R33 Upper Radiator Support - What To Do?

[kingtube69]

Hi All,

Hoping this is in the correct section but I wanted some advice regarding the upper radiator support of an R33.

Back story - A good friend of mine was driving his 33 home from Wisemans ferry one night when a big Kangaroo jumped out at the car at 80 KMH.

This broke a headlight, smashed the bonnet in, broke the radiator and unfortunately kinked the upper support. I'll grab some pictures in the morning but IMO it doesn't look that bad.

I think the options we have are to cut and weld another upper support in or try and pull the kink out instead. Has anyone had a kinked/busted upper radiator support before? If so what did you do?

Please don't flame me, I genuinely have NFI about this stuff.

Cheers

[Duncan]

Assuming you are not insured....otherwise call them

I would have no concern pulling it back straight, all the upper radiator support does is hold the radiator, bonnet latch, horns and some wiring in approximately the right place. Yes the "proper" way to fix is to buy a new one from nissan, cut the old one out and weld a new one in. the only difference would be the latter would be much less obvious repair when you sell the car.

[kingtube69]

Assuming you are not insured....otherwise call them

I would have no concern pulling it back straight, all the upper radiator support does is hold the radiator, bonnet latch, horns and some wiring in approximately the right place. Yes the "proper" way to fix is to buy a new one from nissan, cut the old one out and weld a new one in. the only difference would be the latter would be much less obvious repair when you sell the car.

Hi Duncan, He has insurance but the excess is way more than it would be to do it privately and the insurance company also told him his premium will go up 400 per year which is stupid for one claim his entire life of being insured.

We ended up pulling the rad support out with a ratchet strap and tree and all lines up again. The headlight mount area was pushed back less than an inch which wasn't too bad imo.

Thanks for the reply!

[Duncan]

yep good call glad its sorted

[MBS206]

My 2 cents from replacing the front radiator support, surprisingly it is actually a highly structural piece of kit. I bought a car with the front of one bent in, like you're described. I removed the spot welds and ripped the old one out, the worst part while it was out is that the whole front of the car can and will flop around. Putting pressure up on one side would twist the whole front out of place.

To me, this means if you've reduced the structural integrity of that piece, you've weakened the front end a fair bit.

I've also got another R33 with JUST the radiator support cut out between the head lights and it retains a LOT more integrity as the metal behind the headlights is still in place.
So really it depends on exactly where and how bad the bend is as to what I'd do personally.

[warps]

Don't underestimate the criticality of the bit that holds the bonnet shut