Paint & Body Work Custom Painting | Panel Repairs & Replacement

front end damage....repair thread

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Old Oct 7, 2012 | 05:39 PM
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Default front end damage....repair thread

Car was in a front accident before i got it...just curious on what you think the severity of it is based on the pics. No tire wear issues from alignment...more or less fender and hood gaps.








Last edited by bwy23; Dec 30, 2012 at 05:04 PM.
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Old Oct 7, 2012 | 06:08 PM
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Only way to know a 100% sure would be to get the car on a frame rack and get some measurements to make sure everything is within factory spec.
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Old Oct 7, 2012 | 06:21 PM
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The bumper support looks bent. The left side looks lower then the right side?
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Old Oct 7, 2012 | 06:29 PM
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the most telling pic to me is the one of the battery. there is no gap between it and the rad support. I took the front clip off to re-arrange some things with the intercooler and piping....and figured i would snap some pics. Guess it would be a good time to go ahead and get it looked at while everything is off.
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Old Oct 7, 2012 | 06:35 PM
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Originally Posted by Aaron@Texas-Speed
Only way to know a 100% sure would be to get the car on a frame rack and get some measurements to make sure everything is within factory spec.
+1

....from the looks of it your going to need to pull it anyway.
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Old Oct 7, 2012 | 06:46 PM
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Originally Posted by BLK95-Z
+1

....from the looks of it your going to need to pull it anyway.
agreed.
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Old Oct 8, 2012 | 03:11 AM
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It looks like it was straightened however they did not fully repair the frame rail. I would be extremely upset with the previous owner and demand he find receipts for the work that was done
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Old Oct 10, 2012 | 12:38 AM
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Default front end damage

Originally Posted by chrysler kid
It looks like it was straightened however they did not fully repair the frame rail. I would be extremely upset with the previous owner and demand he find receipts for the work that was done
there's nothing straight about that front end,assuming it was bought as is,it can be fixed,but it is gonna cost.how are the rest of the parts condition.
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Old Oct 10, 2012 | 09:28 AM
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Im having a really good customer of mine (i work in autoparts) thats a body man stop by and look at it today. I showed him the pictures in relation to the frame rail and he says is actually not that hard to replace the whole thing if need be. Says there are some spot welds that are drilled out and the whole thing can be replaced....easy for him to say. Im gonna post back with what he says.
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Old Oct 10, 2012 | 09:30 AM
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Originally Posted by v86speed
there's nothing straight about that front end,assuming it was bought as is,it can be fixed,but it is gonna cost.how are the rest of the parts condition.
everything else is cherry! Car had less than 75k when i bought it...I didnt catch the damage until over a year ago when i first pulled the front clip to mount the intercooler. ive had the car for over 4 years. Also...i did run a carfax before i purchased...and it listed it had been in a "minor" front end accident with no airbag deployed.
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Old Oct 10, 2012 | 11:07 PM
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Some minor fabrications and you should be golden brotha
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Old Nov 18, 2012 | 05:46 PM
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Got the car over to the guys house i was talking about in earlier post. Got the whole front end off the car. so far we have removed the front rail caps (many welds to drill). I also got new caps and a new bottom radiator support piece and front bumper support. The people who previously "repaired" the car used alot of hammering and a ton of seam sealer. Hes bringing home a porta power to straiten the frame rails and then we will go from there. It will surely be better than before with new parts and paint. Im gonna keep posting as we go along till finished product. Really learning a lot about how these cars are put together on the inside.





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Old Nov 22, 2012 | 09:25 PM
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that sucks to find damage like that, when I bought my car the guy said it had no wrecks and when I was doin my motor swap I noticed alot of grinding marks and turns out the whole frt clip from the frt of the strut towers where replaced before. good luck with ur build
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Old Dec 30, 2012 | 05:12 PM
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Got to do a little since my partner got a porta power for us to get the rails back in shape. We got em roughly were we wanted and the used sheet metal screws to hold the new bumper support brackets to the rails. Looks alot better than when i first took it apart! Next time we will bolt up the bumper and then start mounting the fenders and front clip, headlights etc to see how everthing looks (gaps and stuff) Once thats done then we take it all back apart....clean the frame rails some more....and the weld em up!



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Old Dec 30, 2012 | 05:14 PM
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Originally Posted by krzy_z
that sucks to find damage like that, when I bought my car the guy said it had no wrecks and when I was doin my motor swap I noticed alot of grinding marks and turns out the whole frt clip from the frt of the strut towers where replaced before. good luck with ur build

I didnt notice...cause im not a body guy...but the giveaway for the guy thats helping me was all the damn seam sealer!
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Old Jan 27, 2015 | 06:15 AM
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what was the end result of this little experiment?

I was involved in a front end collision and f'd up the front end of my car, brought it to the buddy of a buddy to fix it on the side for about half of what a body shopped would've charged.. long story short sometimes the saying ya get what ya pay for is true, apparently it applies to body work.. never have I ever worked with 2 monkeys as bad as these two.... anyway even though I should have them fix it to factory condition I just really don't want them touching my car anymore so im hoping to do it myself. my front bumper still isn't lined up properly so I haven't pulled it yet but will do so soon and am expecting to find the same thing you did
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