just picked up a new DA and it has some minor front end damage. on the left side there are gaps between the bumper and corner lenses, and also between the corner lenses and the hood. any suggestions? any help is much appreciated… thanks.
Well… it would be nice to have some pics. your best bet is to take off the bumper and see if anything is bent/broken here is a link to show you a breakdown of bumper parts.
ok thanks… ill check on that. ill try to get pics up but ive been super busy lately… thanks again though.
You may also want to make sure the rubber body seal between the bumber and the headlights is in place. that can make it look like you have a gap.
Yeah my car was in a front end accident…the car was repainted & everything…theres a goo .5in-1in gap between the bottom of my bumper & all my lights…i was told it could be a broken lip, which could be fixed…but if it was the frame or something it couldn’t…
Check to be sure that the lights are all OEM because if it was in a front end accident and they needed to be replaced then the cheapest way is with jobber parts and they fit like crap.
it was in an accident.
pics.
what you guys think? simple fix? take it to a body shop?
Could you take some pictures of your gaps between the hood and the left and right fenders please, and the rad support under the hood. Take out your side lense and make sure its not just broken off its little pegs that hold it in the fender. From these pictures it looks like you have a broken lens on the drivers side, need a new headlight and bumper assembly, possibly need to pull your rad support out a bit on the passenger side, and repair and align your hood. I need more pics though. Also take a picture of the passenger side where the bumper cover meets the fender. Thanx.
while taking pics of the car i found what i believe to be the culprit of the big gaps between my bumper hood and quarter panel.
i think the frame for the engine bay got twisted in the accident… or so it seems when i look at it.
i also found out why the corner light protrudes… the white clip that holds the metal pegs of the frame for the corner lens in are gone… ill probably zip tie it for now haha.
If you have the right tools that is pretty minor damage. If you want to try and repair it yourself then just remember to reverse the direction of the damage. Do the exact opposite of the way the damage took place. If it was the result of getting pushed in then you need to go to the point of first impact and find a way to pull it back out in the direction it went in. If you attempt to just flaten out the dented areas then you will find the appron short and have an alignment issue. At work I use a clamp from the frame machine and a slide hammer to repair that type of damage. We also have a 5 foot long big steel bar with hooks welded at two different points along it that we use with a chain. You attach the chain to the point you need to pull out and put the end of the bar against the bumper (not the bumper cover) on your car. The chain then attaches to one of the hooks and you push down on the end of the barwhich creates leverage that pulls out the damage. Use a block of wood and a large hammer to rough out the wrinkles. You will have to be creative but you can do that yourself.
what would be a decent rough estimate on getting just that repaired? and also on getting all of it repaired?
It’s pretty difficult to give you an accurate estimate on price not actually being able to look at the car or know what body shop rates are in your area but I can give you an estimate on how much time I would want if I were the tech doing the repair and what will need to be painted to make it look right. Then if you have an idea on how much the body shops are per hour where you live then you can get an idea that way. The way the time works is in incraments of .1
.1= 6 mins
So if I put down 1.8 hrs then it equals 1 hr and 48 mins
Hopefully that makes sense.
So here it is…
- 1.6 hrs to replace the front bumper assembly (or 2.5 hrs to repair if there are no rips in the plastic)
- .5 replace right headlight assembly
- .5 remove and reinstall left headlight assembly
- 2 hrs repair hood
- 2 hrs repair rad support and inner appron, align hood/fenders/bumper
Thats about what the repair time should look like. You would still need to factor in parts prices.
For paint, they should paint the hood, front bumper cover, and blend both your front fenders. Probably lookin at about another 7 or so hrs for paint time.
At my shop the body repair time is $54 per hr and the paint time is $75 per hr.
So at my shop, labor and paint wise, assuming the front bumper assembly is replaced and not repaired you’d be lookin at about $882.00 plus tax and parts. So guess maybe $1300-$1400 after parts
Please remember though I can’t see the car up close and I tried to think more on the side of realistic-worst case scenario.
ok thats koo… well i was mainly worried about correcting the big gaps cuz im gonna convert the bumper to a 92-93 bumper and i have an extra hood, extra fender and was gonna change to jdm one pieces for the lights anyway… not to mention i gotta get the car repainted anyway due to its clear coat peeling on the roof… mucho thankso tho bro.
No worries. Glad I could help.