We have a 2005 Honda Civic Ex Special Edition Sedan with the D17A2 engine. I have been maintaining for the last few years. I have done a ton of work to my girlfriend's car including: rebuilding the engine completely, front brakes and rotors were done withing the last 6 months, tires with very low mileage on them and her car has been running strong and with excellent fuel economy for almost 2 years. About a month ago I had to replace her alternator due to a power steering pump leak, at which point the power steering pump and belts were replaced as well. This engine in this car as well as transmission have been completely rebuilt and were rebuilt very well. Nothing was skipped while the engine was apart. New valve guides, valves lapped/ground, seals, valves lash properly set, oil clearances checked, crank/rod bearings, cylinders honed, piston rings, water pump, tensioner, timing belt, VTEC Solenoid, EGR, IAC, TPS, CPS, cam shaft plug replaced(now have triple o-ring billet style), engine mounts, coolant flush, etc. This car was treated like royalty, by it's humble servant.

Tragically right after doing ps pump and alternator, my girlfriend rear ended someone on I4(orlando,FL) without full coverage on her vehicle. The car she rear ended was an SUV with a tow hitch and a 6"-8" extension bar extending out of it. Needless to say, the car she rear ended had virtually no damage, aside from some light scratches of the paint on their rear bumper and the tow hitch may have been bent slightly.

Our Honda was not so lucky. Radiator, condenser, hood were pushed in basically all the way to the exhaust manifold(which isn't very far considering how little space there is to begin with), the left headlight(driver's side) was crushed, passenger's side was not damaged, hood is bent in, and EVAP canister line pushed in so that one is rubbing on the accessory belt. Front bumper cover was ripped off, so that will also need to be replaced. There appears to be no damage to the side fenders, so I am optimistic about the ability of the car to be repaired by myself for less than $600, I have spent many hours already at the local pull and pay before, so I expect to get all replacement parts there for this. Including the paint matched hood and bumper cover if the same car is still in the yard where I got the door handles and interior pieces. I think my heart is more crushed than the car itself to be honest. So I can't bear to see this car get sold for scrap just to go towards a down payment on another car that's within budget of $5000 tops. I'd expect her to only get $500 for it, but she is getting desperate and I need to figure out how to save my baby!!!! (her civic)

• Obviously I will need new hood, head light/s, radiator support. Possibly condenser, radiator, cooling fans.
• Does anyone have any advice on how to get the radiator support pulled back out far enough to actually have room to work in there? Could I just cut it out for now?
• I'd prefer to pull the radiator support from the Pull-N-Pay, but am still researching what drill bits would be needed to drill out the welds on it, no cutting tools allowed in the PullNPay.
• The pictures I am attaching will show you what I am working with to an extent.
•The fluid shown leaking in the pictures is actually Power Steering Fluid from the Lower Reservoir hose which was broken during the accident.
•Car starts right up and runs great, minus of course no power steering fluid, but we got it towed home as to avoid any further damage to the vehicle in case there is coolant leaking and also because of the condenser line that is pushing in on the PS pump belt.

This car has had thousands of hours of time spent on it. Mostly research, preparation and cleaning parts, but also hundreds of hours that I have spent actually working on it.
Please, if anyone has any experience with front end collision repair and can give me definitive information to assist me with getting this done, I will be beyond grateful for your help. This is now a time sensitive issue for me, due to the fact that she wants a driving vehicle now and I really don't know if I will be able to handle her throwing away all the time and effort I have slaved away into this car, for some insignificant amount of money. Even if I had to sell it as is, I couldn't handle letting it go for less than like $2000, knowing just how meticulously the engine and transmission have been done.
Thank you in advanced for any help that can be provided.

 

Hey I also live in Orlando FL. I4 I think was rated as the most dangerous highway in the whole country. I'm planning to buy a house in a position where I never have to use I4 if at all possible.

I just went through this with my former friend's 2002 Civic EX. Did all of the work you mentioned and did a head gasket, new transmission and AC rebuild. Someone blew a stop sign and he hit them at 45mph. It was hit so hard we had to buy a sawzall and cut the frame wide open to take the engine out. The solid axle on the other car was snapped in half.





Did the airbags deploy? That car honestly looks totaled and likely isn't worth your time. If I owned this car I would try to find another Civic with a clean body and a blown engine or transmission and just swap what you have in there and junk the existing car. This is what my buddy and I did with his. It's never going to be right again and at the end of the day your girlfriend just needs a driving car.

If you do proceed with this body, though, get that hood off and see how bad it really is. Get a few pictures and take it to a collision repair shop and have the frame pulled or at least quoted for a pull. We took an old Dodge Neon to Greg's Auto Repair near Kirkman and Old Winter Garden road and they pulled it for $180 after a similar hit a few years ago. It still wasn't 100% right but it let us clear the serpentine belt and keep using the car. But that's also $180 that could go toward finding a straight bodied car. You're gonna have to weigh all of your options but at least only the car was hurt.

 

I appreciate you taking the time to share you experience with front end collisions. I had never considered just swapping the engine into a new car, but I doubt she will allow that to be an option. Mostly due to needing a engine hoist and concrete work surface. We rent out half of a house with an old lady(grumpy and not a fan of me,haha). She originally said half the carport was ours when we moved in, but now she won't even let us park our cars on it to work on them. She really is just acting childish and acting like a control freak, so she isn't one that can be reasoned with. To be honest, I don't think the damage is actually all that bad after popping the hood and looking at it. Mostly just the radiator support. My girl wants to just scrap it and get her grandpa to cosign on a car $5000 or less, but I have at least till the weekend to come to a conclusion on whether or not I can get the car in driving condition. Aesthetics aside, if I can get the thin metal radiator support pulled out with a chain/strap and a come along, that will at least get us by till November. Money is so tight right now and my Jeep is permanently doomed to the death wobble if I go over 55-60mph and the road isn't perfectly flat and as you know I4 has very few flat sections of road right now. I drive from Altamonte(434) to Maitland(414) to I4(until exit 84b Ivanhoe). Its nothing but construction and terribly done temporary roads the whole drive down I4..Jeeps don't have fully adjustable Camber/Caster/Toe without a kit and my jeep has a slightly bent suspension/frame component that prevents me from being able to get a true alignment done. I also have no experience with suspension parts. Never done tie rods, control arms, bushings etc. Just a stabilizer bar. I4 has been beating on it for the last two weeks. I'm going to start working on it now and see what conclusion I come up with.

 

Oh yeah, the air bags did not deploy! Thank fully. My girlfriend only hurt her ankle from slamming on the brakes so hard. Shes walking without a walker already though and there is not really any swelling either.

 

It sounds like it may be best to junk it and move on then if you have no area to work on it and she's done thinking about it. It might also be possible to rent or borrow a place to work on it, but those costs would add up. I'd offer to help but we're in the middle of moving back into my mom's vacant place right now.

For what it's worth, the 8th gens are going for 2500-5000 right now. I picked up an '08 EX coupe last year for 3650 and absolutely love it. Be really careful with the interest rate on a used car like that also. Some places are going to ream you guys out at 20% interest. See if you can get a personal loan from a bank or definitely shop around and compare rates. She could likely get a much newer car for the same price in the end depending on the interest. I always try to pay cash for my cars and aim for a cost around 4k, but I have a few friends that were able to pick up a 10k Hyundai Elantra for around 2-3% interest at OffLeaseOnly in East Orlando. Be sure to check that out and shop around.

 

Thank you again for sharing your knowledge and experience with me. Her grandpa is willing to cosign on a loan for her and for now we are able to share my car, so at least that gives her the time she needs to find a reasonable and fair deal on a reliable vehicle. Neither one of us has ever had to purchase a vehicle with a loan of any kind. We both have always bought our vehicles cash and from private sellers. In fact I've only ever bought one vehicle and its the one I maintain and am still driving to this day. She has always had a safety net and family that essentially provided her with the money/car. So she just had to pay them back with no interest and at her convenience and usually not in full, which has made this a good learning experience for the both of us. It's been beyond stressful, because we have other things happening that have been making our life difficult before this even happened. I am definitely going to take notes on the things you mentioned about personal loans and for giving me a place to add to the list as a possible candidate for getting a car from. Just having you vouch for a business/sharing that you know the business is capable of being trusted or at least is/was reasonably fair, is encouraging. To me, buying a car is like going gambling at a casino. I'm praying that we can find her a well maintained, reliable and affordable vehicle. I have hit my limit on doing car repairs for the next 2 years, hahaha. Would be nice to just be responsible for brakes, oil changes, and maintenance things. Anything major work I end up doing is always 10x more involved than what an average joe would do, because I always end up just saying "might as well take care of this or that, while I have it apart/accessible" and of course I spend way more time with prep and cleaning than I do actually working on the repair, lol. While I had my blast cabinet set up at home, I saved A LOT of time, but that's in storage for now. Sorry for rambling! Thank you again for all your help. I'm actually going to pull the radiator support out with a "come along", winches, straps, a big tree/telephone poll and my jeep now! To atleast get the moving parts some room so Its able to be moved/driven around short distances. Then I will further asses the damage, if any that was done to the main sub frame/structural components. After looking at the damage some more I honestly don't think its too bad. It was mostly just the 2" square tow hitch that punch directly into her upper radiator/support and because she had a 8-12" extension bar sticking out of it, the impact was really mostly at that single point and wasn't at that high of a speed. Stop and go I4, so I would guess she wouldn't have been going more than 50mph TOPs, but she also had time to slam on her brakes, which I just replaced, so her car stops on a dime. Fingers crossed. Pull-N-Pay is having 50% off sale 10/18 on parts if you bring 5 friends with you. 10% per friend. I don't have any friends, but I bet I can find 5 friends within 5 minutes of arriving at the pullnpay!!! Thanks again. Stayed blessed brother. Ill update in a day or two.

 

Not worth your time man. If you have somewhere to work on it and pull the engine I like the swap idea, but if you can't do that, time to call the junkyard bro.