Crashed my EF hatch... Wondering about DIY repair?
 

I can do the fenders, hood, bumper, etc but when I spun on the freeway (it was raining and my rear tires are bald), the passenger front headlight area was smashed. I hit a metal raised guardrail luckily, not those cement things, so from what I can tell, the only nonremoveable parts that were damaged were the upper radiator mount bracket thing... For lack of a better name. It goes all the way across the front of the bay, over the rad and headlights.

I was wondering if this was a very structural part of the car.. I figure it's not because it seems kind of thin. But I don't want to cut it out and weld a new piece in and then have my car crumple in on itself during a corner. There might be more to that corner that was crumpled in the accident, so can anyone give me advice exactly what is and is not structural in that area?

Re: Crashed my EF hatch... Wondering about DIY repair?
 

If your talking about the thin piece of metal that the hood latches into; that should be a bolt in piece. Two bolts on each side.

Re: Crashed my EF hatch... Wondering about DIY repair?
 

Are you talking about the core support? Not sure about an EF hatch but some cars have bolt-in and some have pinch welded supports.

If it's p/w just drill those bastards out and spot weld a new support in.

Give it the Krylon special and dive it like you stole it.

Re: Crashed my EF hatch... Wondering about DIY repair?
 

No bolts, it's at least pinch welded in. I didn't look hard enough to find out where, but it is welded. So it's gonna be alright to do that? Not gonna kill myself =P. Good. $300 doesn't buy a car up to my standards and that's alls I have.

Re: Crashed my EF hatch... Wondering about DIY repair?
 

pics?

Re: Crashed my EF hatch... Wondering about DIY repair?
 

Will post them later. I'm at school now... Damn Metro.

Re: Crashed my EF hatch... Wondering about DIY repair?
 

yeah hes not talking about just the rad support, hes talking about the area that goes over the headlights etc

Where those would weld on and how much exactly of the front end would come off I dunno, probably a bulk of it. Id personally just cut off the one side with a thin cut off wheel, do the same on a donour car and weld it in place, ---- replacing the entire piece which is probably huge

Re: Crashed my EF hatch... Wondering about DIY repair?
 

It's several pieces welded in. The core support (upper rad), headlight bracket, and front inner fender metal (it's two parts) is what I need for the right side.

Re: Crashed my EF hatch... Wondering about DIY repair?
 

get a slide hammer, hammer, chain and a tree, mangle your rad support with said hammers and tree/chain, put new fenders, etc on. call it a day, works like a charm.

Re: Crashed my EF hatch... Wondering about DIY repair?
 

this works, dont it before. a bigass chain and a tree and driveing backwards does GREAT for pulling ----