I think I found the dammage...

[Mark B]

Hey everyone,
I ran into a curb about a month ago and screwed up my car. The front passenger wheel was pushed back in the wheel well about 2-3 inches. I took it to a shop and they gave me a huge estimate to fix it. After the estimate, I took the car apart myself to inspect the dammage. This is what I found!! I cant believe that my ball joint bent that much! I looked at the quote the shop gave me and nowhere on it did it mention a new ball joint. So mabey this is the cause of my wheel being pushed back? I am going to replace the ball joint, spindle, & control arm and see what happens.

[SS_CarGuy]

That's a picture of the upper A-frame...right? If so, that would definitely cause your wheel to be canted rearward. What about the ball joint on the lower A-frame......I would assume it was damaged or bent also if the upper one looks like that? Having said that I would also be suspicious about further damage to each A-frame as well as the sub-frame.

[TraceZ]

The picture shows a lower a-arm from a 3rd gen F-body.

Did it scratch the trunk of your red car to take that picture? It's sitting right on the paint!

[4THGEN Z]

That looks like the lower control arm to me.....its a third gen so there is no upper a-arm/ball joint since it uses struts.

You did a number on that ball joint Mark. ...how did the wheel itself hold up.

[Mark B]

Its a lower control arm for a 3rd gen. The red car in the picture is my 93 Cavalier beater car. The paint is nowhere near perfect, so I dont really care if it gets scratched. The wheel is pretty bad. Instead of hitting a concrete curb, I managed to hit the part of the curb that has the steel drainage grate! Luckily the wheel is good enough that I could put a cheap used tire on it to move the car around. I am looking into getting a new wheel.