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Spyder Accident... Need advice on repairs... :/

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reaper603

Probationary Member
29
0
Jan 9, 2012
Camden, Delaware
Hey everybody... Remember that eclipse I spent my entire senior year fixing up and repairing to make it look exactly like I wanted? Probably not... But let me assure you I remember this car and Here is what it looked like.

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And as of 11:19am on 05/05/2012 this is now what it looks like...

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Now not only is the damage done to the bumper and hood but underneath is the frame that the headlights and bumper screwed into and the hood latched onto. Along with the hood and bumper crushed and pushed down the frame is also bent along with it all. My insurance does not cover any damage done to my car and with less then $140 in the bank (you can subtract $75 from that amount due to the ticket I also received) im alone on these repairs... I have a bumper so that is okay. But now I need a hood and I need to find a way to fix the frame.. Does anyone here have any ideas on how to possibly fix this or make it look better? I will be getting a new hood eventually so my main question is how do i fix the front frame of my car :/ (Lets all not forget that I JUST had this car painted. Less then 3 weeks has gone by :( )
 
Bet you're going to have to take it to frame shop and have the front end all re straighten to square where the accident pushed the entire front end metal down..and bent the crossmember-which will have to be replaced.

It could have torn up some motor mounts as well...

Course, this is all a guess since we can't see what's under the hood and underneath the vehicle.
 
Well if you have no money.... for now what you need to do is open the hood, but know that once you do you might not be able do get it to fully latch until you fix it. Next you would put a piece of wood on top of the radiator support where the hood latches and hammer the hood in the middle with a rubber mallet. Work the piece of wood to the sides if you have too. Next you want to see how bad the support is and figure out a way to reshape it. Hooking it up to a tree or something like that and slowly backing up a little at a time while checking how the hood lines up should work for you. Use your imagination, the rad supports are thin metal and so is the hood. You can do it!
 
Could be real cheap and get the hood open for us to see the damage and it looks like it won't stay shut once it's open. Could buy good pins and install them to keep that hood down till you come across another stock hood and get the front core support straitened. I do believe they are welded in so a new should be welded in its place
 
Insurance is supposed to cover stuff like this.That's what you pay for.Unless you just have liability and it just covers the other car.

Is it worse under the hood?I gotta get a picture.Cause it only looks like the hood and bumper from the pics.
 
Alright ill go get a picture of it. The damage that's done is the the frame in front of the radiator, It didn't go far past the hood ill go take a picture now and upload it thank you all for the help LOL I really appreciate it! The hood can open and close iv done it a couple times and the car still runs fine its just body damage :/
 
You really need more pictures. And looking at the primary damage it looks like the secondary won't be too bad. Are you sure the unibody has sustained enough damage to need a frame shop? And if it has to be put on a frame machine shop around because the labor rate for that is usually higher. The ford body shop I worked at was 85 an hour. But that's a Stealership price.

Get back to us with pics of the secondary damage so we can give you batter advice.
 
If its just the core support thats damaged *the part that holds the radiator and headlights in place* then all you got to do is find someone who can weld another in place, cut that one out and call it a day.

In fact, I couldn't find someone right away to weld mine, so what I was drilling out the spot welds and was going to bolt the whole piece in place. I suppose you could do that if you're really broke, just need to cut the core support out of a non smashed car.

Hopefully that's all it is for you, shouldn't be too bad. Mine was a hell of a lot worse than that, and I just bought a whole nother car for 2k and have been using it for parts ever since. (well it worked for two weeks then conked out, and I wanted MY car back so ... LOL)

Edit : Just to give you some faith -- http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/3575/eclipsetotaled2.jpg

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/2038/eclipsetotaled.jpg

Radiator was leaned back against the exhaust manifold.

Now it looks like this -- http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/8919/0407121801.jpg

Don't let it get you down, you can fix just about anything with a little time!
 
Ok here you go guys I got more pictures, Redslayer your exactly right its that part thats bent. Its the reason my hood will latch back on after i open it LOL but here you go guys heres the pictures.

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You can see the frame bent where I circled it and iv taken some other pictures as well to show more of the damage but it kind of stops at the front of the frame h=just before the radiator.

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Two things, you can do, as stated above. One bend back the core support and try to setup everything how it was even. Two, You get a new core support and rebuild from nothing and feel a little better at the end of it all.

To be honest, I have seen much, much worse and comes out looking like new.
 
Wow that's pretty damn close to what happened to my spyder...

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I was in the same position as you (still am actually :coy:). Didn't have a whole lot of extra cash so I got to work pulling on the rad support to straighten it out somewhat and jb welded a small crack I got in the radiator. I picked up a hood in decent shape locally and called it a day...sure it looks like it has overbite, but for now it works. Once school lets out I'll pick up a job or two and take it to get professionally fixed :)

P.s. that blue thing is a flashlight that I left there after checking out the front end
 
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I think you might have hidden damage there. Take a closer look at the bottom frame of the car and check out the frame piece that holds the engine's roller stopper.

Just being thorough. :thumb:

Mines still bent from before I even got the car. Still drives fine LOL.

And it looks like his impact was fairly high up. You'd have to hit something that was low to damage that, and most likely the bumper wouldn't survive LOL.
 
i got hit head on with a truck and destroyed front end, after pulling everything off, down to the radiator support, i took it out came i couldn't bend it back but idk what to do now, i can get another upper bar, just the whole alignment and making it sturdy is my concern...engine i fine, still runs
 

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