Achenar

I had some front end damage caused by me being an idiot, and introducting an SUV's tow-hook to my hood.

I ordered a brand new OEM Honda hood, front bumper, and front grille trim.

I was aware of the fact that the upper radiator support was slightly banged up in the middle, but it is very mild.

After re-adjusting the hood latch, the hood lines up perfectly with the headlights and fenders. However, because of the way the rad. support was bent, the leading edge of it sags about 1/2" in the middle. The result is that there is a slight gap between the hood and the grille trip between the headlights.

Here's some pics of the fun:







Brand new bumper. Freshly painted. Already destroying it, lol:










So as you can see, the front part of the upper rad. support (the part where the grille is attached) is basically "pulling" the bumper down a little in between the headlights, and causing it to sag. However the physical location of the latch is spot-on.

My initial idea was to try attaching a cherry-picker to the upper-rad and lifting the car a little (perhaps assisting with a little weight). However, it's really only the front part of the upper-rad support that is bent ... I don't really want to move the latch any higher (but I probably have a 1/4" or so of play where I can lower the latch if need be).

So what's the next best option? BFH?
Stuff something between the upper rad support and grille?
For such minor damage I really don't think it's worth re-welding a new upper rad support in ...

Thanks for looking

-a

blackKready

port-a-power is what you need really. little hydrolic ram with a bunch of different ends used for pushing cars back into shape basically. you can try using engine hoist , good idea , but only if it needs to be bent straight up , you know what i mean. if it needs to go up as well as forward , which im sure it does seeing as you pushed it back as well as down , try BFH like you said for forward i guess. when your pulling up with hoist and tension is on it , beat it enough to push it forward with BFH dude. what else can you do.

95ProjectEJ1

iTrader: (5)

Purchase a new rad support, drill out the spot welds, and weld the new one back in place. This is something i need to do also if in intend to keep my EJ, if not... expletive it, let it be someone elses project.

blackKready

thats alot for how much its damaged though.

95ProjectEJ1

iTrader: (5)

His is not damaged that much

Libertariat

Buy a new radiator support.

It wouldn't be that hard to weld it back in "better" than how it was.

95ProjectEJ1

iTrader: (5)

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ek forever guy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Buy a new radiator support.

It wouldn't be that hard to weld it back in "better" than how it was.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

x2... my hood is completely caved in on one side, fender is caved in, broken turn signal, and the bumper retainer is messed up too from being pushed in and all i need is a new rad support. Even if you couldnt do it yourself, it shouldn't be that much if you were to bring your car in to a body shop with no front end and have them just fix the support.

s_vares

Ah, poo.. its just a little low. pull out your rad and jack up on it with a jack and some blocks of wood. be carful. you can get that back 100%

Achenar

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by s_vares &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Ah, poo.. its just a little low. pull out your rad and jack up on it with a jack and some blocks of wood. be carful. you can get that back 100%</TD></TR></TABLE>

I thought about this .... I might just give it a try. I'm a little worried about the wood "snapping" out from between the rad support and the jack though.

-a

blackKready

use your hoist dude , you have more control of what your doing.

Achenar

Okay, finally got around to doing some work on it. I used my hoist with a plain-old piece of rope. Easy as cake. The upper. rad. support really is flimsy!



I just fed the rope through the holes that the grille mounts to (1 at a time), bending the front of the rad. support up 1 section at a time.

It's just about perfect now.

-a

flipsyde

my girl would have killed me if drilled out the holes for them foglights in the house.

good job everything looks lined up now.