i damaged my car slightly in front and i noticed that the frame maybe have gotten pushed in on the pass side by about 1/4". is there a way for me to pull it my self? has anyone done this? w/o havin to take it to body shop to get pulled a lil
you could try a come-along and a tree. Its not the most precice method out there but if you are against body shops itll work. If cost is the primary concern you could do a few things to help offset the cost of getting your unibody pulled by a pro
1-shop it out. different shops have different rates.
2-remove everything from the damaged area prior to taking it to the shop, fenders bumpers lights etc.
3-you put it back together. dont have them do it. If their rate is $60 an hour (the average right now) why pay them to do something you can do.
4-be sure the part you bent is not replaceable. If you can get a new bolt on part mabye thats the way to go.
I guess what Im saying is have the body shop do as little actual work as you can. This will help to ensure they dont get you wrapped up in a 20 hour job. good luck man.
ya i was already planning to do everything else such as bumper support and bumpers covers, headlights. but i noticed some of the inside of the engine bay is push in a lil (saw a couple wrinkles). so i was wondering if i could chain it up to a tree and pull it out or somehow use a jack or something to pull it. i dunno
This is illegal in some states…make sure it’s not in yours.
:wtf:
Dude…no. A rad support ya, inner aprons ok, never the frame. If you try to pull a frame rail with a come-along and a tree prepare to die. When I have to pull a unibody vehicles frame at work it has to be anchored to the frame table with stands called P4’s. Those stands suspend the car at its torque boxes in the air and prevent all movement because it needs approx 2000lbs of pressure to move that frame over. Not only that but if the frame needs to come over 1/4" then that means you are going to have to actually pull it up to 1/2" in order to bring the steel past its elastic limit and have the rail come back and sit where it needs to be. If you pull a rail while the car is on its wheels the suspension will load and the car will suck down causing an incorrect pulling angle potentially pulling the rail up or down. Then you have to think about stress release of the steel. If you pull that rail all the way over 1/2" then let go it will probably just return to where it was. The steel in the rail has to be released and that is done by pounding the crap out of it while it is under pressure along the length of it on its edges, and if you are crazy enough to try getting under your car while hooked to a tree and a come-along (never mind finding something solid enough to anchor to on the other side) then thats your funeral buddy. It’s scary enough with the right equipment.
i dont know what a come along is…but i think your thinking differently then what im thinking whne pulling the frame i had no intention of gettin under the car. Which part is the apron? my car was only goin a couple mph. pretty much rolling when it hit the brick thing. most likely ill just take it to body shop. but ill try to take a pic of it and maybe you can tell me what is bent. i think its the apron your talking about. its the two parts circled in red…i can probly do most of it with a sledge hammer
What I am talking about when I said you have to get under the car is that if you had to pull on the frame rail then in order to hit the rail and stress release it you would have to get under it to access it. Definatly take some pictures if you can. If it was barely moving then probably no damage to the frame unless it was a side hit where the rebar under your bumper cover was caught on the edge, but even then honda is pretty good about making their front bumper/rebar mounts weak in side impacts that way so as to rip off rather than screw your whole front end. I just finished a honda accord that took one like that hard in the front. It cleaned the front right off the car and did no frame damage. Anyways yes what you circled is basically what I am talking about with the aprons accept one I believe is part of the rad support. That is all mild steel and mostly single layered so you can move is around with relative ease. You could always measure the car for squareness to help you see what is going on too. Take a tape measure and a friend, jack your car up and put some jack stands under the front lower control arms and have the car sit on its suspension. Find a hole that is common on both sides of the car just past the firewall. Then do the same at the front of your frame rails. Once you find those holes then those are your measuring points. Measure from the center of the holes in an X patern under the car (Front left rail to hole on right side after firewall, and Front right rail to hole on left side after firewall) The measurements should be exactly the same.
it was a straight head on hit. so not from side. i dont think the frame rails are damaged just the “apron” are bent a lil. ill get some good pics later. i can take it from my phone though but i dont think you will be able to see the damage as clear from my phone.
bodyguy-I see your concern and I should have worded that better. I imagined he ment the rad support/aprons or I would have never recomended that. an actual frame pull should ONLY be done by a pro.
Has this car been totaled? If so I’m going out on a limb to say this whole thing is illegal. I know there aren’t any “frame police” but I think if they total it, it’s for a reason. Just wondering, usually when the frame gets bent they total a car.
no it hasnt been totaled.i only have liability insurance so its out of my own pocket, i didnt claim it to insurance. they only total a car when the cost of repair costs more then the value of the vehicle.
Umm, no.
Number one, if the frame is bent in the front, they will total it. It’s not “totaled” because you didn’t claim it!!! DUH! lol
Number two, there are plenty of instances where they total it anyway. Take mine last November for instance. The cost of my damage was $1450, but yet they totaled the car and cut me a check for $2400. Tell me how that whole 1000 dollar difference makes sense. I was still driving the car anyway. And the damage was in the rear, so even if the frame was bent, it could’ve been pulled.
well i dont know then thats what i heard. but i cant claim it anyways cuz its not full coverage.
And I’m guessing it was your fault then…so yeah you’re better off not claiming it, but watch out when you mess with frames. They’re very important to your safety…
ya was kinda. thats y i was asking. im pretty mechanically inclined with most stuff but have never worked on that kinda stuff yet.
I don’t know what insurance companies do where you live but here its dollars and sense. In order to make a car a total loss its repairs HAVE to exceed the value of a vehicle or in the case of very expensive cars the damage to the car has to be extensive and travel through the entire structure of the vehicle. Here when you see the insurance estimator they give you paper work that tells you the value of your claim then you go to the body shop. When I get your car I measure the cars frame and do a total analysis of what the damage actually is including a full tear down. At that point it is up to me if your car is a total loss or repairable based on how much damage I find. That may have been what happened to you because the estimators are not tradesmen and nobody knows what total cost will be until the repairs are done. Most of them have never worked on the bench and are trained only to estimate based on the look of what happened on the surface because if the car comes to us then it costs 4hrs labor right off the top just to look at it even if it takes me only 1hr to find enough damage to write it off. That may sound unfare that I get paid for 4hrs work and work for 1 but it goes the other way lots to. Frame damage has very little to do with the total loss status of a vehicle as a whole. We have the equipment and the training to repair anything as long as gain outweighs cost.