Front end damage - radiator support bent badly...Tech advice please

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head up dude.

The car I've been driving for 4 years now with all the mods in my sig was sandwiched. It must have accordianed cause I can see how the radiator support was bent, fanshourd was split, the tail has a small wrinkle too. The 1/4 windows were blown out, the doors replaced, the hood folded. I found all this out years later as I probed the car inside out fixing things. If someone was able to straighten this car (and it looks 100%), then that small amount of damage is not a big deal. Insurance companies really are a bunch of lying weasel SOB's that want your money but not give you anything in return. They'll wiggle out any way they can.

Pay a shop to straighten it then haul it back home. Get a fender in the same color for 50 bucks, a bumpercover off the same donor for $150 or so. To colormatch just apply some elbow grease with a buffer and some detailing. Amazing how faded paint screams AAAAAAH after a little polishing compound.

Buy a buzzbox welder for less than $100...grind the inner fender out and get the replacement inner fender panel from 50 resto and buzz it in place. Or if the straightening worked really well, smack the inner fender with a mallet till it's almost perfect then swoop some bondo over the wrinkle area and you're in business. Rust? Bah, use that same buzzbox and weld over the rust. Have fun. Strip that car and go over it 10x with the welder, adding subframes....etc etc.

I really reall wish I had my pictures on my work machine. I could show you the seams were this car was simply welded back together.

Dont give up over a little push in the nose. The kid drove it home didnt he? So it runs and drives. Thats all I'd need to know and after I was done kicking his ass, I'd start grinding some metal or even bolt up some donor panels after come-alonging the radiator support and drive the multicolor car for a few weeks till the paint money comes in.
 
I feel for you and have been in similar situations. It sounds to me like you may have trouble getting money out of your nephew and if you do get any it will be $20 at a time. I think that you should build the other car. It sounds to me like the car was destined for the junk pile anyway. Cut your losses. If you try to fix that car you will regret it. It will cost you more than its worth and you will be pissed off everytime you open the hood and look at the battle scars that thing will have. Your mind and wallet will be better served if you pick the chassis clean and get rid of the rest.

As far a nephew goes- I'm sorry. It's a shame that somebody in your family would do that to you. Maybe we should form a Stangnet posse and go after him and pull his head from his neck with a come-along like Mike suggested.
 
I went and bought a hand puller thing to pull the rad. support back with and couldn't figure out how to use it, so I just got the tow strap out and used my Jeep to pull it out. Seemed to work alright - it doesn't look as straight as it was before, but I never expected it to. The radiator fits and the fan, but the shroud won't fit because it rubs the fan. I'll have to somehow get it shoved in there.

I took it for an estimate at one shop and since they can't estimate used parts, he gave me an estimate of $7300 w/ $1990 labor, 610 additional costs and the other $4780 is for new parts, which I'd almost certainly use used parts if I were going to fix it.

I pulled some of the dent out of the fender and I'll probably just drive it how it is after I get the shroud put in there.

My problem is, I'm not sure how to allocate costs to the nephew. Since I won't be getting it fixed and estimates are outrageous, I might just have to make up a number and tell him to pay me that - but then I don't know what number is fair. More than anything, I want him to pay me for stealing the car and wrecking it, also the principle involved so maybe he'll think twice next time he decides to steal a car. If it were anyone else, he'd be sitting in jail right now

Here are some pics of how it looks now:
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As you can see in the last pic, the hood doesn't latch...it's about 4 inches from hitting the latch mechanism

Thanks for all of the help and advice guys :nice:
 
Well, I spent quite a bit of time today working on the LX, which I've never messed w/ the body before, so it's a learning experience and I'm anxious to learn, but at the same time it sucks. Since the damage isn't bad enough to require professional attention, I'm doing it myself.

I managed to get the bumper cover off, but in the process of drilling the rivets, I used a bit that apparently wasn't big enough and it just made the rivet spin in the hole at a very fast speed and since I've never drilled rivets out before, I didn't know that was bad. I ended up heating up the plastic and burning a hole right through it in a few places, but I might end up buying a used bumper cover anyway so the car doesn't look like complete ass. I kept stepping up sizes until I found a good size. Less learned: Use an 11/64" drill bit to drill out rivets on a fox mustang front bumper cover :)

I also got both fenders detached, although I didn't get the antenna out of the passenger side...I might not need to, but we'll see tomorrow. When I was under the car taking the bolts out to remove the bumper cover, I realized something: My fenderwell plastic is broken on the drivers side...probably should replace that lol.

I'll pull the GT around tomorrow and match things up and see what should be where. I think I'll just hook the tow strap to the front of the car and pull it toward the passenger side w/ the Jeep....seemed to work pretty well pulling the radiator support back.

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As a side note, the nephew did get a job and although I haven't figured out what I'm going to charge him yet, he did say his friend's uncle paints cars and would paint it for $1500...he even said he'd pay to get it painted. I don't think I want it painted, but at least it sounds like he's willing to pay me. I'll fix the car myself and put the $$$ towards the $2000 I still owe for this semester of college :D
 
ok, I've taken the car to 3 shops for estimates on JUST fixing the frame damage to make it square so the body panels will fit and look decent. The first one said around $500; second one said around $400; third one said around $360.

I'll get the panels put back on myself, but they all want me to bring my other fender and preferably the bumper cover too so they can make sure everything will line up.

Does that sound like a good deal? I'll prob. go w/ the $360 one...obviously it's cheaper and my mom has had work done there and said it was good.

Feedback and advice appreciated :nice:
 
User - think about it long term - you want the car straight. The $140 you save will be forgotten quickly if 2 years from now you're still upset that the panels don't line up the way you want them to. Make the decision on which one to go to based who you think you'll get the best job from -- not based on lowest cost. If it turns out they're one and the same - good for you. But it's rare that the lowest cost is the best value. Is your mom a good judge of a what 'good work' on the car is?
 
Michael: Yeah, I know you generally get what you pay for - but truth be told, they're all only estimates. I asked them all exactly what they were going to do and they all said basically the same thing: measure and put it on the frame machine.

My parents had a bad experience with the first one years ago when he painted their car and the paint flaked off - I kinda figured that's what you get from a cheap paint job.

Never-the-less, Michael, I do understand the point and I really don't know who would do a better job.

The $500 guy said he'd have the car 3-4 days; the $400 guy said it would spend "all day" on the frame machine...I think 6 hours. The $360 guy didn't really say how many hours.

This is a hard decision :damnit:
 
GREYFOX4INCH said:
7,300?...........dollars? i only have one thing to say about that.
BUNKERSVILLE
hey can you give me that guys name so i can have him do an insurance appraisal on my car. i mean its gotta be at least $30,000
haha
Well, I can understand why it was $7300, but it kinda sucks that it was so much. When you have to buy NEW stuff - which isn't even made anymore, so I'd have to go used - it costs a lot more. He was estimating I'd have to replace both front fenders, bumper cover, hood, inner fender and the radiator support. I could see it costing that much with all of the labor and stuff, which is why I tore it down myself and I'm just going to get the frame straightened and put it back together myself. I'll massage whatever and drill new holes if I have to. It's not real hard, just kinda a PITA and somewhat time consuming to get it right.

I've kinda wanted to do some bodywork type stuff just for the experience (although this isn't dealing w/ paint, etc, just fitting pieces) although maybe this isn't the best way to get the opporuntiy :rolleyes:
 
For those who have followed this thread, here are some updated pics from about an hour ago. I took the car to the body shop Tuesday and it was ready yesterday, but I picked it up today. I was really surprised. I think it looks good...my heart skipped a beat when I saw the guy pulling it around - man these cars are sexy! I realize mine isn't the nicest by any standard - certainly not after what it's been through.

Anyway, here are the pics:
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It was only $360. The bad part is that he said it would be around $300 to paint a front bumper - that's a new one; a used one would need some prep. A rear hatch (mine is rusted to hell) would also cost around $300 to paint...eek...maybe I can do without those. The bumper isn't too bad...maybe I'll just put the headlights back in and bolt it all back up and drive it like that w/ the dented fender and all. If I had a hatch painted and a front bumper painted, I might as well just paint the whole car to match, and I'm not sure that it's worth all that work.

All in all, I'm somewhat satisfied now.