Front end hit-Parts i need
#2
10-30-2014, 10:02 AM
Sorry to hear about your mishap. As bad as it looks right now, I would encourage you to try to straighten things out. You might be surprised how easy and quickly it works. I've done similar straightenings and even on my Disco. The fender is aluminum and if you have some decent skills, we're talking about a couple hrs of work. Here are some hints:
1) Remove the brush guard and bumper end and any plastics that are in the way including the plastic inner fender tub. Remove the damaged light/s.
2) Put a chain around the end of the bumper and connect to a come-along that is anchored to a tree or some other immovable object. Chock the wheel of the vehicle. Very important - Put a block of wood or something inside the back of the bumper to prevent it from being deformed by the chain when you pull. Best is if you welded up some hooks or something to go through the bolt holes.
3) You should be able to straighten out the bumper pretty easy with a lot less effort than you might imagine. I mean it hardly takes any effort. Towards the end of the pull when you are near where it should be, you will probably need to tap on the top and bottom sides of the bumper with a 2 lb hammer to straighten out any creases caused by the bending back action. Use measurements from the other side of the bumper to know when you have it where it should be. Bumpers like these can usually be straightened out with little to no evidence of being bent in the first place if there aren't any visible mangling. Use a jack and some blocks to raise it if you need to, and a pry bar to twist the end if it needs to be twisted straight. It looks to be pretty straight as it is, just pushed back. I bet in 15 minutes of pulling and a few hammer taps you could have it straightened out to the point where nobody could tell it was pushed back. Probably 4x quicker than it'll take you to unpack a used one, paint it up and remove install, not to mention the cost and time to hunt one down. Give it a try.
4) On the fender, you might be surprised how easy it can straighten out. It may well be able to straighten it out pretty darn close by loosening the bolts on the front and doing some light hammer and pulling work. It might be easier to remove from the vehicle and work on it on the grass (where it won't get scratched up). Wrap the back section in heavy plastic so the paint won't get scratched up. Don't hammer directly on the aluminum because once you get it straightened out, the hammer dings will not be easy to remove. That's a mistake most rookies make, and they actually make it worse by making a bunch of deformed hammer dings. Again, used appropriately curved pieces of wood or what have you and hammer on the wood. Use a rubber mallet for most tapping on the surface when it's necessary. Use your sawsall to cut appropriately curved wood pieces for the upper (front) nose section that is crunched in, and, again, hammer on the wood not directly on the aluminum, but support the aluminum on a wood board if you need to. This sheet aluminum is so light it should easily be able to be massaged into shape again. Only slight pressure will be needed to get the main bow out, over the wheels ...once the bolts are loose. Use the good fender on the other side for reference. I'm sure there is an inner area on the header panel that is slightly tweaked but easily straighten-able (is that a word??) which will require fender removal at some point. If you don't feel comfortable about doing the fender work, a body shop would probably be able to straighten it out in no time for not that much money. But they'll scratch the hell out of it if it's off the vehicle. The advantage of straightening it on the vehicle is you won't have to paint the rear of the fender and can then get a good paint blend to what is currently there ...which will save some money in the paint process and ultimately look better if it's a metallic color. It probably works out evenly if you have to pay someone to straighten out the fender vs replace and repaint.
5) If you have any hood damage (which it looks like there is in the corner), it can probably be straightened by hand. The metal is so light and easy to tweak, just use your smarts, patience and go lightly.
6) It's going to take some filler to get perfect. As always, the thinner the better (1/8" or less is best). Before doing any bodywork, after it is straightened out the way it should be, I would take the damaged area to bare metal and prime with a self-etching primer followed with a couple coats of 2k primer, allow a day to cure fully. Then roughen the primer with 36 grit and do the bodywork over the primer (rather than putting filler directly on the aluminum). You should get better adhesion that way, and a long lasting repair. Then it's prime, block sand, re-prime, sand, seal and paint (basecoat, then clearcoat).
If your paint has metallic flakes in it, and you can repair the front damaged area while preserving the back of the fender's paint, then you should be able to apply color to the front repaired area but clearcoat the ENTIRE fender at the end, thereby maintaining the original vehicle color at the rear of the fender where it meets the door (only the clearcoat is applied over the original color) ...and therefore having a prefect color match where the fender meets the door. Because the eye is very good at detecting a color mismatch where panels meet vs a gradual blend. If it's a metallic paint, you almost never get a perfect color match by painting the entire fender unless you paint into the door, which is what most shops would want to do ...and that adds significantly to the work and cost. And, 90% of the shop workers will typically go to the effort of scuffing the clearcoat on the door and NOT removing the door handle and window outer weatherstrip and just tape AROUND everything. In a couple years the clear will chip away around these areas and look like crap and you won't be happy. That's why I say it pays to try to preserve the paint at the rear of the fender and then you don't have to blend into the door. Now, if your Dosco has black paint, then you're lucky and black is black ad you can just repair/replace the fender w/o blend and paint match problems.
I did bodyshop work in college for years, but it's not out of the relm of capability for someone with good skills and knowledge (check youtube). If you don't have good skills or good judgement or decent tools in general, probably way ahead to get a good used fender and lights and farm out to a bodyshop. It's an easy repair. I wouldn't replace the bumper w/o trying to straightening it. Good luck.
Good luck.
1) Remove the brush guard and bumper end and any plastics that are in the way including the plastic inner fender tub. Remove the damaged light/s.
2) Put a chain around the end of the bumper and connect to a come-along that is anchored to a tree or some other immovable object. Chock the wheel of the vehicle. Very important - Put a block of wood or something inside the back of the bumper to prevent it from being deformed by the chain when you pull. Best is if you welded up some hooks or something to go through the bolt holes.
3) You should be able to straighten out the bumper pretty easy with a lot less effort than you might imagine. I mean it hardly takes any effort. Towards the end of the pull when you are near where it should be, you will probably need to tap on the top and bottom sides of the bumper with a 2 lb hammer to straighten out any creases caused by the bending back action. Use measurements from the other side of the bumper to know when you have it where it should be. Bumpers like these can usually be straightened out with little to no evidence of being bent in the first place if there aren't any visible mangling. Use a jack and some blocks to raise it if you need to, and a pry bar to twist the end if it needs to be twisted straight. It looks to be pretty straight as it is, just pushed back. I bet in 15 minutes of pulling and a few hammer taps you could have it straightened out to the point where nobody could tell it was pushed back. Probably 4x quicker than it'll take you to unpack a used one, paint it up and remove install, not to mention the cost and time to hunt one down. Give it a try.
4) On the fender, you might be surprised how easy it can straighten out. It may well be able to straighten it out pretty darn close by loosening the bolts on the front and doing some light hammer and pulling work. It might be easier to remove from the vehicle and work on it on the grass (where it won't get scratched up). Wrap the back section in heavy plastic so the paint won't get scratched up. Don't hammer directly on the aluminum because once you get it straightened out, the hammer dings will not be easy to remove. That's a mistake most rookies make, and they actually make it worse by making a bunch of deformed hammer dings. Again, used appropriately curved pieces of wood or what have you and hammer on the wood. Use a rubber mallet for most tapping on the surface when it's necessary. Use your sawsall to cut appropriately curved wood pieces for the upper (front) nose section that is crunched in, and, again, hammer on the wood not directly on the aluminum, but support the aluminum on a wood board if you need to. This sheet aluminum is so light it should easily be able to be massaged into shape again. Only slight pressure will be needed to get the main bow out, over the wheels ...once the bolts are loose. Use the good fender on the other side for reference. I'm sure there is an inner area on the header panel that is slightly tweaked but easily straighten-able (is that a word??) which will require fender removal at some point. If you don't feel comfortable about doing the fender work, a body shop would probably be able to straighten it out in no time for not that much money. But they'll scratch the hell out of it if it's off the vehicle. The advantage of straightening it on the vehicle is you won't have to paint the rear of the fender and can then get a good paint blend to what is currently there ...which will save some money in the paint process and ultimately look better if it's a metallic color. It probably works out evenly if you have to pay someone to straighten out the fender vs replace and repaint.
5) If you have any hood damage (which it looks like there is in the corner), it can probably be straightened by hand. The metal is so light and easy to tweak, just use your smarts, patience and go lightly.
6) It's going to take some filler to get perfect. As always, the thinner the better (1/8" or less is best). Before doing any bodywork, after it is straightened out the way it should be, I would take the damaged area to bare metal and prime with a self-etching primer followed with a couple coats of 2k primer, allow a day to cure fully. Then roughen the primer with 36 grit and do the bodywork over the primer (rather than putting filler directly on the aluminum). You should get better adhesion that way, and a long lasting repair. Then it's prime, block sand, re-prime, sand, seal and paint (basecoat, then clearcoat).
If your paint has metallic flakes in it, and you can repair the front damaged area while preserving the back of the fender's paint, then you should be able to apply color to the front repaired area but clearcoat the ENTIRE fender at the end, thereby maintaining the original vehicle color at the rear of the fender where it meets the door (only the clearcoat is applied over the original color) ...and therefore having a prefect color match where the fender meets the door. Because the eye is very good at detecting a color mismatch where panels meet vs a gradual blend. If it's a metallic paint, you almost never get a perfect color match by painting the entire fender unless you paint into the door, which is what most shops would want to do ...and that adds significantly to the work and cost. And, 90% of the shop workers will typically go to the effort of scuffing the clearcoat on the door and NOT removing the door handle and window outer weatherstrip and just tape AROUND everything. In a couple years the clear will chip away around these areas and look like crap and you won't be happy. That's why I say it pays to try to preserve the paint at the rear of the fender and then you don't have to blend into the door. Now, if your Dosco has black paint, then you're lucky and black is black ad you can just repair/replace the fender w/o blend and paint match problems.
I did bodyshop work in college for years, but it's not out of the relm of capability for someone with good skills and knowledge (check youtube). If you don't have good skills or good judgement or decent tools in general, probably way ahead to get a good used fender and lights and farm out to a bodyshop. It's an easy repair. I wouldn't replace the bumper w/o trying to straightening it. Good luck.
Good luck.
Last edited by Mark G; 10-30-2014 at 10:58 AM.
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