Progress Thread Let's try this again...

Thank you all for your replies, it's a huge load off my shoulders to know that I haven't destroyed the car, although it's very likely going to destroy my wallet.

It seems I am looking for a body shop that has been in business for awhile and deals with classic cars.

I know of one in my area off-hand that has done excellent panel and paint work on my Mom's current and previous cars, but those weren't frame repairs and they were both modern cars. Their website says they opened in 1979, the guy bought the place as an employee in 1983 and they've been in their current location since 1985, literally the year my car was built. The problem is they don't specialize in classics and their "services" section doesn't say anything about a frame rack. I'll give them a call tomorrow and see if they can help me or at least point me in the right direction. Here's the link for anyone who's interested, there may be some red flags that I wouldn't know to catch.

http://www.schaumburgautobody.com/about-schaumburg-auto-body/

Edit: I think actually my Mom took her car here, all the industrial park buildings look the same. The other place still looks nice, so I'll probably still call them.

https://jerryscollisioncenter.com/

I also have a former boss and family acquaintance that is a big classic (like 1890s-1940s) car collector who might be able to recommend someone. I'll shoot him an email, although he can be kind of a grouch sometimes so I might just get a scolding for crashing the car in the first place, we'll have to see.

Edit 2: Ok, I talked to my Mom and THIS is where she brought the car. I got confused because the place is in Schaumburg and the guy that runs it is named Jerry.

https://americasautobody.com/

90sickfox said:

The car isn't ruined. Anything can be fixed. A minor buckle isn't the end of the world but you want the frame pulled back square. It may be square and an alignment issue could be the cause of the tracking and rubbing.

That crack should be able to be welded up and just about as good as new. Without seeing pics of the impacted structure it's hard to determine what repair action needs to be taken. Pictures also sometimes hide details.

Click to expand...

Sorry for the late reply, but it seems you were spot on. I took it to the guy that did the work initially, and it turns out he just forgot to do the alignment. When doing the alignment, he couldn't get the wheelbase to line up correctly. His theory was that the K member was likely bent a little bit either from my accident or from an earlier one the car was in during it's time in California. In any case, I ordered a new Maximum Motorsports K member and coilover kit, just got it back a couple weeks ago, and the car drives great.

That being said, there are a few other issues that I still need to iron out.

1.) The passenger's side window won't roll down. I tested the wiring with a multimeter and it's getting power, but the voltage is bouncing all over the place which I'm guessing means I have a short somewhere. I already replaced the motor but that didn't do anything.

2.) The new K member raised the engine slightly in the engine bay, which means I now can't remove my oil filler cap without also removing my strut tower brace, which I learned today is a huge pain. None of the bolts are easy to get to, all of them require 2 wrenches (1 to turn the bolt and one to hold the nut in place) and none of them are easy to get to. I've put it aside for right now, I'm thinking if I can loosen the engine mounts to the point where I can rock the motor back a little, I should be able to get the cap off.

3.) I'm hearing something that sounds a lot like lifter tick once the engine warms up. It's not audible inside the car, but once you step out you can hear it really well. I'm hoping an oil change will fix it, but I can't do that without being able to get my oil cap off.

So there it is. As usual with this car it's 3 steps forward and 2 steps back, but I'm getting through it and hopefully none of these problems turn into anything monstrous.