I recently bought a 2010 Prius that had some minor damage from the owner tapping a concrete parking column in a parking garage while backing out. He replaced the bumper, fender and headlight but whoever put it all back together did a poor job. I think most of the issue is poor alignment on the fender. The rear edge of the fender is sunken in more than the leading edge of the door (pic 3). The top of the bumper does not suck in tight to the bottom of the fender. The bracket that holds the tabs on the bumper is broken so I've ordered a new one and I think that should take care of that. (pic 1) Finally the bumper to headlight fitment is not good (pic 2 and 4). There's a large gap around where the headlight curves with the bumper. I don't think anything underneath is bent since it was a low speed parking lot incident. Any idea if there's any way to adjust the alignment of these things? I removed the bumper and headlight but couldn't figure out a way to re-position anything and I couldn't figure out how to remove or adjust the fender.
Yup, where the previous owner should have taken it in the first place. Per your previous thread, same subject: Fender removal DIY | PriusChat It seems like a lot of owners in the States are really averse to insurance claims, getting it done right, by accredited body shops. Maybe a different insurance environment, and concerns about diminished value, if the car's has an accident on it's record? The outcome of this is a lot of cars with clean records but botched repairs.
Looks like your bumper bracket was broken. It sits on the diagonal underneath the bumper cover and has 3 clips that the bumper cover clips into. The clips are made of thin plastic (to allow tight fit up of the bumper cover to the panel). It's like a $10 part.
Wasn't the bumper bracket, I bought a new OEM toyota one and it fit the same. The body shop got it all fixed up. They just had to realign the fender.
There seems to a prevalent attitude in the 'States, to avoid collision repairs through body shops, anything where there will be a record that car was in an accident, due to diminished value. The net outcome of this is a lotta cars with cobbled, on-the-sly repairs?
