Diy Smash Repairs

[Guest]

Hey all,

I had a little prang last week and basically need a new front end...

After being quoted $4000 to get fixed, I thought I might have a go at doing it myself to save some coin....

Basically I need new radiator, radiator shroud, radiator support, bumper bar, bumper support bar, headlights, indicators and bonnet. Ive decided to scrap the A/C....

I haven't seen the car personally since the accident cause it's been at the smash repairers but I believe that's the extent of the damage.

My question is, is this something I could be able to do myself at home?

Would there be anything as part of this job that would need a professional? i.e. welding?

I'm going to hold off on the painting for the time being... getting the car back and back together is a little more important than having mismatched pieces.

Any advice would be sweet!

I do plan on documenting this project with photos for the forum too for anyone else who wants to attempt this with their own cars.

Cheers,

Mark

Edited March 17, 2011 by Guest

[zoidbergmerc]

I'd say go for it, if it happens that it gets a bit too hard later on at least you've done some of it, hopefully reducing their orginal quote a little.

[jeffworld2]

check and see if anything other than body panels is bent, like the battery tray area, lower and upper radiator supports, etc. if so you have a decent job on your hands to fix it. If it is just panels, then go and buy some

[75coupe]

yep have a go...

I recently helped a mate fix his girlfriends car with similar damage, I used my winch on the 4wd with some metal bars to pull out some parts and used a donor raditator support bar as a gauge on how far to pull it back out.... we got out of it heaps cheap as we found another donor car the same colour for $400 including a complete undamaged front end and a host of other bits and pieces and we still have the running gear and interior to sell off to make back some money too...

using the winch was by far the best tool we made use of, took us two 1.5 days to get it straight and all back together...

http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/showthread.php?136069-CB7-Rebuild

[ARTZ]

Id say strip it yourself,

Then get the shop to makes sure the chassis straight and replace any structural parts (IE welded to the frame such as radiator support etc) then put all the bolt on bits back together yourself..

You would save a heap of coin and still know the jobs been done properly.

as for painting a few cans maybe 4 or 5 would nearly do a whole front end so it is at least roughly the same colour.

If you dont care about the job being done properly and just want it going again cheap as possible just get a hammer and start hitting shit..