Hey Subes,

 

I have a 1990 Legacy that was in a crash , and hope the car is still drivable, but I'm wondering if the car is safe to do so.

 

It suffered an impact in the front passenger side door from the fender, which pushed in the door hinge about 6 inches in from where it normally is. There doesn't seem to be any damage to the tire, wheel or CV. The impact car pushed in the bottom of the Sub door above the running board exposing it, and pushing out the window (which didn't break) out 5 inches from the door frame.

The steering wheel is now cocked about 5 degrees to the left but doesn't really pull at all.

 

I plan on going to get it checked out at a shop to get someones opinion, but want to put it to the USMB. Any tests I can do or advice out there?

 

Thanks.

well... you probably don't want to hear this - but if the hinge is pushed in 6 inches, it likely bent the frame(work) - there isn't a real "frame" - enough that the front end is "a bit crosswise to the back end" (out of alignment for sure. How much? Don't know but when one piece of metal bends, something else bent, too.) your likely result will be a car that would go don the road "sideways" with the front and rear wheels following different "tracks" - assuming you CAN do an alignment

 

Salvage what you can off of it and recycle the rest

 

RIP

 

(that's preliminary assessment without benefit of "pictures")

 

<cue music for "taps">

its a 1990 and has a pretty nice sized impact, it might not be worth the work to fix it. Unless only the door has been pushed in (which i don't think so), part the car out or find a car with a blown transmission or engine and swap things over.

its a 1990 and has a pretty nice sized impact, it might not be worth the work to fix it. Unless only the door has been pushed in (which i don't think so), part the car out or find a car with a blown transmission or engine and swap things over.

 

I was going to say the same thing!