after the accident.

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Valas

Valas

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About 6 months ago I put a little too much Gas on it when I was coming around a corner, the road was wet, my suspension is the stock 1974 Duster springs(complete with sagging back end) so I started to slide. I over corrected just before catching traction and ended up nose first in the ditch. Lucky for both me and the Car this ditch was mostly a flat spot 3 feet down from the road so I was able to drive out of it without needing to be towed or pulled. I drove her to the nearest auto parts store and surveyed the damage as best I could.

I came down pretty hard on the Drivers side or the bumper got a nice Dent ruined the airbag(not quite sure what it is called) for the front bumper and bent a bit of the inside. she still ran with the exception of a whole in the radiator and some twisted Upper Control arms other then that she was fine.

Or atleast that was what I thought. I was unable to do much with her until the snow melted last month, I ordered a new Radiator after I saved up enough money, and am currently saving up for new Upper control arms. I recently attempted to swap out the old radiator for the new one, after getting the old one out I noticed how badly the incident had bent up the inside.


The Pictures I will be adding are of my car and I will need help on how to properly fix it. Keep in mind I will be working outside and have little resources/money. I have been told a quick fix would be a lot of time spent with a hammer and pliers, to which I cringed at the thought of hitting the problem until it is fixed. So I am here to get some more knowledgeable opinions on the subject.
 

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I believe thats the approved method, when I got my car it was bent in the front from a wreck, just get a set of hammers and dollies, and always hit on the high point of the dent.
 
The proper way to repair would be to put it on a rack and give the radiator support a pull. It's much more than a hammer and dolly job. The worst part about a ditch wreck is that you can banana the sub frame and things get twisted instead of mashed. Doesn't need much of a pull and you could probably do it with some porta power rams too. For the support to move that much there has to be some buckles on the underside, you need to relieve that pressure, and remove the kinks and buckles before you can get anything to fit.
 
We just did a 65 Mustang with similar front damage at school. Often, Community College programs are short on structural repair/frame straightening jobs.

They may be hungry for an easy pull like this.

The work done at a community college (at least mine) will be equal to or greater than industry standard but at a hugely reduced cost.
 
67Dart440GT said:
The proper way to repair would be to put it on a rack and give the radiator support a pull. It's much more than a hammer and dolly job. The worst part about a ditch wreck is that you can banana the sub frame and things get twisted instead of mashed. Doesn't need much of a pull and you could probably do it with some porta power rams too. For the support to move that much there has to be some buckles on the underside, you need to relieve that pressure, and remove the kinks and buckles before you can get anything to fit.
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X2. You need to get it on a good frame rack to verify it will align. Unless you bent some lower suspension parts, I seriously doubt you bent the upper control arms.
 
cudamark said:
I seriously doubt you bent the upper control arms.
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I will post some pictures of the Front suspension as soon as I can find an adequate jack, when I get home I will see if I can squeeze under and get a good angle with the camera. but I don't think Control arms are supposed to twist and bend the way mine are.


as for the rest of the replies to my post, it would seem I won't be able to bend it back slap in the new radiator and drive her to work regularly like I did before. thanks for all the helpful feedback.
 
If you need a pair of front bumper shock absorbers I'll sell you the ones from my car. Just pay the shipping cost on them.

If you need anything else, post and I'm sure we can all help you out with it.

Good luck with the rebuild.

Riddler
 
if you have no cash, beat the piss out of it stick a rad in and see if you can get rhe front end aligned if its all good. if it was mine, id cut a core support out fo another car and weld it in.
 
it really does not look that bad.

I had a mustang cobra convertible once that had been hit pretty hard in the front and pushed the core support in.

so what I did was nosed the car into my garage, wrapped a ratchet strap around one of the 4x4 poles in my garage and hooked it to the bent spot of the core support....I then ratcheted it down a few times until the strap was like a banjo string and then I pulled out a rubber mallet and started hitting the core support. Slowly it started taking shape and I would then ratchet the strap a few more times and hit it with a hammer a few more times and eventually it was back to factory form .

and it was much worse looking that what you have going on there.

I would straighten out the core support if I were you...and you might want to look into getting new bumper impact absorbers if your bumper no longer lines up or is sucked in.

then pop your new radiator in, control arms and it will look and function like the same old car.
 
I twisted a upper control after a 180* spin @55mph where I came around to the right then smacked the curbed street corner, also bent the lower and strut to about a 90*.

lots of fun.
 
DusterDude72 said:
it really does not look that bad.

I had a mustang cobra convertible once that had been hit pretty hard in the front and pushed the core support in.

so what I did was nosed the car into my garage, wrapped a ratchet strap around one of the 4x4 poles in my garage and hooked it to the bent spot of the core support....I then ratcheted it down a few times until the strap was like a banjo string and then I pulled out a rubber mallet and started hitting the core support. Slowly it started taking shape and I would then ratchet the strap a few more times and hit it with a hammer a few more times and eventually it was back to factory form .

and it was much worse looking that what you have going on there.

I would straighten out the core support if I were you...and you might want to look into getting new bumper impact absorbers if your bumper no longer lines up or is sucked in.

then pop your new radiator in, control arms and it will look and function like the same old car.
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You can take a week and work that core support until it's perfectly straight but if the frame rails and/or K-member are tweaked it will still go down the road like a dog on 3 legs. I've seen plenty of bent upper control arms but none that didn't have something else bent along with it. They're pretty much the last thing that receives the jolt in a collision.
 
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