Advice? 2011 Prius undercarriage totalled??

We drive a 2011 gen-3, and a 2017 Prime. Both vehicles have had wheel well liners fall off, undercarriage 'skid plates' fell off, and a great many of the grommets that hole body panels have left us.

I spoke with a local body shop and their recommendation was to drill 1/8" holes along the seam on both body panel parts and thread black zip ties through the holes to loosely hold them together.

Today if you were to walk around either [or both] vehicles, you would see lines of black zip ties, not unlike the stitches of Frankenstein on every seam where body panels come together.

This appears to be how we Prius owners hold them together as the plastic ages and grows brittle.


Another body shop showed me that they use a heated stapler. The staple is heated by an electric current, and when it glows red it is pressed into the plastic, the stapler is turned off, the staple cools, and the plastic becomes solid again. the repairs look better. But this method leaves tiny wires sticking out that if you were to run your hand along the body panel would slice your skin open.
Here is an example of these staplers.

This website is refusing to accept the hyperlink.
Google the keywords: "automotive body repair hot stapler" and you will see the tool I am talking about.

 

i thought you brought it to a shop to have the fender liners replaced so you could remove the duct tape?
i have duct tape holding my rear bumper on, and have never had trouble passing mass inspection.

how many miles on her?

 

That tape that you're showing has nothing to do with your fender liners That's your front and rear bumper covers those clips that you have tape over that are behind your bumper cover except the little tabs that stick out of your bumper cover and lock into the little clips that bolt onto the front fenders in the rear quarters those plastic clips are available fairly inexpensively You may need a new bumper cover because the tabs on the bumper cover are broke off bent won't go into the clips might go into new ones but may not go into the old ones but that tape is not doing anything for your fender liners and in Western Mass My goodness I had cars in way worse shape than that of course that was in the '80s and early '90s still I find it shocking that they're giving you a problem with that You can put some goop on the little pieces that stick out of the bumper cover and then push it into the clip to put a piece of tape on it to hold it overnight or during the day and let that stuff dry then you can carefully peel off the tape and the goop will hold the fender liner in the clip for a good while and it'll release when you want it to Good luck

 

I’m confused as to what’s being taped. Is it holding together the outer, painted sheet metal, or the black plastic fender liners inside the wheel wells.

Nobody would total a car over something like this; don’t think we’re getting the whole story.

Addendum: looking closer at the pic, the outer fender piece is obviously dented. Replacement of that is very simple.

 

Some vital information isn't in your post. Can you clarify what's going on here? Have airbags been deployed? Were you in an accident, or just had some road damage that you didn't get around to fixing for a while? Did you file a claim with your insurance company before going in for fender liners or after? The cost of that repair is less than most deductibles...

Why even involve you insurance company for this type of repair? Or is it someone else's insurance company? You just need to replace the bumper cover clips and replace fender liners? Seems like whoever this insurance company is not telling you the truth... Are you being scammed by someone pretending to be an insurance company? Sure seems like it...

 

There is a lot more going on here.
Get the body shop quote, block out all personal information, take a picture, and upload.
A 2011 Prius in typical shape, is easily worth many times the cost for a simple bumper-cover and fender-liner replacement.

Replacing a bumper cover and fender liner is easy and "not very expensive".
A used bumper, not repainted to match the car, is acceptable for Mass inspection. Some newspaper and a $25 spray can, does a "20 feet away" okay paint job, for the bumper cover.

Fwiw, in Mass, duct tape/body tape is an acceptable way to cover external rust/damage areas - as long as the covered area does not represent a possible danger to a passerby (e.g. sharp/protruding edges), and the rust/damage does not effect the car structurally.
Tape is not acceptable for structural repairs, such as holding a bumper-cover on to the car, rocker-panel rust cover-up, and so on.

 

I’m confused why there’s no under carriage photos, just bumper and fender stuff

 

pat?