QuestionSo here's my problem... I was driving late one night in my dad's 1992 Dodge Caravan when a dog darted out in front of me and I jerked the wheel to the right and fortunately (for the dog anyway) I missed the dog. However I ended up side swiping a telephone pole pushing in the fender in front of the passenger's door, which prevents the door from opening all the way, and also completely knocking off the side mirror and consequently shattering it into quite a few pieces.
My dad took a look at it when I got home and decided that since I did the damage I'd get the wonderful learning opportunity of fixing it myself with no help from him, and until it was fixed I'd be driving it instead of my car. Now, he and I have worked on the van and on my '89 Plymouth Reliant several times since I was 12 years old (brakes on both, master brake cylinder on the Reliant, belt replacement, and mainly just general upkeep) but I've never done any body work to fix dents and the sort so I'm a little out of my water.
He did say that he's fairly certain I can just hammer out the fender instead of having to replace it, which is a relief since I'm 21, in college, the semester just started so I have to buy books, and I don't have a job, therefor I have a fairly tight budget (I've got about $40 I can spend fixing this thing). As for the mirror I think my best bet instead of trying to put all the little pieces back together is to run out to the local pick-n-pull snag a mirror off one of the vans out there, I figure it will cost about $20, and just replace the blasted thing.
I think he knows that I'm out of my water and thinks that I will eventually just give up and beg him to help me but I'd like to actually fix the problem myself without asking him for help, hopefully proving to him that even though I make mistakes sometimes I am a responsible adult. Thankfully I have a few friends who have offered to help out when I do work on it so I won't be flying solo on this.
I know absolutely nothing about pushing out dents or where all the bolts that the fender is attached are so any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Also we replaced the mirror on my Reliant 7 years ago and I vaguely remember pulling off the door panel on the inside... Is the method for replacing the mirror on the van basically the same as it was then? Any sort of refresher or walk-through you could give me would be great.
Thank you so much for taking the time to help me out, I really appreciate it!
Sincerely,
Lisa
P.S. I figured that the better idea you have of the damage the easier it'll be for you to help so I took some pictures of it and uploaded them to the internet since this site only allows you to post one image. I tried to get a couple different angles, so I hope it helps. Here are the direct links:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y43/BookDragon/Car%20Damage/IMG_0073.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y43/BookDragon/Car%20Damage/IMG_0070.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y43/BookDragon/Car%20Damage/IMG_0074.jpg
Thanks Again!
Answer Take a carpenters wonder bar (it's a flat pry bar), pry the fender out far enough to open the door. In the door jamb, at the bottom of the mirror, you will find a torx headed screw, I believe a 40. Remove it, slide the bottom moulding off towards you and you will see two more torx screws on the out side. At the top, inside where the first screw was, should be another in a hole, you have to look for this one, but it's there. Once the mirror is off, you will see a fender bolt. You have to pull the bumper and the inner fender splash shield to find other fender bolts
