The car is a 1994 Civic LX. I hit a curb and I replaced the LCA with a temporary one until I could find one at a junk yard that had a hole for the sway bar. I am also replacing the knuckle, shock, and the UCA with parts from a car I am parting out. It looks as though the sway bar bent too but luckily I have a spare. How can I tell if my subframe is bent from hitting the curb? I've looked and looked and I can't really tell for sure.

Here are some pictures.







Here is the LCA after hitting the curb to give you an idea of the damage and possibly a clue if it extended on to the subframe.



And here is a donor subframe I have from my old Del Sol but I am worried about it too because my brother totaled the car in a wreck.





So does anyone have any idea how I can know for sure if the subframe is bent or not before I waste my time taking everything off and putting it back on just to have to do it again? Or if there is possibly any indication if either subframe is bent or not from the pictures?

Please let me know what you can! Thank you!

 

Only the body shop can tell you that bud.

 

Do you think a body shop or an alignment place could tell me if either of the subframes are bad if they are already off the car?

 

**** no

 

Does all your sheet metal line up?
Can the car be aligned to specs?

If you can answer yes to both these questions, then your 'frame' is not a problem.

 

I'm just measuring distances from certain parts to the subframe on another Civic I know is good and straight. So far everything seems to be matching up. I'll post the results when I am finished.

I've been working all week. I'm finally going to get a crack at it tomorrow. The steering rack, knuckle, UCA, tie rod ends, the axle, and the sway bar are all being swapped. Might just drop the subframe anyways for the steering rack.

 

So after a lot of measuring, I determined the easiest way to determine if it was bent or not was to measure from the part of the control arm right behind the lower ball joint to the middle of the center cap on the real wheel. Both sides seemed to be exactly 104 inches. I've already got everything off and I'm about to start on the steering rack removal. Should have everything back together by tomorrow afternoon because I have homework I have to do before midnight.