I made a boo boo on the front of my 94 accord EX. I have confidence in replacing the damaged parts (hood, fender, lights, radiator, fans, battery) But the radiator core support is all bent inwards. I found a junk yard that will cut one off for me for $100. I need to take it somewhere to have it welded back in, and they will need to discharge the AC to do this I am told. What sounds like a reasonable price to have a body shop just install the core support?

Then I will buy the used body parts and add them on myself. I want to go as cheap as possible and just get the car driveable again so I can make it to work for the next 6 months. Any suggestions on getting the radiator core support replaced? Has anyone bent theirs back into shape and mangaged to drive the car?

 

I didn't have this issue, but my radiator was leaking due to rust. The stealership said it was a common problem in New England. Now I know they have an incentive to say things like this and helpfully replace parts, but it may make you feel better about replacing the radiator

 

depending on how bad the rad support is bent the car will more than likely have to be put onto a frame machine to pull it back to specs. this might be pretty costly depending on how bad it is a friend of mine had to have the frame pulled on his truck i cant remember how much it was i think it was around 200 - 250 just to pull the frame im not sure what would cost to have the rad support taken out and put back. do you have any pics??

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by accordion &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I didn't have this issue, but my radiator was leaking due to rust. The stealership said it was a common problem in New England. Now I know they have an incentive to say things like this and helpfully replace parts, but it may make you feel better about replacing the radiator
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lol.... I'm thinking that you meant dealership... BUT that is a damn good way to descibe a dealer - a stealership.... because they rob you no matter what job you ask them to do!

 

Yea I have some pics, bu I'm not at home now. Bare with me. I will get some attached.

When the accident happened I slid it underneath the bottom of the suv. My bumper has minimal damage and the damage is mostly on the top of the car. From looking at it, I don't really think there is frame damage because it is mostly struck on the top of the car. The radiator support is bent pretty bad on the top, but I don't think it is on the bottom. Will know more Wednesday and Thursday when I start pulling the thing apart.

The pics will show you better.

 

Sorry took so long. I can get some better pics of it.

 

well, you did a nice amount of damage. Looks similar to mine when I hit and Intrepid. Mine had damage that went all the way down the front. All the metal in front of the car was bent pretty good. It was fixable but it would have needed to be put on a frame staightening machine and I didn't have the money to be doing that. So I stripped it and now I'm selling the parts I don't need and are in good condition. As for you though, all the damage looks to be on top. Your driver side fender looks good but I can't see you passenger side. So you might be able to get away with just cutting the upper radiator support out and welding in a new one. Then replace all the broken parts. So you might get lucky and have no frame damage since everything looks to be up high. But you won't know until you start taking things off and really inspecting whats under the bumper and that.

 

Your repair will require an extensive amount of labor to complete. You will litterally have to disassemble the entire front end of the car inside and out to fully expose that support. Then all that needs to be put back when its replaced. If you do all of that work, the shop should still run you a few hundred bucks to cut out the old piece, fit the new one and weld and finish it into place. The AC needs to be removed as your condensor is attached to that support in front of the radiator and it will need to be replaced along with the radiator as it suffered the same bending fate. You may have to decide if the car has enoughr fair market value to justify putting that much time, labor and money into it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Hondaman56 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You may have to decide if the car has enoughr fair market value to justify putting that much time, labor and money into it. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I agree. Thats part of the reason why I decided to not fix mine. That and the fact I didn't have the money to do it.

 

remember to compensate for lost a\c refrigerant oil when replacing the condenser.

 

Yeah if you do everything yourself, except for putting the car on a frame machine and checking alingment and you have the radiator suport beam removed yourself and you have the Junk yard radiator suport all ready to go on and the whole front end stripped just for the install of the used Radiator suport and about 2 hours on the frame machine just checking alignment you are looking at around $400 with no straighting. I am rebuilding a Saturn with almost the same damage as you it was up high and even the same side of the car took the hit, and I got all junk yard parts except for fender, hood and bumper cover. I am doing all the work my self and have the car all ready but I am still looking for a place to do it for me cheaper, but most every shop wants around $400 to install and just check the car out on the frame machine. So it is costly.

 

Thanks all.

That was some good help. I had a couple estimates done and decided to go ahead and claim it on insurance. I got $3800 out of it after taking off my deductable. I wanted a 4 door anyway, so I have been looking around all weekend.

I just put a down payment on a 94 (same year) EX Sedan with only 87K Miles! This car is super clean. I am buying it for 5k dollars. This will get me by for a while until I can afford to get a new one.

Thanks again for all the help. I was going to keep the car and part it out, but the insurance co wanted a thousand dollars for me to retain the car. I said take it!