Hello,

I was in a fender bender a few days ago and the insurance hasn't gotten back to me yet but wondering if this is repairable by an amateur.

My idea was to take it all apart and then tow it to the body shop so that they could make sure it's square before welding in a new radiator support.

What do you guys think?

 

Yes, it's repairable.
The insurance will most likely total it.
Strip it, tow it to the shop and have them replace the core support.
Hope there's no damage to the frame, other wise it will cost a lot more.

 

Sorry, but are you saying that the insurance will pay for the value of the car?

 

If it's covered they will.

Since it looks like you rear-ended someone, that will be contingent on you having collision coverage. If someone hit you, their liability should pay for your car. It looks like you shaved the car right over the top of the frame rails, so in this case having a lowered car may have saved it from being totaled (I had a very similar collision ohhhh... 18 years ago). It's going to be hard to convince any insurance company to fix that though, if it was your fault I probably wouldn't even put in a claim with them if I could avoid it.

 

I did have collision. I am sure they are going to total.

I already did the claim. I was thinking the same but not sure if it's to late to cancel claim we shall see.

I did go right under the suv in front of me. His bumper had a scratch.

 

Probably can't cancel the claim now.

 

Body Shop? Its a honda. Unless this is the family car Tie a rope to it and pull it out with a pick up truck. Toss a new hood on it get a tire alignment, call it a day.
Been driving wrecked/salvaged title cars my whole life.

 

That car is not going to be fixed with a rope and a truck.

 

Nope. It's going to be fixed with new parts, slide hammer and welder.

 

It needs a hood, bumper, headlights, a radiator support and the fenders may be repairable. You will want to check the radiator and a/c as those parts are likely to be broken, at least the fans will be. Its a fair amount of work. Check the side rails on the body, if they are straight, you can still drive it. Does it track straight?

For the radiator support, one way is to drill out the welds (that didnt break) and get a new one. You tack weld it on, or you can drill holes where the welds go and use a nut, bolt and lock washer (the weld is a spot weld so using flange washers/nuts will actually do just as good a job, its tack welded for cost, not strength). youll find that the radiator support metal is thin enough to be bent by hand when off the car. What I suggest is using a tree-wench and a big *** tree to pull the radiator support to roughly the original shape. If the frame rails on the body look ok, like it up as best you can and then drill out the welds to remove the radiator support (yours doesnt look fixable by bending.) then bolt/weld on the new one and of course recheck your replacement headlights, bumper, hood, etc for whatever else needs to be aligned. Also check the wiring to the horn, radiator fan, compressor and condensor, and of course if you have that thin little bar that runs right next to the radiator support. And of course make sure the metal crush bumper can bolt on, given the pictures it looks like the crash bumper didnt actually get hit. I had this same accident before (deer) and my car was driveable by reshaping the radiator support with a ratchet strap and a tree for weeks before I replaced the radiator support. Remember the radiator support simply lines up the body panels and only really has enough strength to hold the radiator and condensor. its not really part of the 'chassis' as its pretty thin metal.

Oh, and check that your steering fluid resovoir didnt get cracked.

the insurance company, using a book value WILL total the car, but if you do this yourself with used parts your looking at maybe 6 hours of labor and maybe 500$ or less for used parts.

 

Thanks for description. It is fixed. I removed and welded in new radiator support. Got all new fenders, bumper, fenders, and found a used hood. Now it's up on jack stands getting new cat and o2 sensors for my last emissions test ever lol.