Here's a couple of pics of damaged front skirts of a Corvette base and Mustang, both from 81 period. The force seems to have been concentrated on a smaller spot with the Corvette base as I've actually hammered it out and drilled two holes at the ends of the cracking to stop them spreading further. It's not really an essential part of the structure so some body filler or epoxy compound will have the base virtually mint as it's in very good shape everywhere else.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!