So I may have had a slightly whoopsie. I clipped the rear of the car against a bollard!
The good news is that the metal bollard had a plastic covering, so while it's scratched the paintwork it hasn't gone through much at all - a quick buff of the machine will get them out.
The bad news comes in two parts. It's dented the panel gradually so the wheel arch sits a little further in than the other side, so I may be able to pull that out. The other bit of bad news was that it wrecked my track arm as the rear wheel was pointing out, so I had to get a recovery home.
This was the part I took out. Unbelievable...
That's the track arm's carrier bolt. Bent like a banana. It's weird, the nut on this kept coming undone and, after putting the new one on, the nut was lovely and tight whilst going down the thread. The old one wasn't at all, so I wonder if there was a fault with the part.
Either way, I've fitted the new part and had the car aligned, and it's driving perfectly again. Just need to machine the scratches out, and look at pulling the arch back out slightly.
This is how much the panel is bent in.
This is the good side:
And this is the bad side:
Notice you can see more tyre?
I'm thinking of taking the wheel arch off, heating the whole panel and finding some way of just bending it out slightly. That's the theory anyway...
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