I am _so_ mad with myself...

[Tess McMillan]

We've had some snow here in the Pacific Northwest and it hasn't been too 
bad, in perspective. I've done some driving around in my 80Q, up hills and 
down hills, looking for places to "build character" by practicing in 
the snow, since I'm not in snow that often.

But I'm here to tell ya that all wheel drive might as well be no wheel 
drive if you're going over ice. I managed to run into a tree on the way 
home this afternoon. And I wasn't even trying to show off! I was following 
a Mercedes coupe into my neighborhood but where he took a right turn, my 
car went straight. The tree literally leaped out and smacked my door at 
about 5 mph.

Now I've got a huge dent in the driver's door, and the trim is broken. The 
door wants to pop open when you close it because the dent (I think) leans 
agains the cable that pulls the latch. You can get the door shut, but you 
have to work at it.

What is the wisdom about having body work done on an '88 80Q? Can it be done? 

My car is fairly modified, suspension-wise, and is extremely driveable 
plus the body is in great shape except for a dent on the _opposite_ 
side of the car where I had an excursion at the track that smooshed the 
sheet metal below the rear door. I was thinking this would be a good 
excuse to repair both places at the same time, but I'd like to bounce the 
idea off of other listers. 

It's not an urQ, but it has been my daily driver/track driver since 
1990... and I'd really hate to lose it.

And I'm _not_ independently wealthy.

Tess
in ICY Bellevue, WA USA