That's what happened when a Pontiac 6000SE whacked into the rear end of mine. The frame folded right above the rear wheels, pushing the trunk area down about 6 inches, and slightly to the side. The rear quarter panels were kinked at the top of the wheel wells. The insurance company paid me $5500 and declared the car totalled.

I bought the car from them for $750 (IIRC) and had the rear end tugged back into shape, and had new quarter panels, rear panel, and trunk lid put on, and I got a junkard bumper, taillights, license plate, gastank, and chrome spears. In retrospect I should have just let it be - every 1800 I've seen with extensive body work done to it never looks right - body shops don't seem to be able to deal well with the compound curves and complicated fit and structure of the 1800. After getting the sheetmetal work done I decided not to double my money invested and get a proper paintjob done because I wouldn't be happy with the end result anyhow - spending the money on a nice, unbent 1800 would be a much better investment that tossing money at mine. And so it remains to this day - primer gray.

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