I rear ended a lady this morning and the front of my integra is pushed in a little.
Has anyone ever had to repair this themselves before and if so, how much did it cost?
I only have liability so the insurance won’t cover my damage.
From what I can see, the front support metal holding up the lights, bumper, radiator, hood latch, etc got pushed in along with the hood and side marker lights.
I can’t figure out how to pull that metal support back out and into it’s former placement. I can replace the hood myself granted I can find one in the junkyard and I can do the HID bulbs again (Headlight housings are intact). But with that support beam bent everything is off-kilter…
Here are the pics…
Any information, suggestions, advice or help you can provide will be greatly appreciated.
Samething happened to me many years ago. Had a auto body shop fix it for just under 2k. You could probably do it yourself. But you are going to need new parts and possibly might need the front end pulled straight.
That’s about what I figured.
I’ve got the new bumper, clear-cornered lights (for the side-markers and running lights), hood and replacement HID bulbs priced out at around 500.00 if I go Ebay.
I don’t know how much it will cost to straighten that support frame that got bent in. I’m consulting body shops now to get an estimate.
Until then I guess I’ll zip-tie the hood down and continue driving it around during the day. One HID light still works but it’s angle is waaaay off. I can’t get to the wiring to figure out why the driver’s side one isn’t working…but i’ve always had issues with that ballast from day-1. It may have finally given out.
Anyone know how much it costs and how long getting the front end straightened takes?
Thanks for the replies, I’m feeling a lot more hopeful about this situation. At first I wanted to sell the car, but it’s not so bad.
Well, I got a visual estimate after sending pics of the car to a body shop.
Mr. &^&#*, It appears that the upper tie bar (this is the upper support bar that the hood closes in to) needs to be replaced. We may be able to pull it out to at least get the hood to operate easier. However, the only way to get the front fixed properly is to replace it. If you would like to stop in, we can take a closer look and make sure nothing else needs to be done. We are here Monday-Friday 8am to 5:30pm. You can stop in at your convenience or email me and let me know what works for you. Thanks again.
So I will be taking the car to them to get a dollar estimate for this later today.
In 100+ heat…with no AC.
You’re certainly right on that.
I went to one of the big-time stores today to get a quote…$1150!!!
The car isnt’ worth that much!
They wanted to do stuff like paint and crap…I told them, “I don’t need paint…Just pull and replace that upper tie bar!”
They countered with “Well sir, when we weld it will be raw metal without any paint”.
Bleh…I can rattlecan the inside of the darn bay myself…yeesh. Like I care what the inside of the engine bay looks like!
Needless to say, I’ll be finding a “mom-n-pop” place to do this after I source an “upper tie bar” from the junkyard or ebay.
Geez…this is a 20 year old car. Why would they think I care about paint? I mean, didn’t they see the rest of the car? lol…
Some small dealerships that sell salvaged titled cars will have the machine also. My buddy went to a small russian owned dealership to get his civic front end pulled for 500 bucks.
Ah okay! I will look for that in my search also.
I guess actually finding someplace will give me time to save up the money needed for this to get fixed.
“upper tie bar” is actually called, “radiator support”. have you taken off the bumper to check the condition of the bumper support or the blocks it bolts onto?
I’m just gonna park it in the driveway and take the front end off completely.
Maybe if I leave it in the driveway long enough the wife will get it fixed by the shop without complaining about the money.
Update: Well, the car is no longer safe to drive. That sticking caliper in the rear driver side has yielded to fading brakes…which means there’s a leak in the system somewhere.
One of the brothers at my church actually has all of the equipment needed to pull that radiator support back into place. He said that once I get the schematics for the engine bay, we can use his hydraulic frame puller to pull everything back into spec. He also said that he would do it for free but I have to do the work while he instructs/guides me. I’ll do all the part pulling like the bumper and headlights/wiring once I get to his shop.
I’m still going to pay him but now I can afford to get my one-piece headlights, clear-cornered lower bumper marker-lights AND get the car plasti-dipped!!!
The thing is, if I did try this, I have no idea where I could tie one side of the come-along to in order to pull the dented radiator support back into where it should be.
You should be alright. I hit a trailer hitch on some illegal Mexicans van. It went through the bumper and hit the support that connects the upper and lower radiator support. It bent both decently. Hooked a chain around the support and the car lift (you could prob use a tree) and rolled the car back. I ended up needing a new hood, bumper, headlights, latch and radiator. Prob cost about 1k doing it myself. It drive 100% as straight/same as it did before
Me and a friend (ex-boss) tried pulling the front frame out with a come-along but I don’t think it’s strong enough, Things are still bent wrong in some places and the passenger side corner is still pushed in about 1/2-3/4 of an inch. Because of that the side markers don’t fit in right, the bumper won’t mount and the headlights don’t sit even. I am definitely going to have to replace the headlights. I’ve already replaced the bumper and bumper support. The new bumper support won’t meet up with the mount on the passenger side because the mount i’s pushed too far back. I thought about just buying longer bolts and some spacers and mounting the bumper to the mount with the frame pushed back. It might work, but I bet the bumper won’t look right.
All the shops want $1200+ to fix it where I live. I don’t understand that because I’ve done most of the work. I just need them to reset everything back to the way it should be. I can’t be that far off…
I dunno, so I’m deciding whether to buy a nice shell for $300-$500 and do an Engine&Tranny swap…or just sell the car and save up some more money and get something already fixed up. It sucks because I finally find/own a car with no engine or under-the-hood problems and I still get screwed.
mine is bent in like that. bent less in the center and more pushed in and down on the ends but pretty much the same sort of bends that yours has.
a come-along wont help much with that unless i drill some holes and pull it up and out while beating it with a hammer.
looks ok with hood closed and everything but it all looks like crap if you look under the hood.
left side is pushed in a little so the hood rubs the fender, headlights don’t match up to the upper support holes, 1 inch gap between hood and bumper.
bumper support and lower radiator support looks ok on mine.
update the thread if you did anything else, curious how it turns out.
i repaired my last bent radiator support with a $15 strap from autozone and a telephone pole, had a buddy stand by the front and monitor the work then just kept backing up in reverse and it slowly pulled it back out to almost perfect everything lined up for me after that
