Fix A Dent Or Finish Supercharger Install???
 

A while back a guy in a Chevy truck hit my car and put a dent in the drivers side rear quarter panel. I should be settling with the insurance on Monday and be getting about a 1100-1300 dollar check. So, the big question: Should I use that money to have the dent repaired and painted? I'm thinking I can live with a dent and worry about fixing it and painting the car later.

Instead, I could buy a Megasquirt II kit, stimulator, wiring harness, and wideband for around 600, Walboro 255HP for 100, external fuel pressure regulator 100, used 550 cc low impedance injectors from a 88-91 Supra for hopefully 100 or less, a cheap bov for around 50, and Devils Own Water Injection W/Progressive Controler for 280. (I may be able to get those injectors for 20 bucks if I can find them at a local junkyard, that charges 5 bucks an injector.)That's a good 1200 dollars or so worth of stuff and that would get me running on MS II and pretty close to having the supercharger going. I already have the blower and brackets to bolt it to the car.

My Parents are saying I should fix the dent, but I'm thinking that can wait.

So, if you were in my situtuation, and you had a supercharger sitting in your living room, what would you do with the check?

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I personally would fix the dent. I would just be afraid of rust forming and causing the repair to be more expensive later on. If I waited I might be tempted to cheap out on the body work, and shitty body work is ugly.

That being said, speed is more fun.

nothing a hammer cant fix :gay:

Get the check. Replace the taillight yourself. Have a body shop repair the dent and blend in paint. Use any left over money to buy the megasquirt. Build and install the squirt on the car stock. Save up for the rest.

You can get a used lamp for maybe $25-$40. You have easy access to the inside of the dent to pop it back out and bang it smooth as well as you can. Popping out the sheet metal will likely push the bumper skin back into shape too. Sanding, bondo, rattle can paint - Ghetto that baby back into shape. You'll drop a few hours and $100 bucks into making it look a whole lot better at 20'. With the supercharger you'll be going too fast for anyone to notice the crappy repair job.

You're young and still living at home? When else can you be so irresponsible as now? Later in life you'd never be able to take money intended to fix a car and spend it on FI instead. Which would you rather have, busted and fast or pretty and slow! I'm voting for fast.

+1 replace the taillight and fix the dent yourself and use the rest of the money for mods

I say fix it, but only because I can't stand messed up body panels. If you shop around man you can definitely get that fixed for a decent price. Might not be perfect but you'll have extra money for the project.

I got backed into the same spot on my miata. The dent was smaller then that but ended up costing $1200 to get fixed at a shop correctly. I would say take the cash and then bang it out yourself. I should have done that but was stupid and just had insurence cover it all.

Don't bother with the Walbro or the FPR. With 440 / 550cc injectors you will have *more* than enough fuel on the stock pump to feed any supercharger that can actually fit under the hood of a Miata.

But definitely +1 on the Devil's Own WI. And while you're at it, buy a 5 quart "g-man" race kart fuel tank to put in the trunk.

Call Microfinish and order an aerosol can of self-etching primer, factory-matched paint, and clearcoat. Pull the taillight and bumper cover, and just sand that thing down and re-spray it. The idea being to prevent it from rusting and make it look less conspicuous, not to score points at Pebble Beach.

Joe, the reason I'm upgrading to a 255HP. is because I have a 100 shot nitrous to feed fuel. Right now I have seperate fuel system for the nitrous. My pump is rated at 300 LPH, which is plenty of volume, but at 8 PSI. Magna pointed out that under boost, that pump won't work. Basically, I'm planning on building a new fuel system to replace the factory one. Do it once and do it right. I will likely have two regulators, one for the engine, and a 1:1 rising rate regulator for the nitrous system. That way, The nitrous system always gets the proper amount of fuel and dosn't go lean if I'm running boost. Running lean with nitrous will kill an engine quick, so I don't want to take any chances.

I'm definately thinking about doing my own repair to the fender. Probably going to do my best to pull the dent out myself and repair and paint it myself.

Nitrous... Missed that one. Kept seeing that picture in your sig but thought it was a joke.
:nxsmile:

Nope, not a Joke. Thanks for the advice. When I get ready to fix the dent, I'l give Microfinish a call and order all the right stuff. For Your Viewing Pleasure...

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Uhm. Yeah. Wow. :eek:

Seriously, that is some gorgeous plumbing. You're at that stage where it's tempting to just leave the part on the dining room table so you can sit and admire it, rather than actually installing it onto the car.

Hey Joe, I tried to change my pic in my sig and now I can't figure out how to put it back in there. I have the images on Photobucket, but I can't get it on my sig.

you want to use img /img tags with [ ] those brackets.
Won't the photobucket links work?

Do I post the link under 'option 1' or actually in the text of the sig? I still can't get it to work.

Edit: I got it working guys. Thanks.

Simply put the following text into your signature, on its own line, exactly as it appears below:

[ATTACH]215796[/ATTACH]

I copied that URL out of your signature, and incidentally it does not seem to be working at the moment.

In settling with insurance who did you take your car to? Did you do what they wanted and go to the shop they recommended? Did you run around and get several bids? When you got bids did you tell them it was for insurance? I hope you didn't do any of those things! If you got several bids they will only pay what the lowest priced company bid. If you went where they wanted, they get a kickback. If you tell people it's for insurance they send a copy of the bid to the insurance company behind your back.

Life lesson: When your cars busted and it's on the insurance companies dime take it straight to the most expensive shop in town and only to them for an estimate. When you get the check take the car to the shop you would go to if you had to pay for it yourself (re/ CHEAP!)

Hold out on settling as long as you can. Offers generally go up as they feel the pressure to settle.

I did get estimates, but the insurance dosn't know that nor do they have any copies. I simply walked in and asked for an estimate. I got 3 bids all within 40 dollars of each other. 1100-1140. The adjuster is supposed to come look at it, make his own estimate of the damages, and offer a check to settle. For unknown reasons, I filled a claim and they called my dad instead of me. He told them we wanted the entire car painted, not just that spot blended. They said they can't do that, but they would send someone to look at it and offer us a check to settle, so we will see what he offers.

they won't do that. but you will be needing a rental car for the 4 days your car is 'in the shop'. :)