ok, so when I bought my car, i knew that it had been hit on the pass. side, but I did not know the extent of the damage... as I took a closer and closer look over the couple of months i've had it, it looks like the frame might be a little messed up. I took some pictures earlier of the part above the headlight and some other parts that are damaged or look wavy and warped. Anyone got ideas on how to fix it? I'm hoping that I don't have to tear down to cut and weld new stuff in, but if thats what has to be done... ohwell..

im more worried about the parts circled in yellow than the fender.. fenders can be replaced..

 

if the panels line up, I don't know what to tell you. Thats a pretty ghetto repair, but really the only way to fix that properly would be to section it out. It would be a huge amount of work and would need to be done by an experienced and reputable shop. In my opinion, I would just continue rocking it as long as it looks ok from outside and keep an eye out for a new shell if you're looking for a show car. That would probably be a cheaper route, unless you could do the work yourself, and I'm guessing if you have to ask, then you probably dont have the experience to take on a job like that, and I mean no offense by that.

 

no.. i have by no means the skills to take on somethin like that yet.. maybe later, but not right not.. and unfortunately, the panels do not line up at all... the driver side of the fender sticks into the wheel well about 1/4"... don't know why the driver side is out of alignment, but yeah..and I tried to take off the fender before, but i couldnt.. are there any hidden bolts or anything?

edit: by section out, you mean cut and weld?

 

i'm repairing a similar problem w/ my ef except mine was pretty much crushed and had to cut of portion out and put on a new radiator support.

If you can take pics of the car w/o the fender and headlight assembly people can probably see the damage more better.

As far as the fender coming off you usually have 3 bolts in the engine bay area and two bolts on the inside of the door(swing the door all the way open and you can get to those) also one at the bottom of the fender closest to the door and you might have screws holding the bumper to the fender..

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 89sicivic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">As far as the fender coming off you usually have 3 bolts in the engine bay area and two bolts on the inside of the door(swing the door all the way open and you can get to those) also one at the bottom of the fender closest to the door and you might have screws holding the bumper to the fender..
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ive tried taking all these bolts off, but when i get them out, there is still some magical barrier thing holding it to the car... idk.. ill try again this weekend..

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 89sicivic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">If you can take pics of the car w/o the fender and headlight assembly people can probably see the damage more better.</TD></TR></TABLE>
im afraid to take out the headlight as when the fender and stuff were fixed, the headlight was jimmy rigged in there... when i get back from being out of town this weekend, Ill try taking it apart again.

 

the car could be structurally straight after the repair yet. But your not really ever going to get the metal back into cosmetic shape. The only way to repair it cosmetically is to section. If there is still damage that caused the car to shift out of spec your going to want to have it pulled before you start to section anything.

 

^^^ I definitely agree. Replace the damage section. Try to find a rear end reck at the the junkyard. I know a guys in so. Cal who fixes that type or frontal damage for about 200. Including parts. So there's a base price range to get that repaired.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JDM_JNKY &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">^^^ I definitely agree. Replace the damage section. Try to find a rear end reck at the the junkyard. I know a guys in so. Cal who fixes that type or frontal damage for about 200. Including parts. So there's a base price range to get that repaired.</TD></TR></TABLE>

it must be an easy fix or just a fix without paint cuz that is cheap as hell and if thats in cali price OMG thats so cheap im glad i live here...if i were to charge to section that out i would do 400 total from paint to metal to everything...but thats just me and its STILL a deal. body shop you ask? forget about it...

 

Driver side fender is off cause you have a sway in the nose. It looks like it got hit on the passenger side causing the whole nose to be pushed over quite a bit. Someone tried to bang out the fender with a hammer and lef the rest swayed over. They most likely just tried to get the fender to look good against the hood but still left everything out of alignment.
If you tried to get a new fender, it would not fit until you had everything else pulled into the correct position.

 

so i would have to go to a body shop and have them pull it back into position? or is it something i can do on my own

 

You can try to do it on your own with a clamp a strong enough chain and some pulling with something but you are just not gonna get the right angle or precision pulling you are gonna need from a tree or a trailer hitch. It was good enough for full frame cars back in the day but not for unibody's.
You can try a block of wood and a big hammer and it might be enough to push the nose over and the fender as well but I am not looking at the car infront of me so I have no real way of telling you yes or no.
And without any experiance doing something like this, just hitting something with a hammer might just open a can of worms you don't need.
If you are brave then find a frame chart for your car, a tape measurer in Millimeters and start measuring out the engine bay and see if it is close to square. Then work from there.

 

Your pictures don't really show too much to base a good response off of. I would need at the least a picture showing a larger view of the car with the fender and bumper off to give a good response. But from those pictures I don't think it has very much damage besides cosmetic. The car SHOULD be put on a rack to make sure the shock tower isnt pushed a little and the rails are not kinked (which i doubt) nor swayed out. The hit doesn't look like it was hard enough to cause any decent amount of sway in the rails, but the only way to know for sure is to measure.

But still, to get a bodyshop to fix this...is for sure not going to be anywhere near a $200 nor $400 job. Figure around a hr setting the car up on a rack and measure, and another hour to pull...maybe more. Section + parts + paint i wouldn't be surprised at a $1500 bill. Again, like I said it APPEARS mostly cosmetic. Which if it is and you can live with the looks then go for it. If you want it perfect, it isn't going to be cheap.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by VTEC_PRODUCTION &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

it must be an easy fix or just a fix without paint cuz that is cheap as hell and if thats in cali price OMG thats so cheap im glad i live here...if i were to charge to section that out i would do 400 total from paint to metal to everything...but thats just me and its STILL a deal. body shop you ask? forget about it...</TD></TR></TABLE>

yeah that price is just for the repair itself, no paint.

 

paint and cosmetic work im not worried about... i can get that done... i'm just worried about the frame bein bent or like swappedcx said the tower bein bent..

swappedcx, what kind of shop would have a rack to put it on and measure it? would a place like firestone have one? or would i have to consult a body shop?

also just blew the motor all to hell, so i guess its a good time to take the fender off and see what she looks like under all the bondo..