Can this be replaced?

[3pt1lumina]

Well my friend rear-ended a Dakota a couple of months back. He really needs this car back so we want to try and fix it. So, can this be replaced?

 

 

Inbetween where I drew the arrows this is bent in his car.

 

The car still runs/drives fine. It needs a headlight, hood, fender, bumper, cooling fans and a radiator. We can get a donor car extremely cheap and canabilize it, however if this can't be fixed then I have no idea what he's going to do for a vehicle. He's 20 and has an almost 2 year old daughter so it's not that easy for him to just go pick something else up.

 

I'll take pictures of his car tomorrow and post.

 

EDIT: 93 Regal 4DR. 3.1, forgot about that.

[White93z34]

yes, it can be replaced. is it practical on a car this old. no.

 

what you are refering to is the radiator support, i replaced the lower half of this on my car last year, the part that holds the bottom of the radiator.

 

you need to remove EVERYTHING that attatches to the radiator support remove the condensor/rad/fans/etc. then you must remove the header panne, lights, bumper, bumper cover, you see where i'm going with this...

 

anyhow, get some good sharp drillbits, and start drilling out spot welds, theres a ton of them, so your gona be awhile doing it, it took me around 8-10 hours or so removing just the bottom half from my parts car

 

then repeat everything with the parts car, and get someone who can weld good, and weld it back in useing the holes from the old spot welds and fill them in, i believe its refered to as stitch welding. i know it would be tempting to just run some beads and call it a day, but the spot welds are there to breakaway in a colision.

 

also i might add i did all this work with my car bolted to a frame machine, which made sure that the chassis could not shift while the work was being performed, i'm sure it could be done off of a frame machine, but i'm just throwing that out there,

 

heres some pictures to give you an idea of what all is involved

thats my car with the old lower support removed, and everything distatched.

 

a ton of hours and alot of swearing later. its done.

 

so after all this, i ask, how much work would it take to make that parts car you talk about into a good driver? possably using his car for parts?

[Crazy K]

I saw one that had been replaced using WOOD SCREWS. It can be done but it's a PITA. get some pics... is it only the upper part that is damaged?

[Justin]

I'd try and bend it back as much as you can. The middle will be tough, I know my old '91 GP had a bent support but it still functioned ok once I used some washers to space out the hood latch.

[3pt1lumina]

It's bent pretty bad. I honestly think it's not worth it but I'll show you pics when I go over there later.

 

The parts car has no title...so we can't register it. We already thought of that. Damn you NY.

[gp90se]

*cough* *cough* vin tag swap *cough* macco paintjob *cough*

[Stekman]

Rope around the support and a big ass tree. Put the car in reverse and have at it.

[3pt1lumina]

*cough* *cough* vin tag swap *cough* macco paintjob *cough*

 

thought of it my friend won't do it

 

Rope around the support and a big ass tree. Put the car in reverse and have at it.

 

Thought of it too, will it actually work??

[manitcor]

good luck, if that part of the unibody is bent thats an almost immideate total loss.

 

if you got hookups some where with a frame bender then they may be able to strigten it some.

[White93z34]

i'd honestly persue the work that it would take to get a title on said parts car.

[Crazy K]

Rope around the support and a big ass tree. Put the car in reverse and have at it.

 

Thought of it too, will it actually work??

 

it can, but be gentle. You don't want to agrevate the damage. PICS!

[Nick1234]

i may have some picture of that aswell but i have to do some looking. I replaced mine too. pretty much remove everything, cut it out carefully and weld in the unbent one from a different car. again i will look for some pictures but they might be gone.

 

Nick

[BandaorICE]

I'm doing the same thing to my Z34. The radiator support was damaged beyond repair, so i pulled it and in the process of replacing it. I don't have the time to do it so its taking awhile. Its a MAJOR PITA! No lie. As long as you have someone who knows what is going on, it will turn out right. Since I'm the only one touching my car, its taking forever but getting done right. Also, I've tried the tree+come-along, it pulled it some..but not enough. Good way to learn how to use tools if you don't know how to yet.

 

Some pics (I think if they work)

This is how I bought it, $500

http://bandaorice.myphotoalbum.com/view_photo.php?set_albumName=album03&id=100_5976

 

This is the Z after trying to use a tree.

http://bandaorice.myphotoalbum.com/view_photo.php?set_albumName=album03&id=100_6010

 

This is after I said to hell with it, get the die grinder.

http://bandaorice.myphotoalbum.com/view_photo.php?set_albumName=album04&id=100_6026_jpg

 

I have newer ones with it prept for welding. Just not uploaded yet.