Stupid me....

[Pauly6401]

So I was out working on my Chevelle because I just got it back from the shop. I was trying to figure out why the gas gauge isn't reading correctly, and added some gas to the tank to see if it would change the gauge reading.

Long story short - even though the neutral safety switch is supposed to keep the car from starting in gear, it apparently didn't because the car was in reverse so it shot out of the garage like a rocket and dented the hood of my Ford ZX2 that was sitting in the driveway behind it. There is really only a little paint missing on the bumper, and one dent in the hood. I hope they can pull the dent out and do some spot corrections so I don't have to pay a ton to get the thing replaced, but as it it as Saturday no body shops are open. I'm posting a pic for expert advice - you think they can straighten this hood or are they just going to buy a whole new one?

Thanks guys, and boy am I an idiot today. In less than one month I will be selling this car anyways, I can't believe I did this and now have to drop money into fixing it. Grrrrr....

Wide shot:

Close-up of dent:

No damage to the Chevelle, of course, because that thing is a tank. Just some paint on it from where it hit the yellow car:

 

[Al-53]

Thats not going to buff out...but sorry to see it happened.....and your right..the Chevelle is all steel....them were the days....

To bad you have to sink money into it to sell now....may not be that bad to fix

AL

 

[GearHead_1]

Hoods are a tough one. Most of the stress points (like the front lip) use a double wall design and can't be easily straightened and come out looking good. I'm thinking you're probably looking at a new hood but more important you need to have the neutral safety swithc on the Chevelle adjusted so that you don't have this or worse happen again.

 

[Pauly6401]

but more important you need to have the neutral safety swithc on the Chevelle adjusted so that you don't have this or worse happen again.

Yeah - I'm kinda miffed that they didn't do that at the shop where they put it in. Now I am going to have to tinker with it to get it to engage correctly. He warned me that it wasn't quite right but said he had adjusted it so that the car would start in park, but that wasn't the case. I think it was starting more in neutral or reverse and not in park.

I looked around and hoods are around $200. Unfortunately, they only made 2000 yellow ZX2 S/Rs so it will most likely just be a replacement one and then painted yellow. They will prob just paint the front bumper at the same time so that it blends better, since there are several scratches on that from the exhaust pipes.

I had also just gone over the hood with XMT #3 to remove the swirls, so it's the cleanest dented hood ever