Originally Posted by SatinSilver
Originally Posted by FriboRage
That's the only reason I'm here, if I didn't understand that I'd have been one of those [censored] coming back at the garage yelling at people about how "my car wasn't like this before you touched it."


No need to yell at them. Just go back and calmly explain what you noticed and see how they react. Then you'll really know what kind of shop they are. The shop I go to has a lifetime guarantee on their work as long as you own the car. One time my dad had to take it back because the headlight they replaced wasn't working. No big deal and not a good reason to get huffy puffy about it.


The yelling thing was just kind of a reference to the average automotive service customer when something isn't right... they tend to start off about a level 8 and then quickly go to 10.

Honestly, with the amount of crap I've waded through at my job, I'm probably more passive than I should be as a customer.

But yeah I'll try to dig into it tonight and see if I can't get it sorted on my own. I was just hoping for some guidance on the way in from someone that might know body stuff s little better. It's okay, though, didn't mean to ruffle anyone's feathers.
 
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